JP2010277184A - Information processor, information processing method, and information processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To properly select a storage medium to be accessed, according to data. <P>SOLUTION: An information processor includes: a rule information storage means for storing a second identification name corresponding to a second storage medium different from a first storage medium corresponding to each first identification name of data; and a write means which, in response to a data write request from a program and based on the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name designated in the write request, writes the data in the second storage medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program, and more particularly, to an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program for writing data to a storage medium or reading data from a storage medium. .

  In the case of a general-purpose computer such as a PC (Personal Computer), an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is often used as a storage medium. This is because the HDD has a large capacity and the access speed is not so slow. However, unlike a general-purpose computer, an embedded device such as a scanner or printer uses an SD card or a flash memory via USB (USB memory) as a storage medium in order to limit physical housing and reduce costs. There are many cases. However, when a flash memory is used (especially via a USB bus), the data input / output (read / write) speed is limited. For this reason, the entire processing is delayed for processing that needs to wait for completion of data input / output. Therefore, there is a method of using a memory device called a memory disk or a RAM disk (hereinafter referred to as “memory disk”).

  Since the memory disk electrically reads and writes data, the input / output speed is very high compared to the flash memory. For this reason, when data is input / output in the program, it is difficult for a delay in all processing pairs to occur. In particular, when input / output to / from a storage medium has become a bottleneck in program processing, the processing speed of the entire system can be improved by using a memory disk as part of the recording medium.

  However, in order to suppress an increase in the cost of the device, the memory disk must be reduced in capacity. In addition, since the memory disk is volatile, the stored data is erased when the device is turned off.

  However, the performance required for the storage medium differs depending on the use of data. For example, some data may not be allowed to be lost but the access speed may be slow, and other data may be allowed to be lost although a high access speed is required.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information processing program capable of appropriately selecting a storage medium to be accessed according to data. Objective.

  Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention provides a second storage medium corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identification name for each first identification name of data. Based on the rule information storage means storing the identification name and the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the write request in response to a data write request from the program, the second identification name Writing means for writing the data to the storage medium.

  In such an information processing apparatus, it is possible to appropriately select a storage medium to be accessed according to data.

  A storage medium to be accessed can be appropriately selected according to data.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the process sequence at the time of data writing. It is a figure which shows the example of a write rule. It is a figure which shows the structural example of management information. It is a figure for demonstrating an evacuation level. It is a figure which shows the example of the management information updated by the save process. It is a sequence diagram for demonstrating the process sequence at the time of reading of data. It is a figure which shows the example of the management information updated by the reading process. It is a figure which shows the example of a reading rule. It is a figure for demonstrating a replication level. It is a figure which shows the example of the management information updated by the duplication process. It is a figure which shows the structural example by which a file system management part is concealed.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, an image forming apparatus will be described as a specific example of an information processing apparatus. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1, the image forming apparatus 10 includes hardware such as a CPU 101, a RAM 102, a ROM 103, an HDD 104, a scanner 105, a printer 106, an operation panel 107, an SD card slot 108, and a USB port 109.

  The ROM 103 stores various programs and data used by the programs. The RAM 102 is used as a storage area for loading a program, a work area for the loaded program, and the like. The CPU 101 realizes various functions by processing a program loaded in the RAM 102. The HDD 104 records programs and various data used by the programs. The scanner 105 is hardware for reading image data from a document. The printer 106 is hardware for printing image data on printing paper. The operation panel 107 is hardware including input means such as buttons for accepting input from a user and display means such as a liquid crystal panel. The SD card slot 108 is used for reading a program recorded on the SD card 50. That is, in the image forming apparatus 10, not only the program recorded in the ROM 103 but also the program recorded in the SD card 50 can be loaded into the RAM 102 and executed. The USB port 109 is a connection port (connector) for a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. In the present embodiment, the USB memory 60 is connected. In addition, the image forming apparatus 10 includes a network interface for connecting a network (whether wired or wireless), but is omitted for convenience in FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration example of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 10 includes an application 11a, an application 11b, and an application 11c (hereinafter referred to as “application 11” when not distinguished from each other), a file system management unit 12, a file system 16, and the like. These are realized by a process executed by the CPU 101 by a program loaded in the RAM 102.

