Development of a data buffer and interface converter

Abstract

The excessive usage of peripheral devices such as TTY's, VDU's and printers, have a significant load on the frontend processor of the Alcatel X83 minicomputer. Because of this, the response time of the front-end processor to the peripher~ls is excessive. This can also be attributed to the fact that the peripherals have small buffers or no buffers at all. These peripheral devices also operate at slow speeds. A slow response time from the mini-computer results in decreased productivity. The mini-computer does not provide ports for parallel printers even though there is an abundance of these type of printers. The unavailability of a variety of interfaces on the minicomputer makes the reconfiguration of the peripheral network inflexible. Replacing the existing peripheral equipment in order to overcome the above limitations will be costly. This thesis describes the design, development and implementation of a data buffer and interface converter which would overcome the above mentioned limitations.