A Programmer's View of the Intel 432 System

TLDR: In this paper, the authors describe the architecture of the i432 Interface Processor and its use as a key component in the Peripheral Subsystem Interface for the Intel 432 System.

Abstract: The architecture study …begins in Chapter 4 where a number of topics related to object structures and object addressing are treated. Chapter 5 introduces the hardware and system software support for interprocess communication. Here the i432 Port Objects and port operations (SEND, RECEIVE, etc.) are introduced and illustrated. Chapter 6 revisits the architectural and Ada-language support for object structure, emphasizing type management and access control. Many features of the supporting operating system, known as iMAX, especially several of its important “user-interfaces,” are introduced beginning with Chapter 5. The importance of input/output peripheral subsystems and their relationship with the central object-based architecture of the i432 system is recognized by treating this topic separately in Chapter 7. This chapter introduces the reader to the architecture of the i432 Interface Processor and its use as a key component in the Peripheral Subsystem Interface for the Intel 432 System. A message-based model for input/output using this interface is also introduced, along with a discussion of abstractions for I/O device interfaces, both asynchronous and synchronous. The topics of process management, memory management, and object filing, which ma y be of primary interest to system developers and architects, are treated in Chapters 8, 9, and 10. Each chapter describes the iMAX implementations of these services and the user interfaces to these facilities. In the case of process management an iMAX provided “template” is described whose use enab les system programmers to implement their own process managers as needed. Chapter 9 describes the extensive memory management facilities of iMAX and the supporting hardware. These include facilities to support the stack and heap memory resources required, for example, by executing Ada programs. In addition, memory management supports an on-the-fly garbage collector, dynamic memory compaction, and, where configured, a virtual memory management subystem. Chapter 10, as already noted, provides a complete introduction to object filing as it is currently planned. —From the Author's Summary