List search hardware for interpretive software

Interpreted languages, e.g. BASIC, are simple to learn, easy to use, quick to modify and in general 'user-friendly'. However, a critically time consuming process during interpretation is that of list searching. A special microprogrammed device for fast list searching has therefore been developed at the SPS Division of CERN. It uses bit- sliced hardware. Fast algorithms perform search, insert and delete of a six-character name and its value in a list of up to 1000 pairs. The prototype shows retrieval times of the order of 10-30 microseconds. (11 refs).