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US 4,475,156 AGranted
Virtual machine control
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsAnthony M. Federico, Ernest L. Legg
Life of this patent
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AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsAnthony M. Federico, Ernest L. Legg
Estimating the term…
The present invention is an electronic controller that is partially a virtual machine. The virtual machine portion of the controller comprises an Operating System including two major levels--namely, an Instruction Module level and a Primitive level. Directives corresponding to macros in a physical machine (microprocessor) architecture are the top level of the control. The Directives shield the Operating System structure from changes in the compiler, allow for changes in the Operating System internal structure and abstract out from the compiler unnecessary operating system details. Instruction Modules and Primitives make up the Operating System. Instruction Modules are the middle level and correspond to assembly language instructions in a physical machine. They are the smallest executable, nonpreemptive unit in the virtual machine. Preemption is similar to a physical machine interrupt capability except that a physical machine allows basically two concurrent processes or tasks (foreground or background) whereas the virtual machine allows an almost unlimited number of tasks executing in one or more physical processors.
In a machine having a plurality of operating components, a control for coordinating the operation of the operating components, the control including at least one processor and a virtual machine portion, the control responding to high level and processor level instructions, said virtual machine portion providing a link between said high level instructions and said processor level instructions.
An electronic control for controlling a machine, said control having a hardware portion and a virtual machine portion, the virtual machine portion responding to a first level of instructions, said hardware portion comprising at least one microprocessor electrically connected to said machine, said microprocessor responsive to a second level of instructions, said virtual machine portion comprising
In a machine control responding to Directives for controlling the operation of a machine, said machine including a plurality of operating components, said machine control including first level decoders responding to the Directives, and a plurality of blocks of code and at least one microprocessor responsive to microprocessor level instructions, the method of controlling the machine comprising the steps of
A machine control for directing the operation of a machine having a plurality of operating components, said machine control responding to high level and processor level instructions for directing operation of the machine, said machine control comprising
A machine control, said control executing a plurality of tasks, each of said tasks including at least one high level instruction, the control comprising
A machine control for directing the operation of a machine having a plurality of machine operating components, said operating components cooperating with one another to produce a result, the machine control responding to high level and processor level instructions to execute a plurality of tasks, said machine control comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.