Standard hardware-software interface for connecting any instrument which ...

[54] STANDARD HARDWARE-SOFTWARE INTERFACE FOR CONNECTING ANY INSTRUMENT WHICH PROVIDES A DIGITAL OUTPUT STREAM WITH ANY DIGITAL HOST COMPUTER

[75] Inventor: Robert Rothstein, Dallas, Pa.

[73] Assignee: S.A. Analis, Namur, Belgium

[21] Appl. No.: 402,385

[22] Filed: Jul. 27,1982

[51] Int. CU G06F 3/00

[52] U.S. CI 364/200

[58] Field of Search 364/200 MS File

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

3,673,576 6/1972 Donaldson 364/200

4,052,702 2/1983 Smith .

4,127,896 2/1983 Raslavsky .

4,377,843 3/1983 Garringer et al 364/200

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

1419207 2/1983 United Kingdom .

1486362 2/1983 United Kingdom .

1594131 2/1983 United Kingdom .

2031194 2/1983 United Kingdom .

Primary Examiner—Raulfe B. Zache

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Howard L. Rose

[57] ABSTRACT

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 incompatabilities 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.

48 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures