Apparatus for simultaneously measuring a plurality of digital events employing a random number table
US4176402A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | May 24, 1978 |
| Grant date | Nov 27, 1979 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 24, 1998 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2201/88
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Apparatus for measuring the rate of occurrence and duration of digital events through the technique of multiple sampling at times random to the occurrence of the digital events. The digital events to be sampled are represented as the presence or absence of binary ones or zeroes that can be sensed in a subject conductor at a given point in time. Since the probability of sensing a binary state of true or false at any particular but randomly determined time is a function of the duty cycle, sensing the binary state of or sampling a given digital event a given number of times produces a correspondingly statistically significant measure of the duty cycle of the digital event. The greater the number of samples, the greater the confidence in the measure of the duty cycle. The number of samples necessary to evoke a given confidence level is determined through the use of basic statistics. The point in time at which sampling occurs must be random to permit statistical validity. Though true randomness may be philosophically unattainable, randomness for sampling purposes is achieved through reading a random number table stored within a programmable read only memory (PROM) in response to a time …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.