High speed line splitter for market quotation apparatus

Claim 1

IN A MARKET QUOTATION APPARATUS HAVING A MEMORY UNIT INCLUDING MEANS FOR STORING MARKET INFORMATION THEREIN, A COMPUTER INCLUDING MEANS FOR LOOKING UP STORED INFORMATION IN THE MEMORY UNIT AND COMPOSING A MESSAGE IN RESPONSE TO AN INQUIRY, THE INQUIRY INCLUDING AN IDENTIFICATION SECTION AND A FUNCTION SECTION, A PLURALITY OF CUSTOMER UNITS, EACH INCLUDING MEANS FOR GENERATING AN INQUIRY AND MEANS FOR DISPLAYING A MESSAGE, FIRST AND SECOND REGIONAL BUFFERS, EACH HAVING A PLURALITY OF CUSTOMER INPUTS AND OUTPUTS AND A HIGH SPEED LINE INPUT AND OUTPUT, MEANS FOR CONNECTING CUSTOMER UNITS TO THE CORRESPONDING INPUT AND OUTPUT OF PREDETERMINED REGIONAL BUFFERS FOR TRANSMITTING INQUIRIES TO A REGIONAL BUFFER AND MESSAGES TO A CUSTOMER UNIT, AND A COMPUTER BUFFER HAVING A HIGH SPEED LINE INPUT AND OUTPUT AND A COMPUTER INPUT AND OUTPUT FOR CONNECTION TO THE COMPUTER, WITH THE INQUIRIES AND MESSAGES BEING TRANSMITTED BETWEEN REGIONAL AND COMPUTER BUFFERS IN THE FORM OF DIGITAL WORDS GROUPED INTO TRANSMISSION FRAMES WITH EACH FRAME HAVING EVEN AND ODD TIME SLOTS AND A SYNCHRONIZING FRAME INDICATOR TIME SLOT, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING MEANS FOR CONNECTING THE FIRST AND SECOND REGIONAL BUFFERS TO AN INPUT AND OUTPUT OF THE COMPUTER BUFFER FOR TRANSMITTING INQUIRIES TO THE COMPUTER BUFFER AND MESSAGE TO THE FIRST AND SECOND REGIONAL BUFFERS, AND WITH THE FIRST REGIONAL BUFFER TRANSMITTING INQUIRIES ONLY IN THE EVEN TIME SLOTS AND WITH THE SECOND REGIONAL BUFFER TRANSMITTING INQUIRIES ONLY IN THE ODD TIME SLOTS, AND INCLUDING IN COMBINATION: A WORD STORAGE UNIT, A GATE UNIT CONNECTED BETWEEN ONE OF SAID REGIONAL BUFFERS AND SAID WORD STORAGE UNIT AND INCLUDING MEANS FOR PASSING WORDS FROM SAID ONE REGIONAL BUFFER TO SAID WORD STORAGE UNIT DURING ONE OF SAID EVEN AND ODD TIME SLOTS AND REJECTING WORDS DURING THE OTHER OF SAID TIME SLOTS, AND A SWITCHING UNIT HAVING AN OUTPUT CONNECTED TO SAID COMPUTER BUFFER AND HAVING THE OUTPUT OF SAID WORD STORAGE UNIT CONNECTED AS ONE INPUT AND SAID OTHER REGIONAL BUFFER CONNECTED AS ANOTHER INPUT AND INCLUDING MEANS FOR ALTERNATELY SELECTING WORDS FROM SAID WORD STORAGE UNIT AND FROM SAID OTHER REGIONAL BUFFER FOR TRANSFER OF THE INQUIRY WORDS FROM BOTH REGIONAL BUFFERS TO THE SWITCHING UNIT OUTPUT.