restored and a trap occurs to the supervisor.
There is also a 7-bit relocation register which modifies every memory address, during executions, by addition of the relocation register block number. Thus programs which have been interrupted by the supervisor may be moved about in memory, if necessary, with only the proper readjustment of the relocation register required.
Finally, if the user program, while in the special mode, should attempt to execute any instructions concerning input-output, changes in mode or core bank reference status, or resetting of the protection or relocation registers, the normal mode is restored and a trap occurs to the supervisor program in core bank A.
User Communication with the Supervisor
The supervisor performs a number of control functions which may be directly requested by the user. These include: all input and output (e.g., disk, drum, consoles, tapes); requests for information about or extension of the user program memory allocation; simulation of floating trap; control of each user's status, input level, and input mode; and other functions which involve communication with, or control by, the supervisor.
Since all protection violations cause a trap to the supervisor, a convenient means of user-supervisor communication is for the user to cause a protection violation; if the violation conforms to an established convention it may be recognized as a call to a subroutine in the supervisor. Since the supervisor is in A-core at all times, and since the user is in B-core operating in the protection mode, the following convention is used:
TIA LOC LOC BCI 1,NAME
(or equivalently, TIA =HNAME
) where NAME
is the BCD name of the desired subroutine; the attempted transfer from B-core to A-core causes a protection violation.
In the future, should memory space in the supervisor region be available, some commonly-used library subroutines may be kept in this
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