  The application 11 is an application program that executes processing using predetermined data (for example, image data read from an original by the scanner 105) in the present embodiment. In the process, the application 11 performs data writing to the storage medium, data reading from the storage medium, and the like via the file system management unit 12.

  In response to a data write request or a data read request from the application 11, the file system management unit 12 determines which storage medium is a data write destination or a data read destination based on the management rule 13, the management information 14, or the like. Determine. The file system management unit 12 executes recording of data to a writing destination according to the determination result or reading of data from a reading destination according to the determination result. That is, the location of data used by the application 11 is hidden from the application 11 and managed by the file system management unit 12. In the present embodiment, the storage media as candidates for the location of data are the RAM 102 and the USB memory 60. The RAM 102 is an example of a storage medium that can be accessed at high speed but has a small capacity. The USB memory 60 is an example of a storage medium having a low access speed but a large capacity.

  The file system management unit 12 accesses (writes or reads) the RAM 102 and the USB memory 60 via the file system 16. The file system 16 is a so-called file system provided by an OS (Operating System) 15. The RAM 102 can be used as a memory disk (RAM disk) by the file system 16. The USB memory 60 can be used as a flash disk. In other words, the data recorded in the RAM 102 and the USB memory 60 can be handled in the same manner as the file recorded in the HDD 104. Specifically, data recorded in the RAM 102 and the USB 60 can be identified by a path name.

  The management rule 13 is data in which rule information regarding data writing or reading is defined. The management information 14 is information including location information of data operated (written or read) by the file system management unit 12. That is, the management rule 13 is static information set in advance, whereas the management information 14 is dynamic information that is updated in response to access to data. The management rule 13 and the management information 14 are recorded in the HDD 104, for example.

  The file system management unit 12 can be used by a plurality of applications 11. However, there may be an application 11 that uses data directly via the OS 15 without using the file system management unit 12, such as the application 11c. In this case, the location of the data is not hidden from the application 11c. For example, for the application 11 that wants to directly manage the location of the file, the file may be directly manipulated via the OS 15 like the application 11c.

  The file system management unit 12 includes a writing unit 121, a saving unit 122, a reading unit 123, a duplicating unit 124, and the like. The writing unit 121 receives a data write request from the application 11 and executes writing to the storage location according to the management rule 13. The saving unit 122 saves (saves) the data written in the storage location according to the management rule 13 to another storage location at a predetermined timing. The reading unit 123 receives a data reading request from the application 11 and executes reading of data from a storage location according to the management rule 13. When the number of times the reading process to the same data has been specified by the management rule 13, the replication unit 124 generates a copy of the data in the storage location specified by the management rule 13. The writing unit 121 and the reading unit 123 are implemented as a function for writing data or a function or method for reading data. On the other hand, the saving unit 122 and the duplicating unit 124 are activated as processes or threads. In the present embodiment, the saving unit 122 and the duplicating unit 124 are activated as processes. However, the specific mounting form of each part is not limited to a specific one.

  Hereinafter, a processing procedure of the image forming apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram for explaining a processing procedure when data is written.

  In step S <b> 101, the application 11 designates data to be written and a path name of a write destination, and inputs a write request for the data to the writing unit 121. In the write request, the application 11 specifies “/root/writeData.dat” as the data write destination. In the present embodiment, “/ root” and the following are associated with the USB memory 60.

  Subsequently, the writing unit 121 refers to the writing rule 131 in the management rule 13 and determines the writing destination of the data to be written (S102).

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a write rule. In the drawing, the write rule 131 includes items such as “target data”, “write destination”, “write condition”, “save level”, and “save condition”. “Target data” is a path name (first identification name) specified in the write request. The “write destination” is a path name (second identification name) actually set as a write destination for data related to the write request. The “write destination” can be arbitrarily set. When it is desired to speed up access to data, the path name of the RAM 102 (memory disk) is set to “write destination” in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, “/ ram” and below are associated with a part of the storage area (memory disk) of the RAM 102. However, for data that is known to be so large that it cannot be written to the RAM 102, the path name of a large-capacity storage medium may be specified as the “write destination”. On the other hand, the RAM 102 may be the write destination if the data is determined in size when the application 11 is executed or the data is of a medium size.

