Special feature: The TORC TP — III

The microprocessor may at first appear to be a sophisticated toy, fit only for meager calculator or control duty. But look again: the operations which tie up substantial processor time in large timeshare processors could be accomplished by the mighty micro. A system that made use of microprocessors not only would give more processing time to the USER but also would cut the overall system cost. In addition, the USER would have to program only the main processor, since each microprocessor would have a separate duty to perform; furthermore, it would do so automatically — just as a programmer does not necessarily have to understand two's complement notation to subtract since subtraction is performed automatically by the ALU.