Scanner employing sequentially accessible memory

Claim 1

In a traffic service position system having a plurality of trunks and a plurality of operator positions, a first plurality of scan points respectively associated with said plurality of operators'' positions and each indicating service request information for the position associated therewith; a second plurality of scan points respectively associated with said plurality of trunks over which calls are instituted by the conveyance thereover of digits in the form of groups of pulses, each of said second plurality of scan points indicating the onor off-hook state of the trunk associated therewith; a sequentially accessible memory storing a first plurality of words respectively associated with said plurality of positions and storing a second plurality of words respectively associated with said plurality of trunks, said memory comprising a first group of shift registers storing prior state information specifying the state of each of said positions and trunks at each of two previous interrogations thereof, a second group of shift registers storing timing information associated with pulse, interdigit, and disconnect timing, a third group of shift registers storing pulse count information specifying the number of pulses in each Group of pulses received over said trunks, a fourth group of shift registers storing information specifying whether each call is in a pulse-disconnect timing mode or an interdigit timing mode, said words stored in said memory including information in each of said groups of shift registers; means for controlling said four groups of shift registers to output said words in sequential order; means for interrogating each said scan point concurrent with the outputting of the word associated therewith from said memory; and logic means jointly responsive to the state of an interrogated scan point and to said output word associated with said interrogated scan point for generating reports indicating either 1. seizure of the trunk associated with said interrogated scan point, 2. the end of a digit received over the trunk associated with said interrogated scan point and the number of pulses therein, 3. release of the trunk associated with said interrogated scan point, or 4. a service request from an operator''s position associated with said interrogated scan point.