  “Write condition” is information indicating a condition in which writing to the “write destination” is permitted. In the figure, the “write condition” is that the free capacity in the “write destination” is sufficient (there is data to be written). In addition, the threshold (upper limit) of the writable data size may be set as the “write condition”, and a method for dealing with the case where writing to the write destination fails may be set as the “write condition”.

  The “evacuation level” is a level for distinguishing a method of saving data written to the “write destination” to the “target data” path. That is, the method for saving the data written to the “write destination” differs depending on the “save level”.

  “Save conditions” are various conditions related to the save process. For example, the save is information indicating whether data is moved or a copy is generated, information indicating conditions for executing the save process, and the like. In FIG. 4, as a condition for executing the save process, it is set that the free capacity of the write destination (RAM 102) is 20% or less.

  FIG. 4 shows a write rule 131 for one piece of data. That is, the write rule 131 is defined for each data whose write destination is desired to be changed by the file system management unit 12.

  In step S102, the writing unit 121 searches the management rule 13 for the write rule 131 having “/root/writeData.dat” as “target data”, and the “write destination” (“/ ram” of the searched write rule 131. /Root/writeData.dat ”) is determined as the actual write destination. Note that if the writing rule 131 corresponding to “/root/writeData.dat” does not exist, the writing unit 121 determines the path name designated by the application 11 as the actual writing destination.

  Subsequently, the writing unit 121 writes data to the determined writing destination (“/ram/root/writeData.dat”) (S103). Since “/ram/root/writeData.dat” is a path name corresponding to the RAM 102, data is written to the RAM 102 at a high speed. That is, from each application 11, it appears that the data specified in the write request is written to the path name specified in the request, but the data is actually written to a different path name according to the write rule 131. There is also. Note that the writing unit 121 determines whether or not the “writing condition” in the writing rule 131 is satisfied, and executes writing to the “writing destination” when the writing rule is satisfied.

  When writing to the “write destination” is performed, the writing unit 121 generates a record relating to the written data in the management information 14 (S104).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of management information. In the figure, the management information 14 includes “access location”, “existence flag”, “read count”, etc. for each “target data”. “Access position” is a path name to be accessed for “target data” (a path name where “target data” actually exists). That is, in step S104, the writing unit 121 records the path name designated by the application 11 in “target data”, and records the path name in which the data is actually written in “access position”. The “presence flag” is information indicating whether data exists in the path name of “target data” (true) or not (false). At this time, since no data is written in the path name of “target data”, the value of “existence flag” is “false”. The “number of readings” will be described later.

  Note that if access from each application 11 is permitted to a path that can be a “write destination”, data management becomes complicated. This is because inconsistency between the management information 14 and the actual location of data occurs when the “write destination” data is deleted by the application 11. Therefore, only the file system management unit 12 can access the “write destination”, and direct access by each application 11 is preferably disabled.

  Subsequently, the writing unit 121 processes the saving unit 122 for executing saving processing of the written data (hereinafter referred to as “current data”) according to the “saving level” set in the management rule 13. (S105). When the saving unit 122 is activated, the writing unit 121 notifies the saving unit 122 of the path name (“/root/writeData.dat”) designated by the application 11. That is, one process of the saving unit 122 corresponds to one data. This is because the necessity of the saving process and the priority of the process of the saving unit 122 are determined according to the “saving level”. The priority here is a priority in the process management of the OS 15 (that is, a priority related to the use of the CPU).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the evacuation level. In the figure, the level of evacuation is divided into four stages of 0-3. When the “evacuation level” is 0, the saving process is not executed. Therefore, in this case, the writing unit 121 does not activate the process of the saving unit 122 for the current data. In the case of “evacuation levels” 1, 2, and 3, the processes of the saving unit 122 are activated with a low priority, a medium priority, and a high priority, respectively. In this embodiment, since the “save level” corresponding to the current data is “3”, the process of the save unit 122 for the current data is started with high priority. 6 may be incorporated in the writing unit 121 as logic, or may be converted into an external file.

  Subsequently, the writing unit 121 sends a response to the write request in step S101 to the application 11 (S107). The response includes, for example, information indicating success or failure of writing. In the present embodiment, although the writing is requested for the path name related to the USB memory 60, the writing is actually performed in the RAM 102. Therefore, the time from the write request to the response is shorter than when writing to the USB memory 60 is performed. Therefore, the application 11 waiting for the response can shift to the subsequent processing at high speed.

