LUSP Data Types

One of the major stumbling blocks you run into when you try to create a control program for a complex system is dealing with the, sometimes, hundreds of "Data Type"s in the system. The first problem is simply mapping out the control structure (tree) but then keeping the software for the control system in sync with changes in the "Data Type"s in the embedded system can be very labor intensive.

LUSP deals with this, first of all, by defining "Data Types" which describe "Data Type"s and bulk dumps used by the system. For each "Data Type" or dump type used by the system, there is a unique "Data Type" defined. The embedded system software contains an indexed list of these "Data Types". The "Data Type" does not, however, define the position of a "Data Type" in the "tree", it merely defines all other attributes of the "Data Type" (name, number of bytes, etc..). More than one parameter or data structure in the embedded system can use a particular "Data Type". The "Mix" "Data Type"s for all algorithms in the MPX 1 use a single "Mix" data type. They all have a different "Control Address" but use the same data type. Conversely, all "System Control Addresses" which are accessible, have a data type assigned to them.