Patent · US Expired

Emulation of a data processing system

US4727480A · kind A · utility

87Cited by
2References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 9, 1984
Grant dateFeb 23, 1988
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 9, 2004

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/105
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Emulation method and apparatus allowing a first system, which is not designed as a functional duplicate of a second system, to emulate the second system. The input/output structure of the second system is emulated in the first system by means of routines stored therein and which direct the already existing input/output structure to operate in the same manner as the input/output structure of the second system. The emulation routines are in turn invoked through the non-maskable interrupt mechanism of the first system by a modification thereto which detects the occurrence of "foreign" input/output requests; that is, input/output requests occuring in programs originally written for the second system and which are not normally recognized by the first system. The means for detecting foreign input/output requests includes means for comparing input/output request port addresses to the range of port addresses occupied by the system input/output devices and indicating when a port address is within the range of address space occupied by the system input/output devices. The foreign request detection means generates a non-maskable interrupt to invoke an input/output emulation routine upon the o…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.