  On the other hand, the activated saving unit 122 refers to the writing rule 131 (FIG. 4) with the path name notified from the writing unit 121 as “target data”, and confirms the “saving condition” (S111). Subsequently, the saving unit 122 waits for execution of the saving process until the “saving condition” is satisfied (S112). The confirmation of whether or not the “save condition” is satisfied may be performed periodically as in polling, or may be performed when the process of the save unit 122 transitions from the wait state to the execution state. In the present embodiment, the saving unit 122 waits until the free space in the RAM 102 becomes 20% or less (see FIG. 4).

  When the “save condition” is satisfied, the save unit 122 searches the management information 14 for a record having the path name notified from the writing unit 121 as “target data” (S113). Subsequently, the save unit 122 acquires data from the file associated with the path name (“/ram/root/whiteData.dat”) recorded in the “access position” of the retrieved record (S114), and the writing unit A copy of the data is recorded in a file associated with the path name (“/root/writeData.dat”) specified from 121 (S115). Therefore, the copy is generated in the USB memory 60. Subsequently, the saving unit 122 updates the value of “existence flag” of the record having the path name designated by the writing unit 121 as “target data” to “true” in the management information 14 (S116). Subsequently, the saving unit 122 ends its process. In this way, data is recorded in the path name desired by the application 11 by the saving process. In addition, the save process is executed asynchronously with the write request from the application 11. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the deterioration of the response performance by the writing unit 121 for the write request.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of management information updated by the saving process. In the figure, the “existence flag” value of “target data” “/root/writeData.dat” is updated to “true”. This is because a copy of the data with the path name indicated by “target data” is generated by the saving process. When the save target data is moved, the path name recorded in the “access position” is deleted.

  By the way, the “evacuation level” may be determined with reference to the following concept.

  For example, the “evacuation level” is set to 0 for data that may be lost when the power is turned off, such as data that is temporarily generated (for work) by the application 11. As a result, the saving to the non-volatile storage medium may not be performed.

  Further, for data for which the possibility of being lost is made as small as possible, by setting the “save level” to 3, a process having a higher priority can execute a save process. As a result, it is possible to increase the possibility that the save process is reliably executed. In this case, however, the load on the system resources such as the CPU 101 becomes high, and the possibility of affecting the processing speed of the application 11 cannot be denied.

  Even in the case of saving processing by a high-priority process, the possibility of data being lost as a result of power being cut off before execution of saving processing cannot be completely denied. Therefore, for important data in which charging information of the image forming apparatus 10 and FAX transmission information are recorded, even if the writing speed is not sufficient, a nonvolatile storage medium ("target data" path name from the beginning) In some cases, it may be better to write directly to. Therefore, the write rule 131 need not be defined for such data.

  Note that the actual power-off is usually based on a user operation. Therefore, the save unit 122 executes save processing when the load on the CPU 101 decreases, and outputs a message “data XXX save has been completed” to the operation panel 107 upon completion of the save processing. Also good. By doing so, the possibility of data loss due to power-off can be reduced.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the write destination can be set for each data in the write rule 131, and each data is written (recorded) to the write destination according to the setting. Therefore, an appropriate storage medium can be selected as a writing destination according to the use and characteristics of the data.

  In particular, the processing performance of the program (the application 11 in the present embodiment) can be expected to be improved by using a storage medium with a high access speed as the data write destination as in the present embodiment.

  In addition, since the selection of the write destination is performed centrally by the file system management unit 12, each program does not need to perform complicated control for the selection of the write destination.

  Further, by adjusting the setting of the write rule 131, it is possible to optimize (or optimize) the processing performance of the entire system. For example, assume that there is a program A that originally wrote data to a high-speed storage medium and a program B that wrote data to a low-speed storage medium. If only the performance of the program A is taken into consideration, the data write destination by the program A should be kept as a high-speed storage medium. However, in the function realized by the cooperation of the program A and the program B, the performance of the function as a whole can be improved if the program B is preferentially used with a high-speed storage medium. In such a case, the write rule 131 may be defined so that the data write destination by the program B is a high-speed storage medium and the data write destination by the program A is a low-speed storage medium.

  Next, a processing procedure when reading data will be described. FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram for explaining a processing procedure when reading data.

