Abstract: A method and apparatus for selecting hot traces for translation and/or optimization is described in the context of a caching dynamic translator. The code cache stores hot traces. Profiling is done at locations that satisfy a start-of-trace condition, e.g., the targets of backward taken branches. A hot target of a backward taken branch is speculatively identified as the beginning of a hot trace, without the need to profile the blocks that make up the trace. The extent of the speculatively selected hot trace is determined by an end-of-trace condition, such as a backward taken branch or a number of interpreted or native instructions. The interpreter is augmented with a mode in which it emits native instructions that are cached. A trace is cached by identifying a hot start of a trace and then continuing interpretation while storing the emitted native instruction stream until an end-of-trace condition is met.

Abstract: A software development system with improved facilities for debugging optimized code. Certain parts of the operations specified by source statements are categorized as "data change points". A compiler 102 identifies the correspondence between the machine instructions that perform data change point operations and the source statements from which these machine instructions were derived and stores this mapping data 110 for use by a debugger program 104. This source code/machine instruction mapping data is used by the debugger to permit users to specify machine instruction locations (such as for setting breakpoints) by identifying a source statement and specifying that the debugger use the data change point of that statement; as another example, the step command includes an option that permits a user to continue execution until the next data change point instruction is reached. The debugger's source code display (FIGS.

Abstract: A flexible ECG monitoring system including pace pulse detection. The monitoring system includes a potable monitor 102 that can be worn by a patient 120 or connected to a docking station 104. The portable monitor 102 includes an A/D converter 210, 208 and a digital signal processor 202. ECG signals are digitized and the digital signal processor derives a signal that is an estimate of the slope of the ECG signal. Pace pulses are detected by processing the slope signal, including use of a threshold that is dynamically updated based on the recent history of the slope signal. Detected pace pulses are removed prior to certain ECG filtering and reinserted following such filtering.

Abstract: An I/O structure for use in a digital data processing system of the type in which system components including a processor and a system memory are connected by a system bus. The I/O structure includes a system bus interface connected to the system bus, a synchronous satellite processing unit (SPU) bus connected to the system bus interface, one or more satellite processing units (SPUs) connected to the SPU bus, and peripheral devices attached to the satellite processing units. Each SPU has three main components: control logic including a microprocessor for controlling the SPU, a device adapter specific to the peripheral device for controlling the peripheral device and transferring data between the peripheral device and the SPU, and an interface unit connected to the control logic and the device adapter for providing I/O communications to the SPU bus and responding to I/O communications on the SPU bus. The I/O communications fall into two classes: communications to SPUs and communications to system components.

Abstract: A document generation system which employs a definition-based expert system and an editor to produce an output document from a template document and expert system responses. The knowledge base of the expert system consists of a hierarchy of terms and their definitions. To produce an expert response, an inference engine component of the expert system evaluates a term by evaluating all of the definitions for the terms which are in that term's hierarchy of definitions. In the document generation system, the terms include fragment terms which are defined as portions of the template document.

Abstract: A document processing system including a control structure having separated supervisory and document functions. The document functions, including a document buffer and document access control means are the sole means for accessing documents and the document function routines are selected from predetermined library of such routines. The system includes a flexible, expandable document structure incorporating information item blocks and indexing blocks related through pointers and means for applying visual and informational attributes to document text.

Abstract: In a computer system, an application program is able to specify the location of an object to be displayed relative to another object to be displayed by means of alignment points selected for each of the objects. The alignments points include the intersections of vertical lines through the left and right edges and center of an object and horizontal lines through top and bottom edges, center and baseline of a first line of text. An offset between the selected alignment points may be specified. The alignment points are defined independent of the content of the objects, and the operating system, in displaying the contents of each object, positions the object as specified by the alignments points and offset. Where an object is aligned relative to two anchor objects, the operating system may adjust the size of the aligned object.

Abstract: A document processing system including a document structure and a library of routines for manipulating the document structure. The components of the document structure are made up of individually-locatable blocks. The components include a chain of text blocks which contains at least one document page and includes at least one block, one or more chains of reference blocks, each chain containing a reference and including at least one reference block, information attributes in the text blocks which relate locations in the text of the document to item numbers referring to references, a page index which relates page numbers to the text blocks at which the pages begin, and a reference index which relates each item number to the first reference block in the chain containing the reference. The document structure may only be manipulated by means of routines in the document manager library. The routines in the library are accessible to programs such as editor programs and printing programs which manipulate documents.

Abstract: A method and apparatus by which a user can enter and edit communication configuration parameters. A screen display includes a depiction of a communication connection and a scrollable list of communication parameter sets. The depiction of the connection includes a local system icon, an icon identifying a particular remote system, and a visual indication of other communication parameters. The depiction is updated to represent the current values of the currently selected set of communication parameters. Prompts to aid in entering and changing these parameters are presented in the context of the display of a the connection and the display of the communication parameter set list.

Abstract: An office automation system that provides for the incorporation of documents of all types by integrating images into the system. A minicomputer-based system includes applications such as word processing, data base, and mail, each of which can access image documents. Bulk storage of document images is provided using a variety of storage media such as microfilm, microfiche, and optical disks. An image access subsystem provides to each of the office automation applications uniform access to images stored on all of the media. The image access subsystem can use a hardward controller to handle some of the complexity of retrieval of images from the image storage devices. A relational data base system is used to organize the stored images so as to provide flexible access to the images and to isolate any effects of reconfiguration of the image storage system.

