The logical structure of the memory resource in the SYMBOL-2R computer

Abstract

As has been reported elsewhere 1-5 , the SYMBOL-2R computer system's basic design premises included the following: 1. implementation of a user-oriented high-level programming language directly in hardware; 2. provision of interactive computing service for as many as 31 independent user terminals simultaneously; 3. incorporation of a virtual-memory system, using a small core memory to buffer a large paging drum. In this paper, we shall touch only peripherally on the last two of these premises; our chief concern here is to describe those aspects of SYMBOL's memory structure that impinge upon the first premise, namely, direct high-level language implementation.