Program and subroutine data storage and retrieval equipment

Claim 2

In a communication switching system having a switching network for establishing communications connections for a plurality of communication lines: a program controlled data processor operable for controlling said network in the establishment of said connections and comprising program store means storing program commands for controlling the operations of said processor; memory means for storing data pertaining to said connections and including a plurality of blocks of data locations, each of said blocks being selectively assignable for storing data; program control means including a counter responsive to the receipt of commands from said program store means for selectively defining each of said blocks of data locations; means cooperating with said counter and prescribed ones of said commands for addressing each of said data locations in each of said blocks; means responsive to the receipt of said prescribed commands for transferring data from said program control means to each addressed data location for storage; and means responsive to the receipt of a predetermined one of said commands and cooperating with said counter for controlling said memory means to return stored data in said data locations to said program control means.

Claim 3

In a communication switching system according to claim 1, the combination wherein: said program store means stores commands for a main program and a plurality of subroutines; said counter includes means responsive to the receipt of one of said main program commands from said program store means for selectively defining and one of said blocks of data locations to store data therein upon an interruption in an execution of said main program commands to execute commands of a selectable one of said subroutines; and said transferring means includes control means cooperating with said counter and responsive to commands of said one subroutine for transferring data from said program control means to individual data locations of said one defined block for storage.

Claim 4

In a communication switching system according to claim 2, the combination wherein: said control means includeS means subsequently responsive to the receipt of a prescribed one of said subroutine commands from said program store means for operating said counter to define another one of said blocks of data locations upon an interruption in the execution of said commands for said one of said subroutines to execute commands of another one of said subroutines; and said transferring means includes means further responsive to commands of said other one of said subroutines for transferring data from said program control means to individual data locations of said defined other one of said blocks for storage.

Claim 5

In a communication switching system according to claim 3, the combination; further comprising means controlled by said counter and responsive to said one main program command and said prescribed one of said subroutine commands for transferring return address data from said program control means to said one block for said respective main program and to said other one of said blocks for said selectable one of said subroutines.

Claim 6

A telephone system comprising a switching network for establishing call connections for a plurality of telephone lines: a program controlled call processor operable for controlling said network in the establishment of said connections and comprising program store means storing instructions of a main program and a plurality of subroutines for controlling the operation of said processor; call memory means for storing call data and including a plurality of blocks of data locations, each of said blocks being selectively assignable for storing data upon the interruption in the execution of main program instructions or instructions of one of said subroutines; program control means including a counter supplying identification data for said blocks and being responsive to a receipt of a prescribed one of said instructions in a main program or subroutine for assigning one of said blocks of data locations for storing data in said program control means; means responsive to a receipt of said counter supplied identification data and to instructions of said subroutines for addressing each of said data locations in said assigned one of said blocks; means responsive to the assignment of said one of said blocks of data locations and to the addressing of said data locations for transferring data thereto from said program control means; and means operative upon the execution of instructions for another one of said subroutines for selectively returning stored data from said assigned one of said blocks of data locations to said program control means for resuming an execution of said main program or said one subroutine.

Claim 7

A telephone system comprising a switching network for establishing call connections for a plurality of telephone lines: a program controlled call processor operable for controlling said network in the establishment of said connections and comprising program store means storing instructions of a main program and a plurality of subroutines for controlling the operation of said processor; call memory means for storing call data and including a plurality of blocks of data locations, each of said blocks being selectively assignable for storing data upon the interruption in the execution of main program instructions or instructions of one of said subroutines; program control means including a counter supplying identification data for said blocks and being responsive to a receipt of a prescribed one of said instructions in a main program or subroutine for assigning one of said blocks of data locations for storing data in said program control means; means responsive to a receipt of said counter supplied identification data and to instructions of said subroutines for addressing each of said data locations in said assigned one of said blocks; means responsive to the assignment of said one of said blocks of data locations and to the addressing of said data locations for transferring data thereto from said program control means; and means operative upon the execution of instructions for another one of said subroutines for selectively returning stored data from said assigned one of said blocks of data locations to said program control means for resuming an execution of said main program or said one subroutine.

Claim 8

A telephone system in accordance with claim 5 wherein: said program control means further comprises a plurality of registers and counter devices for selectively receiving program instructions of said main program and subroutines from said program store means in the processing of said last-mentioned instructions to control said network in the establishment of said call connection; said counter having a plurality of count states each of which supplies identification data for an individual one of said blocks; means responsive to the receipt of said prescribed one of said instructions in said main program and said subroutine for changing a count state of said counter to assigning a predetermined one of said blocks of data locations to an individual one of said subroutines; and said transferring means being responsive to said assignment of said predetermined one of said blocks and instructions of said individual one of said subroutines for transferring data thereto from selected ones of said register and counter devices.

