Data transfer control system

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSFER OF DATA BETWEEN A DIGITAL COMPUTER AND A PLURALITY OF PERIPHERAL DATA HANDLING DEVICES, EACH SAID DEVICE INCLUDING MEANS FOR PROVIDING A READINESS INDICATION, SAID COMPUTER BEING ADAPTED TO PROCESS SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUALLY BINARY CODED DATA IN ACCORDANCE WITH A STORED PROGRAM OF BINARY ENCODED INSTRUCTIONS, AND HAVING MEMORY MEANS COMPRISING A MULTIPLICITY OF ADDRESSABLE MEMORY LOCATIONS FOR THE STORAGE OF SAID DATA AND INSTRUCTION AND EACH SAID PERIPHERAL DATA HANDLING DEVICE HAVING AN ADDRESSABLE CONTROL INFORMATION STORAGE LOCATION IN SAID MEMORY MEANS PERMANENTLY ASSIGNED TO IT, COMPRISING A COMMON DATA TRANSFER PATH BETWEEN ALL OF SAID PERIPHERAL DATA HANDLING DEVICES AND SAID MEMORY MEANS, SAID DATA TRANSFER PATH INCLUDING A STORAGE REGISTER INTO WHICH ALL DATA WORDS TRANSFERRED TO AND FROM SAID MEMORY MEANS ARE TEMPORARILY STORED, DATA TRANSFER CONTROLLING INSTRUCTION HAVING AN OPERAND PORTION WHICH IDENTIFIES A PARTICULAR DATA HANDLING DEVICE AND AN ADDRESS PORTION WHICH IDENTIFIES A MEMORY LOCATION IN WHICH CONTROL INFORMATION FOR USE DURING THE DATA TRANSFER OPERATION IS STORED, SAID INSTRUCTION RESPONSIVE MEANS BEING ADAPTED TO SELECT THE SPECIFIED DEVICE AND TO TRANSFER SAID CONTROL INFORMATION FROM SAID IDENTIFIED MEMORY LOCATION TO THE ASSIGNED MEMORY LOCATION OF THE SELECTED DEVICE, SAID CONTROL INFORMATION SPECIFYING THE NUMBER OF DATA WORDS TO BE TRANSFERRED AND THE AREA IN SAID MEMORY MEANS TO BE UTILIZED IN SAID TRANSFER, WORD COUNTER MEANS AND ADDRESS COUNTER MEANS, SAID WORD COUNTER MEANS BEING ADAPTED TO RECEIVE THE PORTION OF SAID CONTROL INFORMATION WHICH CONTROLS THE NUMBER OF DATA WORDS TO BE TRANSFERRED IN RESPONSE TO A SINGLE INSTRUCTION AND SAID ADDRESS COUNTER MEANS BEING ADAPTED TO RECEIVE THE PORTION OF SAID CONTROL INFORMATION WHICH SPECIFIES THE LOCATION IN SAID MEM-