Micro-program digital computer

Claim 1

A CONTROL UNIT FOR A DIGITAL PROCESSOR IN WHICH STORED INSTRUCTIONS ARE EXECUTED IN SEQUENCE, THE CONTROL UNIT INCLUDING AN INSTRUCTION WORD REGISTER, A CONTROL WORD REGISTER, THE CONTROL WORD REGISTER STORING A GROUP OF BINARY CODED CHARACTERS, A DECODER, MEANS FOR COUPLING ONE OF THE CHARACTER STORING PORTIONS OF THE CONTROL WORD REGISTER TO THE DECODER, WHEREBY ONE CHARACTER IN THE CONTROL WORD IS DECODED AT A TIME, A READ-OUT MEMORY FOR STORING A PLURALITY OF CONTROL WORDS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO CODED ADDRESS INFORMATION IN EACH INSTRUCTION AS IT IS PLACED IN THE INSTRUCTION WORD REGISTER BY THE PROCESSOR FOR ADDRESSING A WORD IN THE READ-OUT MEMORY AND PLACING THE WORD IN THE CONTROL WORD REGISTER, MEANS INCLUDING A COUNTER FOR SUCCESSFULLY COUPLING EACH CHARACTER IN THE CONTROL REGISTER TO THE DECODER, THE DECODER PROVIDING A SIGNAL ON A DIFFERENT OUTPUT LINE FOR EACH DIFFERENT VALUE OF CHARACTER COUPLED TO THE DECODER, THE OUTPUT LINES FROM THE DECODER BEING COUPLED TO THE PROCESSOR TO CONTROL THE PROCESSOR, MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING ADDITIONAL CONTROL WORDS IN ADDRESS SEQUENCE FROM THE READ-OUT MEMORY TO THE CONTROL WORD REGISTER WHEN THE COUNTER INDICATES THAT ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THE LAST CONTROL WORD HAVE BEEN COUPLED TO THE DECODER, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A PARTICULAR OUTPUT LINE FROM THE DECODER FOR ADDRESSING AND TRANSFERRING A NEW CONTROL WORD FROM THE READ-OUT MEMORY TO THE CONTROL REGISTER IN RESPONSE TO THE VALUE OF THE NEXT CHARACTER IN SEQUENCE IN THE EXISTING WORD IN THE CONTROL REGISTER, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO ANOTHER PARTICULAR OUTPUT LINE FROM THE DECODER FOR CAUSING THE PROCESSOR TO BRING A NEW INSTRUCTION INTO THE INSTRUCTION REGISTER.