Claim 9

A telephone system in accordance with claim 6 wherein said addressing means includes: first means controlled by said counter and responsive to the receipt of said prescribed one of said instructions for selectively addressing a first data location in said predetermined one of sAid blocks of data locations to effect a storage of return address data of an interrupted main program or subroutine and which data is received from one of said devices; and second means controlled by said counter and selectively responsive to a prescribed second one of said instructions for selectively addressing a second data location in said predetermined one of said blocks of data locations to effect a storage of data received from other of said devices in the execution of instructions of said other subroutine.

Claim 10

A telephone system in accordance with claim 7 wherein said counter includes: a binary counter for selectively defining each address of each of said blocks of data locations; said first and second addressing means includes a call memory address register for registering the address of each data location in each of said blocks of data locations; and means including said register and counter devices selectively responsive to the receipt of said prescribed one and second one of said instructions for cooperating with said binary counter to compile said address of each of said data locations in said address register with said defined block address and said addressed data locations supplied by each of said last-mentioned instructions.

Claim 11

A telephone system in accordance with claim 8 wherein: said transferring means includes means responsive to the registration of an address in said call memory address register for extracting data from said addressed data location; and means for subsequently inserting data from any selectable one of said register and counter devices into said call memory address register.

Claim 12

A telephone system in accordance with claim 8 wherein: said returning means includes means responsive to each selected one of said instructions of said other one of said subroutines for registering another data location address in said call memory address register; means responsive to said last-mentioned registration for returning stored data from said last-mentioned data location to a one of said register and counter devices as specified by said last-mentioned instruction; and means including said address register responsive to another selected one of said instructions for transferring return address data from a prescribed first data location of said predetermined one of said blocks of data locations.

Claim 13

A program controlled telephone system having a call processor comprising: program store means storing instructions of a main program and a plurality of subroutines for controlling the operation of said processor; call store means for storing call data and including a plurality of blocks of data locations, each of said blocks being assignable to any one of said subroutines for storing data during the execution of instructions of said one subroutine; program control means responsive to an interruption of said main program for executing instructions for a series of said subroutines and including a counter having count states for successively assigning each of said blocks of data locations for storing data in said program store and individually for each successive one of said subroutines in said series; means controlled by said counter and responsive to a first prescribed instruction of said main program and each of said series of subroutines for transferring return address data from said control circuit to a first data location of said block of data locations assigned to successive subroutines in said series; said transferring means being further controlled by said counter and responsive to the receipt of a second prescribed instruction of said subroutines in said series for transferring other data from said control circuit to another data location of said block of data locations assigned to said successive subroutines in said series; and means cooperating with said counter and responsive to other prescribed instructions of said subroutines in said series for returning return addrEss and other data from said data locations of said assigned blocks.

Claim 14

A program controlled telephone system having a call processor comprising: program store means storing instructions of a main program and a plurality of subroutines for controlling the operation of said processor; call store means for storing call data and including a plurality of blocks of data locations, each of said blocks being assignable to any one of said subroutines for storing data during the execution of instructions of said one subroutine; program control means responsive to an interruption of said main program for executing instructions for a series of said subroutines and including a counter having count states for successively assigning each of said blocks of data locations for storing data in said program store and individually for each successive one of said subroutines in said series; means controlled by said counter and responsive to a first prescribed instruction of said main program and each of said series of subroutines for transferring return address data from said control circuit to a first data location of said block of data locations assigned to successive subroutines in said series; said transferring means being further controlled by said counter and responsive to the receipt of a second prescribed instruction of said subroutines in said series for transferring other data from said control circuit to another data location of said block of data locations assigned to said successive subroutines in said series; and means cooperating with said counter and responsive to other prescribed instructions of said subroutines in said series for returning return addrEss and other data from said data locations of said assigned blocks.

Claim 15

In a data processor system having: a central processor for executing program instructions and including a plurality of elements for storing data in an execution of said instructions; memory means having a plurality of blocks of data locations for storing data; and means for transferring stored data from said elements to any of said blocks of data locations; wherein the improvement comprises: counter means cooperating with said transferring means for defining each of said blocks of data locations in said memory means; means activated by ones of said instructions for controlling a transfer of data from said elements to a block of said data locations defined by a count state of said counter means; and means operative for controlling the count state of said counter means for each transfer of stored data from said elements to a defined one of said blocks of data locations.

