Aerospace HOL Computer. Volume III. Architecture and Preprocessor Design.

Abstract

This report presents the design of a computer architecture to directly execute a subset of the Space Programming Language (SPL)/Mark IV without the aid of a compiler or interpreter. The language permits full array level operations and recursive or reentrant procedures besides other standard language features. I/O and interrupt features were not implemented because they were out of the study's scope. The architecture executes the internal form of SPL source language produced by an assembler-like program called the preprocessor. The preprocessor converts source program symbolic names into machine addresses, operators, keywords, and delimiters into byte-sized tokens, and removes blanks and comments. The architecture design is specified by means of transduction equations which represent the syntax and semantics of the language forms. The transduction equations are related to a hardware implementation by their conversion into transition tables with logic subroutines to perform semantics. Data on the architecture is prefixed with a descriptor code indicating the type and attributes with which it was declared. The preprocessor can be programmed on the architecture and was designed with annotated flowcharts and English descriptions. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1972
Accession Number
AD0905273

Entities

People

  • Joseph A. Lauro
  • Steven A. Vere
  • William C. Nielsen

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Compilers
  • Computer Architecture
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Computing System Architectures
  • Conversion
  • Equations
  • Language
  • Linguistics
  • Procedures (Computers)
  • Programming Languages
  • Semantics
  • Standards
  • Transitions

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Computer Science.

Technology Areas

  • Space