  In step S <b> 201, the application 11 designates a path name of data to be read and inputs a read request for the data to the reading unit 123. In the read request, the application 11 designates “/root/readData.dat” as the path name to be read. That is, it is data recorded in the USB memory 60.

  Subsequently, the reading unit 123 searches the management information 14 (see FIG. 7) for a record having “target data” as the path name designated as the reading target (S202). Here, since there is no record having the designated path name as “target data”, the reading unit 123 reads data from the file associated with the designated path name (S203). When there is a record in the management information 14 with the specified path name as “target data”, the read data is read from the file associated with the path name recorded in the “access position” of the record.

  If the data is successfully read, the reading unit 123 generates a record relating to the read data in the management information 14 (S204).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of management information updated by the reading process. In the figure, the second record is generated in step S204. In “target data” and “access position”, path names designated as read targets are recorded. The value of “existence flag” is “true”. This is because data exists in the path indicated by “target data”. The value of “number of readings” is “1”. That is, the “number of readings” is an item for recording the number of times the reading process has been performed on “target data”.

  Subsequently, the reading unit 123 refers to the reading rule 132 in the management rule 13 and determines whether the duplication unit 124 needs to be activated (S205).

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a reading rule. In the drawing, the read rule 132 includes items such as “target data”, “replication destination”, “replication threshold”, “replication level”, and “replication condition”. “Target data” is a path name (first identification name) specified in the read request. The “replication destination” is a path name (second identification name) for generating a copy of the data to be read. After the duplication, the path name indicated in “Duplicate” becomes the read destination for “target data”. Therefore, when it is desired to speed up the reading process, the storage medium corresponding to the “copy destination” path name may be set to have a higher access speed than the storage medium corresponding to the “target data” path name. In the present embodiment, “target data” has a path name (“/root/readData.dat”) corresponding to the USB memory 60 having a low access speed, and “replication destination” has a high access speed RAM 102 (memory disk). ) Is set ("/ram/root/readData.dat").

  The “duplication threshold” is a value indicating the duplication execution timing based on the number of times the reading process is performed. This indicates that duplication is executed when the number of reading processes indicated by the “duplication threshold” is performed. Depending on the execution status of the application 11, the “number of readings” of each data may change. Therefore, an appropriate value may be set for the “duplication threshold” so that data that is frequently read according to the execution status is duplicated. Further, for example, for data that is determined to be frequently read, the “duplication threshold” may be set to 0 (duplication is performed when the image forming apparatus 10 is activated).

  The “duplication level” is a value associated with the priority of the process of the duplication unit 124 that executes duplication. A process with a higher priority has a higher occupation rate of the CPU 101 and may impose a load on other processes, but replication can be executed at an earlier timing. The “duplication condition” is a condition under which duplication is permitted. In the present embodiment, the “replication condition” is that the free space of the “replication destination” is 20% or more.

  In step S <b> 205, the reading unit 123 refers to the “duplication threshold” of the reading rule 132 and compares the “duplication threshold” with the “number of readings” of the management information 14 (hereinafter, “current data”). It is determined whether or not duplication is necessary. In this embodiment, the “duplication threshold” is “1”, and the “number of readings” is “1”. Therefore, the reading unit 123 determines that the current data needs to be duplicated, and activates the process of the duplication unit 124 (S206). If the “number of readings” has not reached the “duplication threshold”, the duplication unit 124 is not activated.

  When the copy unit 124 is activated, the path name (/root/readData.dat) designated by the application 11 is notified from the reading unit 123 to the copy unit 124. That is, one process of the duplication unit 124 corresponds to one data. The priority of the process of the duplication unit 124 is determined according to the “duplication level”.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the replication level. In the figure, there are three levels of duplication, 0-2. In the case of “duplication levels” 0, 1, and 2, the processes of the duplication unit 124 are started with a low priority, a medium priority, and a high priority, respectively. In this embodiment, since the “duplication level” corresponding to the current data is “0”, the process of the duplication unit 124 for the current data is activated with low priority. Note that the content of FIG. 11 may be incorporated as logic in the reading unit 123 or may be converted to an external file.

  Subsequently, the reading unit 123 outputs the read data to the application 11 (S207).

