CN116303200A

CN116303200A - PCIE equipment positioning management method, system, terminal and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN116303200A
Application number: CN202310171989.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王子瑞
Original assignee: Suzhou Inspur Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Suzhou Inspur Intelligent Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-27
Filing date: 2023-02-27
Publication date: 2023-06-23

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of servers, and particularly provides a PCIE equipment positioning management method, a PCIE equipment positioning management system, a PCIE terminal and a storage medium, wherein the PCIE equipment positioning management method comprises the following steps: planning a physical position in a server for PCIE equipment according to the PCIE equipment type, and marking the physical position on the PCIE equipment; installing PCIE equipment at corresponding positions of the server based on the marked physical positions on the PCIE equipment in the server assembly stage; and analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PCIE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position. The invention can position the link position and the physical position of the PCIE equipment without manual checking and analyzing of the server case, thereby greatly facilitating the control, the use and the test of the PCIE equipment.

Description

PCIE equipment positioning management method, system, terminal and storage medium

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of servers, in particular to a PCIE equipment positioning management method, a PCIE equipment positioning management system, a PCIE equipment positioning management terminal and a PCIE storage medium.

Background

PCI-express s (per i pheral component int erconne ct Expre s s) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard. The method belongs to high-speed serial point-to-point dual-channel high-bandwidth transmission, and connected equipment distributes exclusive channel bandwidth and does not share bus bandwidth. PCIE has two existing forms, m.2 interface channel form and PC IE standard slot. PCIE has strong expansibility, and the devices which can be supported are as follows: display card, solid state disk (PCIE interface form), wireless network card, wire network card, sound card, video acquisition card, PC IE switching M.2 interface, PC IE switching USB interface, PCIE switching Tpye-C interface, etc. In general, a server needs to be equipped with various PC IE devices, and the identification and positioning of the PC IE devices are important.

The information viewing of the PC IE device can be generally viewed under a setting page of the BIOS, can be viewed after the server enters an operating system, for example, can be viewed under l inux by using l spc i commands, and can also be viewed through a web page of the BMC. Although the related information of the accessed PC IE device and the wiring position of the corresponding server motherboard can be seen in the s e tup setting page of the BIOS of the server, the web page of the BMC and the command view under the operating system, the actual space position of the PC IE device in the chassis cannot be directly obtained, the silk screen display information of the cable accessed by the device needs to be checked to find the silk screen interface on the corresponding motherboard, and then the specific PCIE device is found.

The searching mode is very inconvenient, particularly when the machine with a very complex internal structure of the machine box is encountered, the viewing difficulty of the screen printing of the main board is greatly increased. It is time consuming and laborious and if a failed PC IE device is encountered it is not possible to quickly find the actual location of the device, which is very inconvenient for both production and the user.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the technical problem that the spatial position of the PC IE equipment in the case cannot be obtained quickly in the prior art, the invention provides a PCIE equipment positioning management method, a PCIE equipment positioning management system, a PCIE equipment positioning management terminal and a PCIE storage medium, so as to solve the technical problem.

In a first aspect, the present invention provides a PCIE device location management method, including:

planning a physical position in a server for PC IE equipment according to the type of the PC IE equipment, and marking the physical position on the PC IE equipment;

installing PCIE equipment at corresponding positions of the server based on the marked physical positions on the PCIE equipment in the server assembly stage;

and analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PCIE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position.

Further, planning a physical location in a server for a PC IE device according to a PCIE device type, and marking the physical location on the PCIE device includes:

planning a physical position for PCIE equipment according to a conventional installation mode of a target model server, and printing the physical position in a two-dimensional code mode;

and pasting the two-dimension code on the surface of the PC IE device.

Further, according to the conventional installation mode of the target model server, planning a physical location for the PC IE device, and printing the physical location in the form of a two-dimensional code, including:

simulating the internal space of the target model server as a coordinate system;

simulating the coordinates of various PC IE devices of a target model server in a conventional installation mode, and printing the coordinates as a two-dimensional code for identifying a physical position;

and storing the mapping relation between the PC IE equipment type and the physical position coordinate as a PCIE position mapping table of the target model server.

Further, installing the PC IE device at a corresponding location of the server based on the physical location marked on the PC IE device during the server assembly phase includes:

scanning a two-dimensional code on PCIE equipment by using a scanning device in the server assembly stage to acquire the physical position of the PCIE equipment;

the PC IE device is installed to the corresponding location of the physical location indication.

