JPS6161475B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a magnetic bubble memory device, and more particularly to an improvement in a magnetic bubble memory device in which a serial transfer path is used as an information storage path.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Supported by the remarkable development of electronic technology including semiconductor integrated circuit technology, electronic computers are rapidly becoming smaller and faster. Furthermore, the reliability has been significantly improved by making the circuit elements solid-state. Furthermore, as the use of electronic computers progresses, the storage capacity of storage devices continues to increase year by year, and there is a strong desire to reduce the unit cost and access time required for storage.

In order to reliably store and retain large amounts of information, a highly reliable non-volatile large-capacity memory device is required, but this is impossible to achieve with volatile semiconductor memory; However, magnetic tape devices, magnetic disk devices, and the like have a fatal flaw in that they have moving parts, and it is difficult to say that these are memory devices that meet needs in terms of reliability.

Magnetic bubbles were invented in view of the above technical background.

When a bias magnetic field of an appropriate magnitude is applied perpendicularly to the surface of a magnetic thin plate such as garnet or orthoferrite having uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, a cylindrical magnetic domain, a so-called magnetic bubble, is generated.

A device that uses magnetic bubbles to store information, perform logical operations, etc. using magnetic bubbles must be nonvolatile, be an all-solid-state device, have a large capacity, and be relatively fast. For these reasons, its practical application is rapidly progressing in fields that take advantage of these characteristics.

This magnetic bubble utilization device requires various functions such as generating, transferring, dividing, enlarging, detecting, and erasing magnetic bubbles. Furthermore, a bias magnetic field application means for making the magnetic bubble stably exist within the magnetic thin plate, and a rotating magnetic field application means for moving the magnetic bubble within the magnetic thin plate to the base of the magnetic material pattern formed on the magnetic thin plate. I need.

There are two storage formats for magnetic bubble memory devices:
These include:

One of them is called the major/minor loop method, in which a large number of minor loops are provided as information storage paths, and information is written to the minor loops.
Alternatively, information is read from the minor loop by a major loop or major line connected to the minor loop via a gate.

In this method, accumulated information is divided into a large number of minor loops and stored, and the gate can be driven to write or read information at the timing when an address on a predetermined minor loop reaches the gate. Therefore, this method is often employed in magnetic bubble memory devices that require large capacity and short access time.

The other method is called the single-loop method, which uses a serial transfer path as an information storage path, provides each of the above functional units on the serial transfer path, and writes information directly to the serial transfer path, divides it, or erases it. It is a method.

This method is convenient for use in applications where a series of stored information is read out in succession, for example, for storing control programs and the like.

The present invention particularly relates to improvements in the single-loop method among the two methods described above.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a magnetic bubble memory device to which a conventional single-loop method is applied.

In the figure, 1 is an information storage path, 2 is a bubble generator, 3 is a bubble propagation path, 4 is a bubble replicator, 5 is a bubble propagation path, 6 is a bubble detector, and 7 is a bubble eraser.

The conventional single-loop system is configured as shown in the figure, and a magnetic bubble information train (hereinafter referred to as bubble train) generated by a generator 2 is continuously written into a storage path 1 via a propagation path 3. Bubble row is accumulation path 1
An external control circuit (not shown) detects the timing when a desired row of bubbles reaches the replicator 4, drives the replicator 4, and selects one of the two bubbles divided by the replicator 4. Non-destructive information reading is carried out by sending out one side through the propagation path 5 to the detector 6 and the other back into the storage path 1. The bubble string is erased by the eraser 7 as necessary, and the generator 2 is also erased by the external control circuit so that a new bubble string is placed in the erased address position on the storage path.
The information is rewritten by determining the drive timing of the .

However, this method inevitably has the following drawbacks due to its configuration. That is, after the desired information to be read out has passed through the duplicator 4 during information reading, it is necessary to wait for the information to go around the storage path 1 once. Therefore, the average access time in this method is inevitably large.

By the way, when the storage path 1 having a capacity of 64 kbit is driven at a driving frequency of 100 kHz, the access time is approximately 640 msec.max, which is quite long.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object thereof is to realize a magnetic bubble memory device having a short average access time in the above-mentioned single-loop type magnetic bubble memory device.

An object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic magnetic field system in which a serial transfer path is used as an information storage path, and information stored in the transfer path is read out from the transfer path via a divider and a detector coupled to the propagation path. In a bubble memory device, dividers are provided at at least two locations on the serial transfer path, and the bit length of each propagation path between each divider and the detector is set equal, so that the desired information to be read arrives first. This can be achieved by providing a magnetic bubble memory device characterized in that a divider is operated by a divider control means to guide desired information to the detector via the propagation path.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the magnetic bubble memory device according to the present invention.

