previous | contents | next

Chapter 42

The SDS1 910-9300 series

Introduction

The SDS 910, 920, 925, and 930 form a compatible series of computers. The 9300, though not compatible with the series, was an outgrowth of it. The 9300 uses the Ms and T devices of the 930. The 940 was designed initially at the University of California, Berkeley (see Chap. 24) for time sharing, and the 945 is a successor to the 940. The word length is 24 bits and one single address instruction is encoded per word. The state of the machine consists of Mp(2048 ~ 32768 w) and Mps('P/Program Counter, 'A/Accumulator, 'B/Extended Accumulator, 'X/Index register).

These computers have been designed to process data originating from physical processes in real time. This design goal leads to a priority interrupt system with many (1,024) levels. The multiple interrupts facilitate programming and decrease the interrupt response time. A 24-bit word or two 12-bit words are a reasonable size for the problem types encountered. A multiple of 6 bits was chosen because of the (then) standard 6-bit magnetic-tape character. The relatively efficient storage representation and processing of floating-point data allow these computers to be used for general-purpose computation. However, only the 9300 has built-in floating-point operations. The 9300 has extensive capability for more general-purpose use. It is also used for operations on half-length data.

The data types processed by the 910-930 include words,, integers, addresses, and boolean vectors. Several special instructions aid processing of types floating-point and double-length integers. The 9300 processes the additional data-types single- and double-length floating point. The 9300 has twin-mode instructions which operate on two half-length data (12 b) simultaneously. The two's complement representation is used for negative numbers.

The multiply, divide, and several other instructions are not wired into the 910, and compatibility between the 910 and 920-930 cannot be completely obtained by programming, although the 910 is a subset of the 920-930. Likewise, a smaller minimum Mp is available on the 910 (2,048 word versus 4,096 word). The 920 and 930 have identical instruction sets and differ in memory and logic performance. The 930 has a t.cycle: 1.75 m s, and the 910-920 has t.cycle: 8 m s. The more elaborate PMS structure of the 930 allows for greater growth, (e.g., by having more access ports to Mp).

The 9300's instruction set is different from the 930's. There are three index registers. The PMS structure is similar (and nearly compatible) with the 930. There are more (and better) working registers in the 9300 Pc to increase performance. The 9300 has two memory-access links, and the Pc can fetch instructions and data simultaneously. The instructions in the various C's appear in Table 1 for comparison purposes.

The SDS 925. a 1.75-m s version of the SDS 910, was available only for a brief time and will not be discussed further.

The machines process instructions (operations to the accumulator) in the following times (microseconds):

Instruction

910

920

930

9300

Fixed-Point Add

16

16

3.5

1.75

Fixed-Point Multiply

248

32

7.0

7.0

Floating-Point Add

896

384

92

14.0

Floating-Point Multiply

1696

656

147

12.25

Structure

The structure of these computers is given with PMS and conventional diagrams in Figs. 1 to 4.

The SDS channel is a Kio('Channel) and not a Pio, since it has no program counter and uses Pc. However, it can be as effective as a Pio. Of course, the cost is lower since Pc is shared. If K('W, 'Y) requires memory accesses, they must wait until suitable times in the Pc instruction-interpretation process to communicate with memory (Fig. 1).

The PMS structural detail (Fig. 2) does not show the algorithm by which simultaneous Kio('W, 'Y, 'C, 'D) and Pc requests for Mp are resolved. K has the highest priority, and further resolution among K's is determined by the K with the fullest buffer memory. Thus the priority is variable.

There are three basic K types, or channels (Fig. 2), in the 930 and 9300:

1 K('Time Multiplexed Communications Channel/TMCC)
2 K('Direct Access Communications Channel/DACC)
3 K('Data Subchannel/DSC)

1Scientific Data Systems merged with Xerox Corporation in 1969. The divisional name became Xerox Data Systems (XDS).

543

previous | contents | next