| 摘要 |
<p>@ A microprocessor-controlled interface for permitting any digital host computer to receive serial digital data from any instrument wherein (a) the time at which digital data from the instrument is to enter the host computer and (b) the logical structure of the digital data entering the host computer are controlled by instructions from the host computer to the microprocessor and wherein (a) physical formatting incompatibilities between the host computer and the instrument and (b) the communicating of prohibited characters from the instrument to the host computer and vice versa are avoided. The timing control and logical structure of the digital data are effected by directing data from the instrument into a scratchpad memory, which is divided into records pursuant to instructions from the host computer, the contents of the scratchpad memory being sent to the host computer upon a corresponding instruction therefrom. A terminal for communicating with the host computer and the instrument may be included. Physical formatting discrepancies are avoided by translating inputs to the interface into a common physical format and translating outputs from the interface into the physical format of the instrument, host computer, or terminal which is receiving such outputs. Because about 90% of all current digital devices are formatted in a manner translatable by a selected one of three translator elements, a small number of interfaces formatted for a specific host computer (and terminal) can be used with a vast number of different instruments by accounting only for the instrument physical format and associated prohibited characters. Instructions, selected from a set of distinct instructions, which are sent from the computer to the microprocessor determine (a) whether a terminal-host computer, instrument-host computer, or terminal-instrument communication channel is to be open, (b) whether all channels are to be closed, and (c) when other communication transfer operations are to be executed. Terminal-host computer communications can occur at least substantially simultaneously with the directing of digital data from the instrument to the scratchpad memory.</p> |
