JPH0553965A - Electronic computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically identify a connected peripheral equipment such as a printer or a display, etc., with comparatively inexpensive configuration when selecting the plural peripheral equipments and connecting them to the main body of an electronic computer. CONSTITUTION:A pulse generator 111 to generate a pulse signal having an intrinsic pulse width decided for each kind of the peripheral equipment is built in plural peripheral equipments 11 connected to a main body 10 of the electronic computer, and this pulse signal having the intrinsic pulse width is outputted through the interface of a signal transmitting function to the main body 10 of the electronic computer. On the main body 10 side of the electronic computer, a peripheral equipment specifying function part specifies the pulse signal having the intrinsic pulse width among the signals transmitted from each connected peripheral equipment to the main body side transmitting function part, the kind of the connected equipment is discriminated corresponding to the specified pulse width, and processings on a hardware and a software are executed corresponding to the connected equipment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an electronic computer system is generally constructed by connecting a peripheral device such as a printer, a display and a keyboard to an electronic computer main body. What peripheral device is connected to the electronic computer main body? The following is adopted as a method of automatically identifying whether or not there is.

A) The interface signal includes about 3 to 5 identification signal lines, and a code signal set according to the type of the peripheral device is output from the peripheral device side.

B) Using the original interface signal, the identification information is transmitted to the computer body at the time of initial setting, and the computer body receives the identification information for identification.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional method, in the case of a), a plurality of identification-dedicated lines must be included in the interface signal, and the number of signals of the connector or cable increases. There was a problem to do. Moreover, the number of types of peripheral devices that can be identified is limited with a small number of identification signal lines, and there is a problem that the identification lines are insufficient when a new peripheral device is connected.

Further, in the case of b), a microprocessor or a communication interface is required as a means for transmitting the device information on the peripheral device side, and it cannot be used for a simple device such as a display monitor. However, there is a problem that the device is limited because it cannot be applied to a device such as a printer having only an output interface.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and increases the number of connectors and cables with a simple structure when a plurality of peripheral devices are selected and connected to the computer main body. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic computer system capable of automatically identifying a peripheral device that is connected without any problem.

[0008]

According to the electronic computer system of the present invention, a pulse signal having a unique time width is assigned to each peripheral device, and a pulse signal having a time width previously assigned to the peripheral device is assigned to each peripheral device. A built-in pulse generator for generating a pulse signal, and an interface for transmitting a pulse signal having a specific time width generated by the pulse generator in a signal transmission function section between the peripheral device and the computer body. A pulse signal of a time width peculiar to each peripheral device sent from the interface of the transmission function part of each peripheral device to the transmission function part of the main body for exchanging signals with the transmission function part of each peripheral device in the main body Is provided and a peripheral device specifying function unit is provided for specifying the connected peripheral device.

[0009]

In the electronic computer system of the present invention, a plurality of peripheral devices connected to the electronic computer main body are provided with a pulse generator for generating a pulse signal having a specific time width defined for each type, and the specific time width is The pulse signal of is output to the computer body through the interface of the signal transmission function unit.

On the computer main body side, a pulse signal having a unique time width is specified by the peripheral device specifying function part from the signals sent from the connected peripheral devices to the main body side transmission function part. The type of the connected device is determined according to the pulse time width, and the hardware and software processing is performed according to the connected device.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 shows a more detailed internal configuration. As shown in FIG. 2, the electronic computer system of this embodiment includes a plurality of types of peripheral devices 11, 12, ... Connected to the electronic computer main body 10, and the electronic computer main body 11 and the peripheral devices 11, 12 ,. , Are connected by interface cables 21, 22 ,.

The computer main body 10 incorporates a pulse width identification processing unit 101 as a peripheral device specifying function unit. Further, each of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ... Has a pulse generator 11 for continuously generating a pulse signal having a predetermined specific pulse width t1, t2 ,.
, 121, ... Are built in.