Abstract: A document manager controls the loading into memory from a mass storage means, such as a disk, a document file in disk file format. The loaded document file is stored in memory in document structure format for subsequent access thereto by a task, such as an application program. The loading of the document file into memory may be initiated by a task, either as a result of a user command or as a result of the operation of the task itself. In response to a request to load a document file, the document manager makes a request of a memory manager unit for an assigment of memory space to store the document file. After storage of the document file within the assigned memory space the document manager generates within the memory a document control block descriptive of various parameters associated with the loaded document. The document manager subsequently writes the location within memory of the generated document control block into an assigned location within the task requesting access to the document file.

Abstract: A thresholding algorithm selection apparatus for the selecting the threshold algorithm to be applied to a specimen in a digital imaging process is disclosed. The specimen is preliminarily scanned and thresholded using a predetermined thresholding algorithm. The resulting preliminary digital image is divided into a number of cells or regions. Each cell is classified according to its optical characteristics; e.g. textual, photographic, etc. The cell classification is effected in the preferred embodiment by comparing the average white and black run-lengths of each cell to experimental average run-length values which are representative of the different types of specimens. The specimen is re-scanned and thresholded with an appropriate thresholding algorithm for each cell.

Abstract: An improved NMOS storage cell for use in shift registers is disclosed. Among other components, it contains a pair of inverters--one them an enabling inverter. A pre-charge transistor is placed in parallel with the first inverter to decrease the rise time associated with the transition from a logic low level output to a logic high level output. The result of adding the pre-charge transistor to the circuit is to increase the speed of operation of the storage cell, without the accompanying decrease in density with prior art methods, where the components must be enlarged. Another aspect of the present invention which further increases the density of the cell is the elimination of the complement clock line found in many prior art storage cells. The previous combination of a second inverter and a pass transistor connected to a complement clock line, is replaced by an enabling inverter connected to the clock line.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for operating with pre-printed forms on electronic office processing equipment by using a printer under control of a video terminal keyboard to identify the location and length of blanks on a pre-printed form and then displaying lines on the video display having the same length and relative position as on the form. Editing functions are used to add captions adjacent to the lines to indicate what information is to be entered on each blank line in the corresponding form. The displayed lines and captions are a form template for the particular pre-printed form and is stored. When the processing equipment is to be used to enter data for the pre-printed form, the associated form template is displayed on the video display and the appropriate information is entered onto the blank lines and then stored. When there is need for a hard copy, a pre-printed form is placed in the printer and the stored information is typed into the blanks.

Abstract: A digital imaging file processing system for processing and filing digitized documents is disclosed. In the preferred embodiment a distributed data processing system implements the invention and is comprised of a central computer linked to the following components: a document processor; optical character recognition device; mass storage devices; a printer; and at least one intelligent workstation computer. The document processor automatically digitizes a stack of documents without the need for user intervention. A unique header page is used in each group of documents to be digitized, and gives the document processor such pertinent information as the scanning resolution, whether the processor is to look for yellow highlight marks, and the copy quality of the documents in the batch. Other information includes instructions per the use or non-use of the optical character recognition device, and filing or indexing instructions. A unique yellow highlight mark detection method and means are disclosed.

Abstract: A videotex decoder apparatus which, in various aspects, displays a status line to indicate when connect charges are occurring; overlays menus over displayed videotex frames with portions of the displayed frames remaining visible; provides easily called log-on procedures; retrieves remote information frames by user-specified keywords names; prints information frames in selectable different overall sizes; provides selectable different character sets for display; is table-driven; is structured to include a device independent decoder and device dependent drivers; includes a controller which feeds bytes to the decoder for decoding without regard to the protocol-dependent information content of those bytes; and uses an added frame header on stored frames to indicate the videotex protocol for decoding the frames.

Abstract: A system for converting an input bitmap image of one resolution to an output bitmap image of a different resolution. A mapping is defined between pixels in the input bitmap and pixels in the output bitmap. An error term is used to link successive output pixel determinations. For each output value determination, the values of the mapped input pixels are added to the error term to create a test value that determines what output is generated; the output value generated therefrom is then subtracted from the test value to create the next value of the error term. The conversion system is of particular advantage in converting an image having gray scale that is represented in a binary bitmap where gray scale is represented by the ratio of the number of "on" pixels to the number of "off" pixels. The present image conversion system performs a conversion such that the output bitmap represents such gray scale particularly well.

Abstract: Emulation method and apparatus allowing a first system, which is not designed as a functional duplicate of a second system, to emulate the second system. The input/output structure of the second system is emulated in the first system by means of routines stored therein and which direct the already existing input/output structure to operate in the same manner as the input/output structure of the second system. The emulation routines are in turn invoked through the non-maskable interrupt mechanism of the first system by a modification thereto which detects the occurrence of "foreign" input/output requests; that is, input/output requests occuring in programs originally written for the second system and which are not normally recognized by the first system.

Abstract: Forming a character-based monochromatic image from a digital representation of a color image by (1) forming a character-based representation of the color image in which a plurality of color characters each describe the background and foreground color within a defined area of the color image, (2) providing a plurality of color pattern masks each corresponding to a color in the color image and comprised of a pattern of light and dark dots capable of providing, in the monochromatic image, visual discrimination between areas of different color, (3) transforming the color characters to monochromatic characters by replacing the background and foreground color of each color character with the corresponding pattern of light and dark dots, and (4) displaying the monochromatic characters on a character-based output device (e.g., a CRT display driven by a character-based controller).

Abstract: A power switching means for connecting a power source to a digital data processing system. The switching means includes a power switch for connecting the power source to the system and two control switches. A first control switch determines whether system power is to be turned on or off and is responsive to a turn-on selection signal to provide an initial turn-on signal to the power switch if a power turn-on is to be performed. The second control switch is responsive to a power turn-on/turn-off initialization signal to initiate and control the turn-on and turn-off operations. The second control switch is responsive to the initialization signals at power turn-on to enable the first control switch to be responsive to a power-on selection signal to provide the initial turn-on signal to the power switch.