A Block Diagram Compiler

This paper describes a computer program known as BLODI (BLOck Diagram compiler). BLODI accepts for an input a source program written in the BLODI language, which corresponds closely to an engineer's block diagram of a circuit, and produces a machine program to simulate the circuit. BLODI has been written for both the IBM 704 and 7090 machines, and has been in use at Bell Telephone Laboratories for several months. Generally speaking, there are two situations in which it can be used profitably. One arises when a person with no knowledge of machinc coding wishes to program his own problem. In this case, the BLODI huig.iage is much easier to learn than Fortran or SAP. There are, in addition, certain problems involving a rather smooth flow of data which can IK; most easily codcd in BLODI, even by an experienced programmer. It is rather easy to estimate the efficiency of an object program produced by BLODI. Thus a person with no knowledge of computing machines can often tell if he should code his problem in BLODI or seek the aid of an experienced programmer. This will be discussed in Section V. BLODI was written to lighten the programming burden in problems conccrning the simulation of signal-processing devices. It has the added G69