PMSL, An Interactive Language for System-Level Description and Analysis of Computer Structures

摘要

PMSL is a conversational facility for the creation, modification, storage, retrieval, and analysis of descriptions of computer hardware at the top system level, where one works with processors, memories, controllers, channels, and peripherals. PMSL is intended as an intelligent sketchpad for computer engineers and systems analysts. Despite the abundance of notations and implemented languages for the logic and register-transfer levels of hardware description, PMSL is the first system designed expressly for the top system level. The language is based on the PMS (Processors, Memories, Switches) notation. The thesis includes detailed syntatic and semantic descriptions of PMSL, a user's manual for the analysis functions, explanations of the less conventional algorithms and implementation details, and an extensive discussion of future research and development possibilities. Two demonstrations of actual PDP-10 terminal sessions are given, one introductory, the other a practical test of PMSL's ability to absorb the description of an actual large system. (Author)