  On the other hand, the activated duplication unit 124 refers to the read rule 132 (FIG. 10) that sets the path name notified from the read unit 123 as “target data”. Is acquired (S211). Subsequently, the duplication unit 124 determines whether or not the “duplication condition” is satisfied (S212). In this embodiment, it is determined whether or not the free capacity of the “replication destination” (RAM 102) is 20% or more. If the “duplication condition” is not satisfied, the duplication unit 124 waits until the “duplication condition” is satisfied.

  When the “duplication condition” is satisfied, the duplication unit 124 acquires data from the file associated with the path name (“/root/readData.dat”) notified from the reading unit 123 (S213), and “duplication destination” The copy of the data is recorded in the file associated with the path name designated as “(/ram/root/readData.dat”) (S214). Therefore, the copy is generated in the RAM 102 (memory disk). Subsequently, the duplication unit 124 updates the “access position” of the record having the path name notified from the reading unit 123 as “target data” in the management information 14 (S215). Specifically, the content of “access position” is rewritten with the path name of “replication destination” (“/ram/root/readData.dat”). Subsequently, the duplication unit 124 ends its process. As described above, the duplication processing is executed asynchronously with the read request from the application 11. Therefore, it is possible to avoid deterioration in response performance by the reading unit 123 with respect to the read request.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of management information updated by the duplication processing. In the figure, the “access position” of the second record is updated to “/ram/root/readData.dat”.

  Thereafter, it is assumed that the application 11 designates the same path name (“/root/readData.dat”) as that in step S201 and inputs a data read request to the reading unit 123 (S221). The application 11 in step S221 and the application 11 in step S201 may be the same or different. Subsequently, the reading unit 123 searches the management information 14 (see FIG. 12) for a record having the “target data” as the path name designated as the reading target (S222). Here, the second record is searched. Therefore, the reading unit 123 reads data from the file relating to the path name recorded in the “access position” of the retrieved record (S223). Subsequently, the reading unit 123 outputs the read data to the application 11 (S224). Here, although the application 11 requested to read the path related to the USB memory 60, the data was actually read from the RAM 102. Therefore, the time from the read request to the output of the read data is shorter than when the USB memory 60 is read. Therefore, the application 11 that has been waiting to read the data can shift to the subsequent processing at high speed. It should be noted that since the data to be read in step S221 has already been duplicated, it is not necessary to increment the “number of reads”, start up the duplication unit 124, or the like.

  As described above, when the “duplication threshold” is set to 0, duplication is executed when the image forming apparatus 10 is activated. Specifically, the copying unit 124 may be activated when the image forming apparatus 10 is activated. The duplication unit 124 refers to each reading rule 132 and performs duplication on “target data” whose “duplication threshold” is 0. Therefore, the data copied at the time of activation is read at high speed even when the read request is received from the application 11 for the first time.

  Next, a process for reading data written by the writing unit 121 by the reading unit 123 will be described. That is, it is a process of reading data written in the RAM 102 as “/ram/root/writeData.dat” by the process of FIG.

  In this case, the application 11 recognizes the data path as “/root/writeData.dat”. Therefore, in step S201 of FIG. 8, “/root/writeData.dat” is designated and a read request is input to the reading unit 123. Subsequently, the reading unit 123 searches the management information 14 in the state of FIG. 7 or 12 for a record whose “target data” is “/root/writeData.dat” (S202). Here, since the first record is searched, the reading unit 123 obtains data from the file related to the path name (“/ram/root/writeData.dat”) recorded in the “access position” of the record. Read.

  In this way, the data that has been subjected to the writing process by the writing unit 121 can be read by the reading unit 123 at high speed.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a replication destination can be set for each data in the read rule 132, and once replicated data is read from the replication destination. Therefore, an appropriate storage medium can be selected as a copy destination (that is, a read destination) according to the use and characteristics of the data.

  In particular, as in the present embodiment, it is expected that the processing performance of the program (the application 11 in the present embodiment) will be improved by making the data replication destination (reading destination) a storage medium with a high access speed. it can.

  Further, since the selection of the copy destination is performed centrally by the file system management unit 12, each program does not need to perform complicated control for selecting the copy destination.

  In the above, the example in which the file system management unit 12 can be directly used from each application 11 has been described. However, the file system management unit 12 may be hidden from the application 11 by including the file system management unit 12 in the OS 15.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example in which the file system management unit is concealed. In FIG. 13, the same parts as those in FIG.

