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Abstract

Distributed processing systems having a host processor and at least one object oriented processor are disclosed. An object oriented processor according to the invention has a communications interface, an intelligent message handler, and a task-specific functionality. The communications interface is coupled to a host processor via a message based communications link. A high level command language is provided which is easily implemented in a host processor program. The command language includes subsets of commands which are understood by different object oriented processors having different functionality. According to one embodiment, the object oriented processor includes support for a broad array of input and output devices. The command language includes high level commands for initializing, reading from and/or writing to the peripherals supported by the object oriented processor. According to another embodiment, the object oriented processor of the invention is addressable and several object oriented processors having similar functionality can be coupled to a single host via the same comms link. According to yet another embodiment, an object oriented processor according to the invention further includes a linking table and a periodic message generator which allows one object oriented processor to communicate directly with another object oriented processor without supervision by the host processor.

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First Claim