The detailed configuration of the computer main body 10 and the plurality of types of peripheral devices 11, 12, ...
As shown in FIG. 1, the computer main body 10 incorporates various functions that a normal computer has, and as shown as a representative one, a control unit 102 and an arithmetic processing unit 1
03, a storage unit 104, an input / output control unit 105 for exchanging signals with peripheral devices such as a printer, a display, a keyboard, an external storage device, and a modem, and the above-described pulse width identification processing unit 101.

Each peripheral device 11, 12, ...
2, 122, ..., Main function processing units 113, 123, ... For executing the unique functions of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ..., For example, a print function, a display control function, a key signal input function, and the computer main body 10. , And the above-mentioned pulse generators 111, 112, ... For exchanging signals with each other.

Then, the input / output control unit 105 of the computer main body 10 and the input / output control unit 1 of each of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ...
Are connected with the conventional interface signals by interface cables 21, 22, ... Which transmit the signals from the pulse generators 111, 121 ,.

Next, the operation of the electronic computer system having the above configuration will be described.

The peripheral devices 11, 12, ... Continuously generate pulse signals of pulse widths t1, t2, ... Unique to the peripheral devices in the pulse generators 111, 121 ,. Interface signals 21, 22, ... through the input / output control units 114, 124, ... together with the data signals output from 113, 123, ..., or in the case of peripheral devices having only input signals, only pulse signals of this pulse width. To the input / output control unit 105 of the computer main body 10.

In the computer main body 10, the input / output control unit 105 receives the data signal and the pulse signal input from the interface cables 21, 22, ... And the pulse width identification processing unit 101 sends the received pulse signal. The pulse widths t1, t2, ... Are identified by hardware circuit processing or software processing, and this is given to the control unit 102, and the control unit 102 identifies what the connected peripheral device is from the pulse width data. If, for example, it is determined that a printer, a display, a keyboard, a modem, etc. are connected, the arithmetic processing unit 1
The result of the arithmetic processing by 03 is output to the connected peripheral device, or the input from the connected peripheral device is processed.

In this way, it is possible to determine what peripheral device is connected to the computer main body, and continuously output the pulse signal of a predetermined specific time width from each connected peripheral device to the electronic computer. By transmitting the data to the main body together with the ordinary data signal, the electronic computer main body identifies the pulse width of the pulse signal to determine the type of connected peripheral device, and performs the ordinary data processing.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be widely applied to general connection of information equipments and control equipments each having a built-in microcomputer and transmitting data. .

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a pulse signal having a unique time width is assigned to each of a plurality of types of peripheral devices connected to the computer body, and a pulse signal having that time width is continuously generated. To transmit to the computer main unit along with the normal data signal via the interface cable, and identify each peripheral device connected by the peripheral device specific function section from the pulse signal of its own time width on the computer main unit side. Therefore, the system can be configured with one interface signal and a simple circuit configuration, the cost can be reduced, and the system can be used for a small-scale peripheral device. Further, even if a new type of peripheral device is added, the interface itself does not need to be changed, and therefore, even if many peripheral devices are connected, there is no shortage of identification lines as in the conventional case.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram showing the relationship between pulse width pulse signals of the peripheral devices of the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Computers 11, 12, ... Peripheral devices 21, 22, ... Interface cable 101 Pulse width identification processing unit 105 Input / output control unit 111 Pulse generator 114 Input / output control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pulse generator having a specific time width assigned to each peripheral device, and each peripheral device having a built-in pulse generator for generating a pulse signal having a predetermined time width assigned to the device, and the peripheral device. An interface for transmitting a pulse signal of a specific time width generated by the pulse generator is provided in a signal transmission function unit between the device and the computer main body, and a transmission function unit of each of the peripheral devices in the computer main body Identify the connected peripheral device by discriminating the pulse signal of the time width peculiar to each peripheral device sent from the interface of the transmission function part of each peripheral device to the transmission function part on the main body side that exchanges signals between An electronic computer system provided with a peripheral device specifying function section.