Further, in the server operation stage, analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device, and acquiring the physical position for locating the PC IE device based on the correspondence between the device type and the physical position includes:

setting a link position generation mechanism of a server system, and generating a link position for PC IE equipment of an access server based on the link position generation mechanism, wherein the link position comprises a PC IE equipment type;

analyzing the device type from the link position of the target PC IE device, inquiring the corresponding physical position according to the mapping table, and outputting the physical position of the target PCIE device.

Further, the link position generation mechanism includes:

identifying a device type of a PC IE device accessing the server;

the PCIE equipment of the same type generates numbers according to the principle from small to large according to the port number sequence of the PC IE equipment;

and combining the device type and the number into a link position according to a set format.

Further, after constructing the mapping relationship between the link location and the physical location based on the actual PCIE link topology of the server, the method further includes:

capturing PCIE link information of a server after the server is electrified, and obtaining link positions of all PCIE devices of all access servers;

capturing temperature information of all PCIE devices through the BMC, and screening target PCIE devices with abnormal temperature information;

and acquiring the physical position of the target PC IE equipment based on the link position of the target PC IE equipment, and writing the physical position into PCIE equipment alarm information.

In a second aspect, the present invention provides a PCIE device location management system, including:

the position planning unit is used for planning the physical position of the PCIE equipment in the server according to the type of the PC IE equipment and marking the physical position on the PCIE equipment;

the position reading unit is used for installing the PCIE equipment at the corresponding position of the server based on the physical position marked on the PCIE equipment in the server assembling stage;

and the position inquiry unit is used for analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PC IE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position.

Further, the location planning unit specifically performs:

and pasting the two-dimension code on the surface of the PC IE device.

Further, the position reading unit specifically performs:

Further, the location query unit specifically performs:

Further, the link position generation mechanism includes:

identifying a device type of a PC IE device accessing the server;

Further, the system also performs:

In a third aspect, a terminal is provided, including:

a processor, a memory, wherein,

the memory is used for storing a computer program,

the processor is configured to call and run the computer program from the memory, so that the terminal performs the method of the terminal as described above.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium having instructions stored therein which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the above aspects.

The PCIE equipment positioning management method, system, terminal and storage medium provided by the invention have the beneficial effects that the physical positions are planned for various PC IE equipment by analyzing the internal structure of the server, the planned physical positions are recorded, and PCIE equipment is assembled for the server under the guidance of the physical positions, so that the recording and subsequent inquiry of the physical positions of the server are realized.

In addition, the invention has reliable design principle, simple structure and very wide application prospect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings that are required to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method of one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a system of one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solution of the present invention better understood by those skilled in the art, the technical solution of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

The following explains key terms appearing in the present invention.

BMC, execution server remote management controller, english name Bas eboard Management Control l er. is baseboard management controller. The method can perform firmware upgrade, check machine equipment and other operations on the machine in a state that the machine is not started. Fully implementing IPMI functionality in a BMC requires a powerful 16-bit or 32-bit microcontroller and RAM for data storage, flash memory for non-volatile data storage, and firmware to provide basic remote manageability in terms of secure remote reboot, secure re-power-up, LAN alerting, and system health monitoring. In addition to the basic IPMI functions and system operation monitoring functions, the bmc can also enable BI OS flash component selection and protection by storing the previous B I OS with one of the 2 flash memories. For example, when the system fails to boot after a remote B IOS upgrade, the remote administrator may switch back to the previously working BIOS image to boot the system. Once the B IOS is upgraded, the B IOS image can be locked, so as to effectively prevent the virus from invading it.

The B IOS is an acronym of English "Bas i c Input Output Sys t em", and the Chinese name is "basic input output system" after the B IOS is interpreted. On IBM PC compatible systems, is a industry standard firmware interface. The computer is a set of programs solidified on a ROM chip on a main board in the computer, which stores the most important programs of basic input and output, self-checking programs after starting up and system self-starting programs, and can read and write specific information of system settings from CMOS. Its main function is to provide the lowest, most direct hardware setup and control for the computer. In addition, the BIOS also provides some system parameters to the operating system. The system hardware changes are hidden by the B IOS, and the program uses BIOS functionality rather than directly controlling the hardware. Modern operating systems ignore the abstraction layer provided by the B IOS and directly control the hardware components.

