1. A massively multiplayer game management service comprising:
a scheduling module configured to establish a message receiving period and a game data aggregation period;
a message receiving module configured to, during the message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receive a message from one or more of a plurality of player clients, the message including a game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
a message sending module configured to send game data, aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the game space location identifier, to the one or more of the plurality of player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the message.
2. The service of claim 1, further comprising an aggregating module configured to, during the game data aggregation period, aggregate player data received from the plurality of player clients, for each of the plurality of player clients the player data including a selected game space location identifier, and the player data being aggregated to a game space location corresponding to the selected game space location identifier to generate game data.
3. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving module is further configured to, at any time not during the message receiving period, reject the message received from the one or more of the plurality of player clients.
4. The service of claim 1, wherein the scheduling module is configured to establish the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on game logic.
5. The service of claim 4, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client.
6. The service of claim 5, wherein the execution time varies based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client by the message receiving module.
7. The service of claim 5, wherein the scheduling module is configured to establish the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.
8. The service of claim 4, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a plurality of player clients.
9. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game.
10. The service of claim 1, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game only during a game mode where a selected player client does not drive game logic.
11. A method for scheduled execution of messages to drive a massively multiplayer game comprising, at a game management service:
establishing a message receiving period and a game data aggregation period;
during the message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receiving a message from one or more of a plurality of player clients, the message including a game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
sending game data aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the game space location identifier to the one or more of the plurality of player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the message.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:
at any time not during the message receiving period, rejecting the message received from the one or more of the plurality of player clients.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period are established based on game logic.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein the game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein establishing comprises establishing the message receiving period and the game data aggregation period based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein game logic is driven by one or more messages received from a plurality of player clients.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the message receiving period, the game data aggregation period, and the execution time are set relative to a start time of a massively multiplayer game only during a game mode where a selected player client does not drive game logic.
19. A method for scheduled execution of messages to drive a massively multiplayer computer game comprising, at a game management service:
establishing a game data aggregation period and a request message receiving period;
sending a question message to a plurality of player clients, the question message including a plurality of selectable game space location identifiers;
receiving an answer message from at least some of the plurality of player clients, each answer message including a selected game space location identifier of the plurality of selectable game space location identifiers;
during the game data aggregation period, aggregating the selected game space location identifiers received from the at least some of the plurality of player clients to game space locations corresponding to the selected game space location identifiers to generate game data;
during a request message receiving period that overlaps at least part of the game data aggregation period, receiving a request message from one or more player clients, the request message including a requested game space location identifier and an execution time that follows the game data aggregation period; and
sending game data aggregated in a game space location corresponding to the requested game space location identifier to the one or more player clients upon occurrence of the execution time specified in the request message.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein establishing comprises establishing the game data aggregation period and the request message receiving period based on game logic that is driven by one or more messages received from a selected player client, and the execution time varies based on content of the one or more messages received from the selected player client.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
We claim:
1. A memory configuration, comprising:
a centrally disposed connection area having:
four side edges including longitudinal sides; and
connecting pads;
address lines;
cell arrays having side edges;
said cell arrays:
adjoining said connection area;
disposed on each of said four side edges of said connection area in a closed ring around said connection area;
each having a matrix-like memory with decoders each connected to at least one of said address lines;
each having at least two side edges adjoining side edges of two other ones of said cell arrays; and
each subdivided in a longitudinal direction into a first cell subarray and a second cell subarray;
said connecting pads electrically connected to said cell arrays;
each of said first and second cell subarrays having:
longitudinal sides adjoining said connection area and another one of said cell arrays; and
a decoder disposed at right angles to one of said longitudinal sides adjoining one of the group consisting of said connection area and said another one of said cell arrays;
each of said cell arrays having two mutually adjoining decoders disposed in a center of one of said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
a first of said decoders connected to first of said address lines disposed parallel to said longitudinal direction in said first cell subarray, and
a second of said decoders connected to second of said address lines disposed parallel to said longitudinal direction in said second cell subarray.
2. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said decoders of each of said cell arrays include row decoders and column decoders each connected to said address lines.
3. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said decoder of each of said first and second cell subarrays is one of the group consisting of a row decoder and a column decoder.
4. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area is rectangular and has four corner areas;
said cell arrays are each rectangular;
each of said four side edges of said connection area have a respective length;
four of said cell arrays adjoin a respective one of said four side edges of said connection area and each of said four cell arrays have a side edge with a length equal to said respective length of each of said four side edges;
others of said cell arrays are respectively disposed in each of said four corner areas; and
an overall area defined by said connection area and said cell arrays is rectangular.
5. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed centrally with respect to said first and third rows and said second and fourth rows.
6. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed between said first, second, third, and fourth rows.
7. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has transverse sides;
said connecting pads include connecting pad rows;
a first row, a second row, a third row, and a fourth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said transverse sides of said connection area;
a fifth row and a sixth row of said connecting pad rows are disposed at a predefined distance parallel to said longitudinal sides of said connection area;
said first and second rows and said third and fourth rows are respectively disposed on a given line and are disposed at a predefined distance from one another; and
said fifth row and said sixth row are respectively disposed between said first and third rows and said second and fourth rows and said longitudinal edges of said connection area.
8. The memory configuration according to claim 1, including peripheral circuits for operating said cell arrays, said peripheral circuits connected to said cell arrays and disposed in said connection area.
9. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein:
said connection area has a given size and a given form; and
each of said cell arrays has size substantially equal to said given size and a form substantially equal to said given form.
10. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said cell arrays is subdivided into two cell subarrays.
11. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said connection area is twice as long as said connection area is wide.
12. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said cell arrays is twice as long as said at least one cell array is wide.
13. The memory configuration according to claim 1, wherein said connection area and said cell arrays are twice as long as they are wide.