  In the case of FIG. 13, even when each application 11 operates each file via an API provided by the OS 15, the use of the file system management unit 12 is forced. This means that the existing application 11 can enjoy the benefits of the file system management unit 12 without modifying the source code. However, it is difficult to directly manage the location of a file without using the file system management unit 12 as in the application 11c of FIG.

  As mentioned above, although the Example of this invention was explained in full detail, this invention is not limited to such specific embodiment, In the range of the summary of this invention described in the claim, various deformation | transformation・ Change is possible.

10 image forming apparatus 11, 11a, 11b, 11c application,
12 File system management unit 13 Management rule 14 Management information 15 OS
16 File system 101 CPU
102 RAM
103 ROM
104 HDD
105 Scanner 106 Printer 107 Operation Panel 108 SD Card Slot 109 USB Port 121 Writing Unit 122 Saving Unit 123 Reading Unit 124 Duplicating Unit

JP 2005-28687 A

Claims (15)

Rule information storage means for storing a second identifier corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identifier for each first identifier of data;
A writing means for writing the data to the second storage medium based on the second identifier corresponding to the first identifier specified in the write request in response to a data write request from the program; An information processing apparatus.   2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a saving unit configured to record data written to the second storage medium in the first storage medium based on the first identification name asynchronously with the write request. . Rule information storage means for storing a second identifier corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identifier for each first identifier of data;
In response to a data read request from the program, reading means for reading the data from the first storage medium based on the first identification name specified in the read request;
Duplication means for recording data to be read by the reading means on the second storage medium based on the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the read request; Have
When the data relating to the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the reading request exists, the reading means stores the second storage based on the second identification name. An information processing apparatus that reads the data from a medium.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the duplicating unit executes recording of the data to be read by the reading unit on the second storage medium asynchronously with the read request.   The duplicating means records the data to be read by the reading means to the second storage medium in accordance with a comparison between the read count of data based on the same first identification name and a threshold value. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3 or 4. An information processing method executed by a computer,
For each first identification name of data, using a rule information storage means that stores a second identification name corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identification name A write procedure for writing the data to the second storage medium based on the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the write request in response to a data write request from the program An information processing method comprising:   The information processing method according to claim 6, further comprising a save procedure for recording data written to the second storage medium in the first storage medium based on the first identification name asynchronously with the write request. . An information processing method executed by a computer,
For each first identification name of data, using rule information storage means that stores a second identification name corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identification name In response to a data read request from the program, a read procedure for reading the data from the first storage medium based on the first identification name specified in the read request;
A replication procedure for recording the data to be read by the reading means on the second storage medium based on the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the read request; Have
In the reading procedure, when there is data relating to the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the reading request, the second storage is performed based on the second identification name. An information processing method for reading the data from a medium.   The information processing method according to claim 8, wherein in the duplication procedure, recording of data to be read by the reading unit to the second storage medium is executed asynchronously with the read request.   In the duplication procedure, the reading unit records the data to be read into the second storage medium in accordance with a comparison between the read count of data based on the same first identification name and a threshold value. The information processing method according to claim 8 or 9. On the computer,
For each first identification name of data, using rule information storage means that stores a second identification name corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identification name A write procedure for writing the data to the second storage medium based on the second identifier corresponding to the first identifier specified in the write request in response to a data write request from the program Information processing program to execute.   12. The information processing program according to claim 11, further comprising a save procedure for recording data written to the second storage medium in the first storage medium based on the first identification name asynchronously with the write request. . On the computer,
For each first identification name of data, using rule information storage means that stores a second identification name corresponding to a second storage medium different from the first storage medium corresponding to the first identification name In response to a data read request from the program, a read procedure for reading the data from the first storage medium based on the first identification name specified in the read request;
A replication procedure for recording the data to be read by the reading means on the second storage medium based on the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the read request; Let it run
In the reading procedure, when there is data related to the second identification name corresponding to the first identification name specified in the reading request, the second storage is performed based on the second identification name. An information processing program that reads the data from a medium.   14. The information processing program according to claim 13, wherein in the duplication procedure, recording of data to be read by the reading unit to the second storage medium is executed asynchronously with the read request.   In the duplication procedure, the reading unit records the data to be read into the second storage medium in accordance with a comparison between the read count of data based on the same first identification name and a threshold value. The information processing program according to claim 13 or 14.

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