PCI-express s (per i pheral component int erconne ct Expre s s) is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard originally named "3GI O", proposed by Intel in 2001, intended to replace the old PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. The PC IE belongs to high-speed serial point-to-point dual-channel high-bandwidth transmission, and connected equipment allocates single-shared channel bandwidth without sharing bus bandwidth and mainly supports functions of active power management, error reporting, end-to-end reliability transmission, hot plug, quality of service (QOS) and the like.

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method of one embodiment of the invention. The execution body of fig. 1 may be a PCIE device location management system.

As shown in fig. 1, the method includes:

step 110, planning a physical position in a server for the PC IE device according to the type of the PC IE device, and marking the physical position on the PCIE device;

step 120, installing the PCIE device at a corresponding location of the server based on the physical location marked on the PC IE device in the server assembly phase;

and 130, analyzing the device type from the link position of the PC IE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PC IE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position.

In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, the PCIE device location management method provided by the present invention is further described below by using the principle of the PCIE device location management method of the present invention, and combining the process of location management for PCIE devices in the embodiment.

Specifically, the PCIE device location management method includes:

s1, planning a physical position of the PC IE equipment in a server according to the type of the PC IE equipment, and marking the physical position on the PCIE equipment.

Simulating the internal space of the target model server as a coordinate system; simulating the coordinates of various PCIE devices of a target model server in a conventional installation mode, and printing the coordinates as a two-dimensional code for identifying a physical position; and storing the mapping relation between the PC IE equipment type and the physical position coordinate as a PCIE position mapping table of the target model server. According to the conventional installation mode of the target model server, planning a physical position for the PC IE equipment, and printing the physical position in a two-dimensional code mode; and pasting the two-dimension code on the surface of the PC IE device.

Specifically, a 3D model of a target model server is built, and PCIE equipment components in the model are in equal proportion to the actual server in size; and constructing a space coordinate system for the 3D model, generating coordinates of each PC IE equipment access port in the space coordinate system, and determining the coordinates as physical positions of the PC IE equipment. And storing the PCIE device types and the corresponding physical positions in a PCIE position mapping table, such as device names xxx, device types xxx, device positions Front X, up Y and Left Z.

Before the server is assembled, the corresponding physical position is obtained according to the type of PCIE equipment, the physical position is printed into a two-dimensional code to be pasted on the PCIE equipment, and the corresponding two-dimensional code is pasted for all PC IE equipment. When the server is assembled, an assembler can scan the PC IE equipment to be installed by using the two-dimension code scanning gun to acquire the physical position of the PC IE equipment, and then the PC IE equipment is installed at the corresponding position of the server.

S2, in the server assembly stage, the PCIE equipment is installed at the corresponding position of the server based on the marked physical position of the PCIE equipment.

Scanning a two-dimensional code on PCIE equipment by using a scanning device in the server assembly stage to acquire the physical position of the PCIE equipment; the PC IE device is installed to the corresponding location of the physical location indication.

Specifically, when the server is assembled, an assembler scans the PC IE equipment to be installed by using a two-dimension code scanning gun, obtains the physical position of the PC IE equipment, and then installs the PC IE equipment at the corresponding position of the server.

S3, analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PC IE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position.

Setting a link position generation mechanism of a server system, and generating a link position for PC IE equipment of an access server based on the link position generation mechanism, wherein the link position comprises PCIE equipment types; analyzing the device type from the link position of the target PCIE device, inquiring the corresponding physical position according to the mapping table, and outputting the physical position of the target PC IE device. The link position generation mechanism comprises: identifying a device type of a PC IE device accessing the server; the PCIE equipment of the same type generates numbers according to the principle from small to large according to the port number sequence of the PC IE equipment; and combining the device type and the number into a link position according to a set format.

For example, the link position allocated by the system to the PC IE device based on the link position generating mechanism is "CPU0_pc IE 1", and if the PCIE device type is CPU, the system searches the physical position of the CPU based on the mapping table to obtain the information "device n: device name xxx, device type xxx, device location Front X, up Y, left Z).

The system can directly display the link position and physical position information of all PCIE devices on a display interface, and can also execute autonomous query.

