Asynchronous data processing system

Claim 1

AN ASYNCHRONOUS DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR TRANSFERRING DATA BETWEEN THE MAIN MEMORY OF A CENTRAL PROCESSOR AND A PLURALITY OF INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICES WHEREIN SAID INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICES OPERATE UPON DATA BYTES AND SAID MAIN MEMORY OPERATES UPON DATA WORDS STORED IN A WORD REGISTER, A DATA WORD CONTAINING N DATA BYTES AND A BYTES CYCLE BEING REQUIRED TO TRANSFER EACH DATA BYTE, COMPRISING (A) A PLURALITY OF BYTE BUFFERS ADDRESSABLE ON A BYTE BASIS FOR TEMPORARILY STORING DATA WORDS EACH BUFFER BEING ASSIGNED TO A DIFFERENT PREDETERMINED INPUTOUTPUT DEVICE HAVING A FIXED ADDRESS, (B) SINGLE-BYTE ADDRESS STORAGE MEANS COMMON TO ALL SAID BUFFERS, (C) MEANS INDIVIDUAL TO EACH INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE FOR SUCCESSIVELY GATING TO SAID STORAGE MEANS THE ADDERSSES OF THE N BYTE POSITIONS OF A DATA WORD WITHIN EACH FIXED ADDRESS TO CONTROL THE TRANSFER OF DATA BYTES BETWEEN AN ADDRESSED BUFFER AND ITS ASSIGNED INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE, (D) SINGLE ADDRESSING MEANS COMMON TO ALL SAID BUFFERS AND RESPONSIVE TO A MEMORY REQUEST SIGNAL FROM THE CENTRAL PROCESSOR FOR SUCCESSIVELY GATING TO SAID STORAGE MEANS THE ADDRESSES OF N BYTE POSITIONS WITHIN EACH BUFFER TO CONTROL THE TRANSFER OF A DATA WORD, A BYTE AT A TIME, BETWEEN EACH OF SAID BUFFERS AND SAID WORD REGISTER, AND (E) MEANS RESPONSIVE TO AN INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE SERVICE REQUEST SIGNAL DURING A DATA WORD TRANSFER BETWEEN ONE OF SAID BUFFERS AND SAID WORD REGISTER FOR INTERRUPTING SAID COMMON ADDRESSING MEANS AT THE END OF THE NEXT BYTE CYCLE TO INITIATE A TRANSFER OF DATA BYTES BETWEEN THE REQUESTING INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE AND SAID BYE BUFFER UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE INDIVIDUAL ADDERSSING MEANS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REQUESTING INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICE.