CN106445571B

CN106445571B - Mainboard and starting method

Info

Publication number: CN106445571B
Application number: CN201510482894.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨顺杰
Original assignee: Shencloud Technology Co Ltd; Kunda Computer Technology Kunshan Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shencloud Technology Co Ltd; Kunda Computer Technology Kunshan Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-08-08
Filing date: 2015-08-08
Publication date: 2020-05-01
Anticipated expiration: 2035-08-08
Also published as: CN106445571A

Abstract

A mainboard set on local server is prepared as setting south bridge on mainboard, storing random access memory of image file related to start-up data and processing unit electrically connected to random access memory and south bridge, sending command of image file to processing unit by south bridge, interpreting command by processing unit to find out image file data from random access memory, carrying out format conversion on image file data by further processing unit to generate packet in conformity with south bridge protocol and sending packet to south bridge for carrying out follow-up start-up setting.

Description

Mainboard and starting method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a motherboard and a booting method thereof, and more particularly, to a motherboard and a booting method thereof capable of reducing hardware costs of a rom and a switch.

Background

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, the conventional server system includes a local server 1 for a user, a remote server 2 connected to the local server 1 via a network, and an external device 3 connected to the local server 1 via a signal. The local server 1 has at least one motherboard 11, the motherboard 11 includes a South Bridge 111(South Bridge), a Baseboard Management Controller 112 (BMC), a first Switch 113(Switch), a second Switch 114, and a plurality of Read Only Memories (ROMs) 115 each storing an image, wherein the image 116 stored in each of the Read Only memories 115 is selected to boot the local server 1. The remote server 2 has an image file data 21, and the image file 21 can be loaded and stored in a corresponding ROM 115 of the local server by network transmission, for example, for setting when the server is powered on. The external device 3 is, for example, a flash drive, and has image file data 31, and the image file data 31 can be loaded into one of the ROM 115 of the local server 1 by direct access, for example, for setting when the server is powered on. Only the two rom 115 is illustrated in fig. 2 for illustration.

When the local server 1 is booted, the baseboard management controller 112 sends a first control signal to the first switch 113 to open the channels between the first switch 113 and the south bridge 111 and the second controller 114, and sends a second control signal to the second switch 114 to open the channels between the second switch 114 and the first switch 113 and the corresponding ROM, so that the south bridge 111 reads the image file data in the corresponding ROM through the first switch 113 and the second switch 114 to complete booting.

When the local server 1 has an error such as image data corruption during the booting process, the local server 1 can be reloaded with image data through the external device 3 or the remote server 2 for booting.

Local server 1 boot data update-there are two update methods, one is that the baseboard management controller 112 sends a first control signal to the first switch 113 to open the channel between the first switch 113 and the baseboard management controller 112 and the second switch 114, and sends a second control signal to the second switch 114 to open the channel between the second switch 114 and the first switch 113 and the corresponding ROM, so that the image file data to be updated can be loaded into the corresponding ROM from the baseboard management controller 112 via the first switch 113 and the second switch 114, and the updated image file is read again for subsequent boot setting when booting next time; the other way is that the baseboard management controller 112 sends a first control signal to the first switch 113 to open the channel between the first switch 113 and the south bridge 111 and the second switch 114, and sends a second control signal to the second switch 114 to open the channel between the second switch 114 and the first switch 113 and the corresponding ROM, so that the image file data to be updated can be loaded into the corresponding ROM from the south bridge 111 via the first switch 113 and the second switch 114, and the updated image file data is re-read when the computer is next booted, so as to perform the subsequent booting process.

Since different boot data security protection designs are used to ensure that the local server 1 can complete booting, multiple rom memories are usually required to be installed, each rom memory stores an image file data, and a channel is established between the second switch 114 and the rom memories as required, so that when there are more rom bodies 115 and channels are established between the second switch 114 and the rom memories 115, the overall circuit structure tends to be complicated. In addition, since the access process of the image file data needs to perform corresponding channel control according to different conditions, the switching mechanism of the baseboard management controller for controlling the switches is more complicated, and the complexity of the design and use of the baseboard management controller is further increased.

In summary, the conventional server system needs to be improved by providing a plurality of rom based on the integrity of the boot data, and correspondingly providing a plurality of switches, thereby complicating the related control circuit and greatly increasing the hardware cost.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, the present invention is directed to a motherboard that reduces the hardware cost of the ROM and the switch.

Therefore, the mainboard is arranged on a local server.

The motherboard comprises a south bridge and a bottom board control device.

The south bridge transmits an instruction for reading the image file data.

The bottom board control device includes one memory unit and one processing unit connected electrically between the RAM and the south bridge, the memory unit stores one image file data relative to the starting data, the processing unit receives the command from the south bridge and interprets the command to find out the image file data from the memory unit, the processing unit converts the image file data into packets in the south bridge protocol, and the processing unit transmits the packets to the south bridge.

The invention has the following effects: the processing unit on the backplane control device interprets the instruction of the south bridge to read the corresponding image file data from the random access memory on the backplane control device, converts the image file data format into a packet conforming to the south bridge protocol, and transmits the packet to the south bridge.

[ description of the drawings ]

Other features and effects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a system diagram illustrating a known server system;

FIG. 2 is a system diagram illustrating the conventional motherboard in conjunction with FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a system diagram illustrating one embodiment of a server system of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a system diagram illustrating a motherboard according to the embodiment of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the process of updating and loading an image file according to the embodiment; and

fig. 6 is another flowchart of this embodiment.

[ detailed description ] embodiments

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, an embodiment of the server system of the present invention includes a local server 5 and a remote server 4 storing a plurality of

image files

41 and 42, the local server 5 includes at least one motherboard 51, and for convenience of description, the local server includes a motherboard, but is not limited thereto. The motherboard 51 has a motherboard control device 511 and a south bridge 512, the motherboard control device 511 includes a control unit 513, a Memory unit 514 and a processing unit 515 electrically connected between the ram 514 and the south bridge 512, the ram 514 stores image data 41 related to booting data, the image data 41 is a basic input output unit image (BIOS image file), in this example, the image data 41 is related to initial settings and software environment parameters of various hardware components inside the motherboard 51, the control unit 513 is a Serial Peripheral Interface controller (SPI controller) in the BMC chip, the processing unit 515 is a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the Memory unit 514 can be a random access Memory (random access Memory, RAM) 514, a Read Only Memory (ROM), or an Electrically Erasable, rewritable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), and the random access Memory 514 will be described as an example.

Referring to fig. 5, when the local server 5 is powered on, i.e. when the motherboard 51 is powered on, all the components inside the motherboard control device 511 are initialized, and the server system sequentially performs the following steps 61 to 68.

In step 61, the control unit 513 receives an Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) command (hereinafter referred to as an update command) from a system administrator (not shown), where the additional description is that the update command from the system administrator is an update command that a user can directly input the update command to the control unit 513 inside the machine room where the local server 5 is located by using the input Interface of the local server 5; or the user at the remote end uses the remote server to transmit an update command to the control unit 513 of the local server 5 through the network to select the BIOS update from the local end or the remote end, and the control unit 513 proceeds to step 62 after completing the initialization, as shown in fig. 6, another way of step 61 is: the control unit 513 will proceed to step 62 if it determines that the motherboard 51 needs to be reloaded without booting.

In step 62, the control unit 513 issues a request command with an image file feature, such as an image file number, and the

image file data

41 and 42 correspond to motherboards of different specifications, respectively.

In step 63, the remote server 4 transmits the corresponding image file data to the ram 514 according to the request command, specifically, the remote server 4 selects one of the image file data from the plurality of image file data according to the image file number, and transmits the corresponding image file data to the ram 514 to complete the loading of the image file data, and perform the subsequent boot process.

Next, in step 64, the south bridge 512 transmits a command for reading image data. In the present embodiment, the command for reading the image data transmitted by the south bridge 512 is a Serial peripheral interface protocol (SPI) command.

In step 65, the processing unit 517 receives the instruction from the south bridge 512, and interprets the instruction to obtain the memory address of the required image data in the ram 514, and the processing unit 517 can read the required image data from the ram 514 according to the obtained memory address, and it is further noted that the instruction from the south bridge 512 carries a data location parameter related to the start address.

In step 66, the processing unit 517 converts the format of the required image file data to generate a packet compliant with south bridge 512 protocol, wherein the south bridge 512 protocol is compliant with the SPI protocol.

In step 67, the processing unit 517 sends the packet to the south bridge 512, and after the south bridge 512 reads the packet, it will perform initial setting on the local server 5.

In step 68, the south bridge 512 determines whether all initial settings are completed, and if not, returns to step 64 to repeat steps 64 to 67, and if so, completes the power-on of the local server 5.

In summary, the remote server 4 loads the corresponding image file data into the ram 514 of the backplane control device 511, and reads the image file data through the processing unit 515 of the backplane control device 511, further converts the image file data into packets for the south bridge 512 through the processing unit 515, and transmits the packets to the south bridge 512, so as to update and read the image file data without a rom and an additional switch, thereby reducing hardware cost, and indeed achieving the purpose of the present invention.

The embodiments and examples of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and examples, and various changes can be made within the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A mainboard is arranged on a local server, and is characterized by comprising:

a south bridge for transmitting an instruction for reading the image file data;

a backplane control device electrically connected to a remote server and including a memory unit and a processing unit electrically connected between the memory unit and the south bridge,

the memory unit is a random access memory, and the processing unit interprets the command to obtain the memory address of the image file data in the random access memory, the command from the south bridge carries a data position parameter, the data position parameter is related to a starting address of the image file data placed in the random access memory, and the memory unit stores the image file data related to the starting data;

the processing unit receives the command from the south bridge and interprets the command to find the image file data from the memory unit,

the processing unit converts the format of the image file data to generate a packet conforming to the south bridge protocol, and the processing unit transmits the packet to the south bridge for the motherboard to boot.

2. The motherboard of claim 1 wherein the remote server stores a plurality of image files, and wherein the backplane control device further comprises a control unit, the control unit receiving an update command and issuing a request command with an image file characteristic according to the update command to the remote server, such that the remote server transmits the corresponding image file to the random access memory according to the request command.

3. The motherboard of claim 2 wherein the image file characteristics include an image file number, the image file data corresponding to different specifications of the motherboard.

4. The motherboard of claim 2 wherein when the motherboard is powered on and the control unit determines that the motherboard is not powered on, the control unit issues the request to the remote server to cause the remote server to transmit the corresponding image file to the random access memory according to the request.

5. A method for starting up computer is executed by a server system, which is characterized in that the server system comprises at least a mainboard, the mainboard is provided with a south bridge and a bottom board control device, the bottom board control device comprises a memory unit for storing image file data related to starting up data and a processing unit connected between the memory unit and the south bridge, the memory unit is a random access memory, the server system further comprises a remote server, and the method comprises the following steps:

the south bridge transmits an instruction for reading the image file data;

the processing unit receives the instruction from the south bridge and interprets the instruction to find the image file data from the memory unit;

the processing unit performs format conversion on the image file data to generate a packet conforming to the south bridge protocol; and

the processing unit transmits the packet to the south bridge for the mainboard to start.

6. The booting method according to claim 5, wherein the backplane control device further includes a control unit electrically connected to the remote server, and further includes the following steps before the south bridge transmits the command for reading the image file data:

the control unit transmits a request instruction with image file characteristics to the remote server; and

the remote server transmits the corresponding image file data to the random access memory according to the request instruction.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein before the control unit sends the request command with image file feature to the remote server, further comprising: the control unit receives an update instruction and sends the request instruction according to the update instruction.

8. The booting method of claim 6, wherein the image file feature includes an image file number, and the image file data correspond to motherboards with different specifications respectively.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein before the control unit sends the request command with image file feature to the remote server, further comprising: when the mainboard is powered on, the control unit judges that the mainboard is not powered on completely, and then the control unit continues to transmit the request instruction with the image file characteristics to the remote server.