In addition, the abnormal PC IE device may also be located based on server self-test, including: capturing server PC IE link information after the server is electrified to obtain link positions of all PCIE devices of all access servers; capturing temperature information of all PCIE devices through the BMC, and screening target PCIE devices with abnormal temperature information; and acquiring the physical position of the target PC IE equipment based on the link position of the target PC IE equipment, and writing the physical position into PCIE equipment alarm information.

Specifically, after the server is powered on, the connection link information of the complete server is rapidly analyzed, then temporary storage is carried out from the module of the B IOS, and meanwhile the connection link information is synchronized to the BMC module for storage, and then the whole on-board information condition and the external equipment condition of the currently used server can be obtained through the B IOS module and the BMC module. And quickly clears the link logic of the entire server operation. And caching and analyzing the serial port log of the B IOS, and acquiring related information of external PC IE equipment, equipment type, equipment operation bandwidth, operation bandwidth of a slot where the equipment is located and equipment operation rate. And collecting temperature and actual in-place condition information in an actual running sensor of the external PCIE equipment acquired by the BMC. And carrying out data matching and comprehensive analysis on the acquired PCIE link information, PC IE equipment information and temperature information, detecting the running information of the current server, and judging whether the current server passes a pos t stage (self-checking process). If the machine is down in the pos t stage, specific detection equipment where the printing is down is located in the serial port log of the machine BIOS, and then the theoretical positions scanned by the corresponding machine are compared through the link positions in the serial port log. Such as: the printed position in the serial port is the information of 'CPU 0_PC IE1', and the theoretical position information of the initial planning in the actual link is compared with the information of 'CPU 0_PCIE1'. And judging whether the current downtime abnormality is caused by the carried PCIE equipment or not. If yes, searching the physical position according to the information of the link position, feeding back the actual physical position and the error type of the specific equipment in the case, wherein the presentation form of the physical position is as follows,

device name: xxx, device location: front X, up Y, left Z. Or (b)

Device name: xxx, device location: back X, down Y, right Z.

If not, the non-PC IE device is fed back. The analysis results are then passed to the BMC. And checking under the set path.

If the server passes the pos t stage, the server successfully enters the operating system. The physical position information of all the PC IE devices fed back by the mechanism in the chassis can be checked and monitored in real time by using the set specific command or under the set path.

Feedback examples are as follows:

device n: device name xxx, device type xxx, device location Front X, up Y, left Z.

As shown in fig. 2, the system 200 includes:

a location planning unit 210, configured to plan a physical location in a server for a PC IE device according to a PC IE device type, and mark the physical location on the PCIE device;

a location reading unit 220, configured to install the PC IE device at a corresponding location of the server based on the physical location marked on the PCIE device in the server assembly stage;

the location query unit 230 is configured to parse the device type from the link location of the PCIE device in the server operation stage, and obtain the physical location for locating the PC IE device based on the correspondence between the device type and the physical location.

Alternatively, as an embodiment of the present invention, the location planning unit specifically performs:

and pasting the two-dimension code on the surface of the PC IE device.

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present invention, according to a conventional installation mode of the target model server, planning a physical location for the PC IE device, and printing the physical location in a two-dimensional code form, including:

Alternatively, as an embodiment of the present invention, the position reading unit specifically performs:

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present invention, the location query unit specifically performs:

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present invention, the link location generating mechanism includes:

identifying a device type of a PC IE device accessing the server;

Optionally, as an embodiment of the present invention, the system further performs:

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the terminal 300 may be used to execute the PCIE device location management method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

The terminal 300 may include: a processor 310, a memory 320 and a communication unit 330. The components may communicate via one or more buses, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the configuration of the server as shown in the drawings is not limiting of the invention, as it may be a bus-like structure, a star-like structure, or include more or fewer components than shown, or may be a combination of certain components or a different arrangement of components.

The memory 320 may be used to store instructions for execution by the processor 310, and the memory 320 may be implemented by any type of volatile or non-volatile memory terminal or combination thereof, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), read-only memory (ROM), magnetic memory, flash memory, magnetic disk, or optical disk. The execution of the instructions in memory 320, when executed by processor 310, enables terminal 300 to perform some or all of the steps in the method embodiments described below.

