Input data control system and data management apparatus for use therewith

Claim 2

A data management apparatus having input/output means, comprising: (a) a memory having a plurality of buffers for storing data; (b) processing means for processing data stored in the buffer and releasing the buffer for next data; and (c) data management means for finding an available buffer and receiving data from the input/output means and storing the data in the available buffer so that the memory contin­uously receives data and stores it in the next available buffer from the input/output means while the processing means processes data stored in other buffer.

Claim 3

A data management apparatus for coupling input/output means, comprising: (a) a memory having a plurality of buffers for storing data; (b) a management information table for storing management information which provides availability information on the buffers; and (c) data management means for finding an available buffer based on the management information, receiving data from the input/output means to the available buffer and updating the management information table to record buffer unavailability.

Claim 4

A data management apparatus for coupling input/output means, comprising: (a) a memory having a plurality of buffers for storing data; (b) a management information table for storing management information which provides availability information on the buffers; and (c) data management means for finding an available buffer based on the management information, receiving data from the input/output means to the available buffer and updating the management information table to record buffer unavailability.

Claim 5

The data management apparatus of Claim 2, wherein (a) the management information table includes a random access memory; and (b) the data management means includes a computer program for inputting/outputting data.

Claim 6

The data management apparatus of Claim 2, wherein the management information table includes: (a) a plurality of data control tables, each of which corresponding to the buffer and having a chain pointer to chain another data control table; and (b) a supervision table having a supervision pointer to point the first data control table chained by the chain pointer.

Claim 7

The data management apparatus of Claim 4, wherein the data control table includes: (a) a buffer pointer to indicate the corresponding buffer; and (b) length information of the data stored in the buffer.

Claim 8

The data management apparatus of Claim 4, wherein the management information table includes: (a) a vacant table chain having a set of the data control tables chained by the chain pointers of the data control tables whose corresponding buffers are available for receiv­ing data; and (b) an occupied table chain having a set of data control tables chained by the pointer, whose corresponding buffers are occupied by data, and the supervision table includes: (a) a first supervision pointer to indicate the vacant table chain; and (b) a second supervision pointer to indicate the occupied table chain.

Claim 9

The data management apparatus of Claim 6, wherein the data management means includes: (a) means for selecting one data control table from the vacant table chain; (b) means for storing data in the available buffer corre­sponding to the data control table selected by the selecting means; (c) means for disconnecting the data control table selected by the selecting means from the vacant table chain by updating the pointer; and (d) means for chaining the data control table dis­connected to the occupied table chain.

Claim 10

The data management apparatus of Claim 7, wherein the selecting means includes: (a) means for obtaining the first supervision pointer from the supervision table; and (b) means for finding the first data control table in the vacant table chain indicated by the first supervision pointer, the disconnecting means includes means for replacing the first pointer with the chain pointer in the first data control table found by the finding means, and the chaining means includes: (a) means for obtaining the second supervision pointer from the supervision table; (b) means for finding the data control table from the occupied table chain indicated by the second supervision pointer; (c) means for tracing the occupied table chain using the chain pointer to find the last data control table of the occupied table chain; and (d) means for replacing the chain pointer of the last data control table with the pointer in the first supervision pointer.

Claim 11

The data management apparatus of Claim 7, wherein the selecting means includes: (a) means for obtaining the first supervision pointer from the supervision table; and (b) means for finding the first data control table in the vacant table chain indicated by the first supervision pointer, the disconnecting means includes means for replacing the first pointer with the chain pointer in the first data control table found by the finding means, and the chaining means includes: (a) means for obtaining the second supervision pointer from the supervision table; (b) means for finding the data control table from the occupied table chain indicated by the second supervision pointer; and (c) means for replacing the chain pointer of he data control table found by the finding step with the first supervision pointer.

Claim 12

A data management method for communicating data with an input/output means, comprising the steps of: (a) reserving a memory for a plurality of the buffers and a management information table for managing the status of the buffers; (b) awaiting the data from the input/output means; (c) finding an available buffer out of a plurality of buffers using the information stored in the management information table; (d) storing the data received from the input/output means to the available buffer; and (e) updating the management information table to record the latest status of the buffers.

Claim 13

A data management method for communicating data with an input/output means, comprising the steps of: (a) reserving a memory for a plurality of the buffers and a management information table for managing the status of the buffers; (b) awaiting the data from the input/output means; (c) finding an available buffer out of a plurality of buffers using the information stored in the management information table; (d) storing the data received from the input/output means to the available buffer; and (e) updating the management information table to record the latest status of the buffers.

Claim 14

The data management method of Claim 10, wherein the reserving step includes the steps of: (a) assigning a plurality of tables, each of which corre­sponding to the buffer; and (b) chaining the tables by pointers and creating a table chain, and the updating step includes the steps of: (a) disconnecting the table, the corresponding buffer of which is occupied by data, from the table chain; and (b) connecting the table disconnected by the disconnect­ing step to another table chain by finding the predetermined position of another table chain.

Claim 15

In an electronic computer system including a data I/O management program for managing inputting/outputting of data with respect to a terminal and permitting an input data storage region to store the data received from the terminal, the stored input data being processed by another program, an input data control system comprising: (a) a plurality of input data storage regions; and (b) management information storage regions for storing management information on input data stored in the input data storage regions as well as on these input data storage regions, characterized in that a data I/O management program permits the corresponding input data storage region to store the data from the terminal on the basis of the management information stored in the management information storage region and updates the corresponding management information.

Claim 16

In an electronic computer system including a data I/O management program for managing inputting/outputting of data with respect to a terminal and permitting an input data storage region to store the data received from the terminal, the stored input data being processed by another program, an input data control system comprising: (a) a plurality of input data storage regions; and (b) management information storage regions for storing management information on input data stored in the input data storage regions as well as on these input data storage regions, characterized in that a data I/O management program permits the corresponding input data storage region to store the data from the terminal on the basis of the management information stored in the management information storage region and updates the corresponding management information.

Claim 17

The input data control system of Claim 12, wherein the plurality of data storage regions exhibit one-to-one correspondence with respect to the management information storage regions.

Claim 18

The input data control system of Claim 12, wherein the management information stored in the management informa­tion storage regions includes positional information on the corresponding data storage region, the length of the input data stored in the data storage region and positional infor­mation of the next management information storage region.

Claim 19

The input data control system of Claim 12, further comprising a region for storing information for supervising the management information storage regions classified into vacant regions and occupied regions to thereby constitute chains respectively for the management.

Claim 20

The input data control system of Claim 15, wherein all of the input data storage regions, the management information storage regions and the supervision information storage region are provided in a main memory region.