| 摘要 |
DATA PROCESSING APPARATUSES PROVIDED COMPRISING A MEMORY (14) OPERABLE TO STORE A PLURALITY OF DATA WORDS, EACH DATA WORD BEING ASSOCIATED WITH AT LEAST ONE STATUS BIT (18) GIVING INFORMATION REGARDING A STATUS OF SAID DATA WORD; A STATUS BIT STORE (26) OPERABLE TO STORE SAID STATUS BITS WITHIN A HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP SUCH THAT A COMBINED STATUS RELATING TO A PLURALITY OF FIRST LEVEL STATUS BITS (18) AT A FIRST LEVEL WITHIN SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP IS INDICATED BY A SECOND LEVEL STATUS BIT (22) AT A SECOND LEVEL WITHIN SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP, SAID SECOND LEVEL BEING HIGHER IN SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP THAN SAID FIRST LEVEL; AND STATUS QUERYING LOGIC (30) OPERATIVE TO DETERMINE A STATUS OF A DATA WORD WITHIN SAID MEMORY BY EXAMINING STATUS BITS WITHIN SAID STATUS BIT STORE STARTING AT A TOP LEVEL WITHIN SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP AND WORKING DOWN THROUGH SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP UNTIL A STATUS BIT IS REACHED THAT INDICATES SAID STATUS OF SAID DATA WORD INDEPENDENTLY OF ANY STATUS BITS LOWER IN SAID HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP. IN THIS WAY A GLOBAL OR LARGESCALE CHANGE TO STATUS BITS MAY BE MADE BY MODIFYING RELATIVELY FEW HIGHER LEVEL STATUS BITS WITHIN THE HIERARCHICAL RELATIONSHIP THEREBY ACHIEVING A HIGH SPEED CHANGE WITH REDUCED LEVELS OF SPECIAL PURPOSE HARDWARE BEING REQUIRED. (FIGURE 2)
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