Stored-program control machine

USRE32858E · kind E · reissue

Assignee

• American Telephone and Telegraph Company, AT&T Bell Laboratories · US

Inventors

• Donald E. Blahut · Holmdel, US
• Marc Harrison · Morganville, US
• Mark E. Thierbach · Allentown, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 16, 1985
• Grant date: Feb 7, 1989
• Expiry date: Aug 16, 2005

Classification

• Technology area (CPC —): General

Abstract

A hierarchical organization of programmable logic arrays permits the control of microprocessor functions to be achieved in a way which allows otherwise wasted clock time to be used. The mostly independent operations of the several PLA's is organized by "handshake" signals from the latches of one PLA to those of another via AND circuits operative to selectively enable clock signals, in some instances, and data in other instances, to be applied to the latches. The use of the AND circuits enables requisite operations to be achieved with relatively small PLA's.