Modern concepts for digital computer input-output philosophy

Abstract

The trend among users and builders of automatic digital computing machines is to rely more and more on the computer itself to assist with the compilation of a computing routine. Experience has shown that use of the so-called interpretive subroutines often reduces the overall cost of acquiring a solution to a particular problem. It is also true that, disregarding problem solution time, interpretive subroutines could be written which would permit machines with the most elementary logic (i.e. an instruction list of plus, minus, compare, in, and out) to compare favorably with machines containing an elegant command list. However, though there has been an increased use in computers assembling their own routines, the complement of instructions built into such computers has also been increasing. This is typified by the advent of built-in floating point operations, base registers, etc. Unfortunately the trend of providing more special internal circuitry does not appear to have developed with respect to input-output, wherein negligible increase in machine flexibility other than through programming has been incorporated into newly released computers.