Claim 16

In a data processor system having: a central processor for executing program instructions and including a plurality of elements for storing data in an execution of said instructions; memory means having a plurality of blocks of data locations for storing data; and means for transferring stored data from said elements to any of said blocks of data locations; wherein the improvement comprises: counter means cooperating with said transferring means for defining each of said blocks of data locations in said memory means; means activated by ones of said instructions for controlling a transfer of data from said elements to a block of said data locations defined by a count state of said counter means; and means operative for controlling the count state of said counter means for each transfer of stored data from said elements to a defined one of said blocks of data locations.

Claim 17

A data processor in accordance with claim 16 wherein: said control means includes means responsive to a receipt of a prescribed one of said instructions for decrementing said counter to define a count state corresponding to an individual one of said blocks of data locations; and means cooperating with said counter and subsequently responsive to each receipt of a predetermined instruction in said one of said second sets of instructions for controlling said transfer means to effect a transfer of stored data from an individual one of said elements to a corresponding individual one of said data locations in said defined individual one of said blocks.

Claim 18

In a data processing system in accordance with claim 12, the improvement further comprising: means responsive to a receipt of a prescribed one of said instructions for specifying a transfer of stored data from one of said elements to any one of a plurality of said data locations; and means controlled by said counter means and cooperating with said specifying means for controlling the transfer of stored data from said one of said elements only to one of said data locations in said defined one of said blocks.

Claim 19

In a data processing system in accordance with claim 12, wherein said count state controlling means includes: means operative for decrementing the count state of said counter means prior to each transfer of stored data from said elements and to define a predetermined one of said blocks; further comprising means including said transfer controlling means activated by a prescribed one of said instructions and said counter means for controlling the return of data to said one element from said one data location in said defined one of said blocks; and means subsequently responsive to another prescribed one of said instructions for incrementing said count state of said counter means to define another predetermined one of said blocks.

Claim 20

In a data processor system according to claim 12 wherein said central processor includes means responsive to a prescribed one of said instructions for supplying an address to data locations in each of said blocks; and the improvement further comprises means cooperating with said counter means and responsive to the supplied address for defining only one of said data locations in said blocks.

Claim 21

A data processor comprising: a central processor for executing a first set of program instructions and second sets of program instructions, said processor including a plurality of elements for storing data for an execution of said sets of instructions; memory means having a plurality of blocks of data locations for storing data, a counter operable to a plurality of count states for defining each of said blocks of data locations; means responsive to an interruption in an execution of said first set of instructions on an entry into an execution by said processor of one of said second sets of instructions for controlling a transfer of stored data from ones of said elements to one of said blocks of data locations defined by one of said count states of said counter; and control means responsive to said interruption for controlling an operation of said counter to define said one of said blocks of data locations.

Claim 22

A data processor comprising: a central processor for executing a first set of program instructions and second sets of program instructions, said processor including a plurality of elements for storing data for an execution of said sets of instructions; memory means having a plurality of blocks of data locations for storing data, a counter operable to a plurality of count states for defining each of said blocks of data locations; means responsive to an interruption in an execution of said first set of instructions on an entry into an execution by said processor of one of said second sets of instructions for controlling a transfer of stored data from ones of said elements to one of said blocks of data locations defined by one of said count states of said counter; and control means responsive to said interruption for controlling an operation of said counter to define said one of said blocks of data locations.

Claim 23

A data processor in accordance with claim 16 wherein: each of said data locations in each of said blocks comprises an address including first signals identifying an individual one of said blocks and second signals identifying each said data location in said individual one of said blocks; said transfer controlling means includes means responsive to a first one of said instructions for decrementing said counter to define said first signals identifying a predetermined one of said blocks; means responsive to a receipt of a second one of said instructions for supplying said second signals identifying an individual one of said data locations in said predetermined one of said blocks; and means jointly responsive to a receipt of the supplied first and second signals and to said second one of said instructions for controlling a transfer of stored data from a prescribed one of said elements to said individual one of said data locations in said predetermined one of said blocks.

Claim 24

A data processor in accordance with claim 18 wherein said transfer controlling means further includes means subsequently responsive to a third one of said instructions for supplying second signals identifying a prescribed one of said data locations in said predetermined one of said blocks, and means jointly responsive to said supplied first and second signals and to said third one of said instructions for controlling a return of data from said prescribed one of said data locations to one of said elements.

Claim 25

A data processor in accordance with claim 19 wherein said transfer controlling means further includes means subsequently responsive to a fourth one of said instructions for supplying second signals identifying another prescribed one of said data locations in said predetermined one of said blocks, means jointly responsive to said supplied first and second signals and said fourth one of said instructions for controlling a return of data from said prescribed other one of said data locations to a predetermined one of said elements, and means subsequently responsive to said fourth one of said instructions for incrementing said counter to define first signals identifying another one of said blocks of data locations.