In the figure, 10 is an information storage path, 20 is a bubble generator, 30 is a bubble propagation path, 40 is a first bubble replicator, 41 is a second bubble replicator, 50 is a first bubble propagation path, and 51 is a bubble propagation path. second bubble propagation path,
60 is a bubble detector, and 70 is a bubble eraser.

The present invention differs from the conventional configuration shown in FIG. 1 in that a plurality of replicators are arranged on the storage path 10. In this embodiment, two replicators 40, 41 are arranged on the storage path 1, and each replicator 40, 41 is connected to one detector 60 by each propagation path 50, 51. The two replicators 40 and 41 are arranged at positions that approximately bisect the storage path 10. Since the operation is almost the same as that of the conventional example shown in FIG.
Since there is a difference in drive timing control, the operation will be explained below using this together with FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an external control circuit for controlling the magnetic bubble memory chip shown in FIG. 2, in which 71 is an address register;
2 is a coil driver that covers the magnetic bubble memory chip and drives a drive coil that generates a rotating magnetic field for the chip; 73 is a counter connected to the coil driver 72; 74 is a register, a comparison circuit;
An arithmetic circuit including a gate control circuit, etc.
75 is a gate driver driven by an output signal from the arithmetic circuit.

First, the address of the information to be read from the host device is given to the external control circuit of the magnetic bubble memory device, and the address information is stored in the address register 71.

On the other hand, the counter 73 is reset at the start address of the accumulation path 10 and then sequentially counted up by the output from the coil driver 72, and its count value indicates that the start address of the bubble string in the stopped accumulation path 10 is the current one. Displays and maintains the location. Therefore, by inputting the count value of the counter 73 and the address information stored in the address register 71 to the arithmetic circuit 74, it is possible to recognize the current position of the desired bubble column to be read. On the other hand, since it is possible to recognize which address bubble string corresponds to the two replicators 40 and 41 arranged on the storage path 10 from the count value from the counter 73, It is possible to calculate which replicator the desired bubble row to be currently read is closer to.

That is, the number of bits _N1 of the difference obtained from the address of the desired bubble string to be read and the address of the bubble string in the replicator 40, and the address of the desired bubble string to be read and the address of the bubble string in the replicator 41. The number of bits N ₂ of the obtained difference is obtained by the arithmetic circuit 74, and the obtained number of bits N ₁ ,
After calculating the magnitude relationship of _N2 , driving the coil driver 72 by the smaller number of bits, and shifting the bubble train in the storage path 10 by the number of bits, the current is supplied to one of the corresponding replicators. A drive signal is sent from the arithmetic circuit 74 to the gate driver 75.

In this way, the desired bubble row to be read out can be guided to the detector 60 by the nearby replicator.

Therefore, in the case of this embodiment, the average access time for the entire device is reduced to about half that of the conventional type. For example, if the storage path capacity is 64kbit and the drive frequency is 100kHz, the access time is approximately 320m.
sec.max is sufficient.

Incidentally, in FIG. 2, the number of bits in each of the propagation paths 50 and 51 connecting each replicator and the detector is set to be equal.

Further, in this embodiment, two replicators are arranged for the storage path 10, but the average access time can be further shortened by arranging a larger number of replicators.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the propagation paths 50 and 51 connected to the two replicators are used as one propagation path by a merging circuit to guide the bubble train to one detector 60, but the merging circuit is Of course, there is no problem even if the bubble array is guided to each of the two detectors that are not used.

However, in this case, since a plurality of detectors such as splitters that require a relatively large area are provided, it cannot be denied that the chip space cannot be used effectively.

As explained above, according to the present invention, in a single-loop type magnetic bubble memory device with a long average access time, the average access time can be It is possible to shorten the
Its practical effects are very large.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional magnetic bubble memory device, FIG. 2 is an embodiment of the magnetic bubble memory device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an illustration of an external control circuit applied to the magnetic bubble memory device of the present invention. This is an example. In the figure, 10 is an accumulation path, 20 is a generator, and 3
0, 50, 51 are propagation paths, 40, 41 are replicators,
60 is a detector, 70 is an eraser, 71 is an address register, 72 is a coil driver, 73 is a counter, 74 is an arithmetic circuit, and 75 is a gate driver.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a magnetic bubble memory device, a serial transfer path is used as an information storage path, and information stored in the transfer path is read out from the transfer path via a divider and a detector coupled to the propagation path. A divider is provided at at least two locations on the serial transfer path, and the bit length of each propagation path between each divider and the detector is set to be equal, and the divider where the desired information to be read reaches first is selected as the divider. A magnetic bubble memory device characterized in that it is actuated by a control means to guide desired information to the detector via the propagation path.