The processor 310 is a control center of the storage terminal, connects various parts of the entire electronic terminal using various interfaces and lines, and performs various functions of the electronic terminal and/or processes data by running or executing software programs and/or modules stored in the memory 320, and invoking data stored in the memory. The processor may be comprised of an integrated circuit (Int egrat e d C i rcu i t, simply referred to as an IC), for example, a single packaged IC, or may be comprised of a plurality of packaged ICs connected to the same function or different functions. For example, the processor 310 may include only a central processing unit (Central Proc e s s i ng Uni t, simply CPU). In the embodiment of the invention, the CPU can be a single operation core or can comprise multiple operation cores.

And a communication unit 330 for establishing a communication channel so that the storage terminal can communicate with other terminals. Receiving user data sent by other terminals or sending the user data to other terminals.

The present invention also provides a computer storage medium in which a program may be stored, which program may include some or all of the steps in the embodiments provided by the present invention when executed. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (random acc e s s memory, RAM), or the like.

Therefore, the invention designs physical positions for various PC IE devices by analyzing the internal structure of the server, records the planned physical positions, assembles the PC IE devices for the server under the guidance of the physical positions, thereby realizing the recording and subsequent inquiry of the physical positions of the server.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the techniques of embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in software plus a necessary general purpose hardware platform. Based on such understanding, the technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium such as a U-disc, a mobile hard disc, a Read-only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (RAM, random Ac ce s s Memory), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, etc. various media capable of storing program codes, including several instructions for causing a computer terminal (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a second terminal, a network terminal, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in the embodiments of the present invention.

The same or similar parts between the various embodiments in this specification are referred to each other. In particular, for the terminal embodiment, since it is substantially similar to the method embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and reference should be made to the description in the method embodiment for relevant points.

In the several embodiments provided by the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the system embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the elements is merely a logical functional division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple elements or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be through some interface, system or unit indirect coupling or communication connection, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit.

Although the present invention has been described in detail by way of preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto. Various equivalent modifications and substitutions may be made in the embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and it is intended that all such modifications and substitutions be within the scope of the present invention/be within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. The PCIE equipment positioning management method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

planning a physical position in a server for PCIE equipment according to the PCIE equipment type, and marking the physical position on the PCIE equipment;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein planning physical locations in a server for PCIE devices according to PCIE device types and marking the physical locations on the PCIE devices comprises:

and pasting the two-dimensional code on the surface of the PCIE device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein planning a physical location for a PCIE device according to a regular installation mode of a target model server and printing the physical location in the form of a two-dimensional code comprises:

simulating the coordinates of various PCIE devices of a target model server in a conventional installation mode, and printing the coordinates as a two-dimensional code for identifying a physical position;

and storing the mapping relation between the PCIE equipment type and the physical position coordinate as a PCIE position mapping table of the target model server.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein installing PCIE devices at respective locations on the server based on the physical locations marked on the PCIE devices at the server assembly stage comprises:

and installing the PCIE equipment to the corresponding position indicated by the physical position.

5. The method of claim 3, resolving a device type from link locations of PCIE devices at a server run phase, obtaining physical locations for locating PCIE devices based on correspondence of device types and physical locations, comprising:

setting a link position generation mechanism of a server system, and generating a link position for PCIE equipment of an access server based on the link position generation mechanism, wherein the link position comprises PCIE equipment types;

analyzing the device type from the link position of the target PCIE device, inquiring the corresponding physical position according to the mapping table, and outputting the physical position of the target PCIE device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the link location generation mechanism comprises:

identifying the equipment type of PCIE equipment accessed to the server;

the PCIE equipment of the same type generates numbers according to the principle from small to large according to the port number sequence of the PCIE equipment access;

7. The method of claim 1, wherein after constructing the mapping relationship of the link location and the physical location based on the actual PCIE link topology of the server, the method further comprises:

and acquiring the physical position of the target PCIE equipment based on the link position of the target PCIE equipment, and writing the physical position into PCIE equipment alarm information.

8. A PCIE device location management system, comprising:

the position planning unit is used for planning the physical position of the PCIE equipment in the server according to the PCIE equipment type and marking the physical position on the PCIE equipment;

and the position query unit is used for analyzing the device type from the link position of the PCIE device in the operation stage of the server, and acquiring the physical position for positioning the PCIE device based on the corresponding relation between the device type and the physical position.

9. A terminal, comprising:

a processor;

a memory for storing execution instructions of the processor;

wherein the processor is configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, which when executed by a processor implements the method of any one of claims 1-7.