JP2001251383A - Message communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a computer system that exchanges a message with a coupling device through a series of procedures consisting of request transmission, transmission or reception of dividable data, and reply reception, attains high- speed message exchange and makes the best use of a message transmission path by means of subdivisions of the procedures, data division and parallel transfer of data. SOLUTION: The computer system consists of a computer A 110 having one processor 106 or more, a system controller 107 and a main storage device 108, of a computer B 111 having one processor 106 or more, a system controller 107 and a main storage device 108, of communication units 105 and of a channel interconnecting the communication units 105. Each of the communication units has an exclusive device 101 that sends/receives a request and a reply and exclusive units 103 that send/receive only data and the communication units make communication by performing parallel transfer of a request or a reply and data, and parallel transfer of a plurality of data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a computer system for exchanging messages using a communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the conventional message exchange between computers, various performance improvements have been made. Specific examples include techniques for reducing overhead generated between the processor and the communication device, improving the data transfer rate of the communication device, and simultaneously using the communication device by exchanging a plurality of messages.

When a communication device that transfers requests, responses, and data bidirectionally is used, master / slave communication is performed, and when one starts communication, the other returns a response indicating that communication is possible. Is required, and the communication time increases. As one of the solutions, for example, for one message transmission path described in JP-A-6-85877, a plurality of buffers are provided on the transmission side and the reception side, each of which is dedicated to transmission only and reception only. By classifying, it is possible to delete the accompanying protocol required for starting communication and shorten the communication time.

[0004]

However, the communication performance is greatly affected by the request, response, and the length of the data transfer time. In particular, in data, sometimes it is 0, sometimes tens of K
In some cases, the time required for exchanging these messages is large. In the related art, when a plurality of message exchanges occur, the next message cannot be transmitted until the previous message ends. For this reason, there is a problem in that the message exchange with small data attached is delayed by the message exchange with large data for more than the time required for actual message exchange.

[0005]

In order to exchange messages between computers, a line is occupied by transferring a request or response having a relatively small number of transfer bytes and data having a long maximum transfer length using separate lines. Separate into short and long time.

Each message transmission path for exchanging messages has one dedicated line for transmitting and receiving a request and a response and a plurality of lines exclusively for transmitting and receiving a data. The dedicated line for transmitting and receiving a request and a response is dedicated to transmitting and receiving only a request and a response. The apparatus is provided with a dedicated device for data transmission / reception on the dedicated line for data transmission / reception, and these devices operate independently of each other.

The request / response exclusive transmission / reception device has means for reading and transferring data from the storage device, and means for receiving the transferred data and storing the data in the storage device. By providing a plurality of registers for storing storage addresses when storing received data in the storage device, it is possible to simultaneously share the request and response transmission / reception device for a plurality of message exchanges. A dedicated line for sending and receiving requests and responses is occupied only when one message exchange is actually transferring a request or response, and the other line is used when there is no need to use the line when sending or receiving data or creating a response. Can be used in message exchange.

[0008] The data attached in the message exchange is composed of an arbitrary number of data blocks that can be divided and have an arbitrary size. A plurality of data transmission / reception dedicated lines are provided, and each line is provided with a data transmission / reception dedicated device capable of transferring an arbitrary number of data blocks of an arbitrary number, so that data attached to one message exchange can be transmitted to a plurality of lines. Data can be transferred in parallel using a dedicated line for data transmission and reception.

[0009] The request / response transmission / reception exclusive device has means for notifying a connection partner of information indicating which data transmission / reception exclusive line to use for transferring data attached to the message exchange when transmitting / receiving a request.

[0010] The dedicated device for transmitting and receiving a request and a response recognizes which data transmission / reception dedicated line is used for transferring the attached data for each message exchange, and connects the dedicated data transmission / reception device to the data transfer. It has a means to know if it is inside.

The data transmission / reception device and line are occupied from the time when the data transmission / reception device and line are selected to use the data transmission / reception device and line until the transfer of all designated data is completed. The dedicated data transmission / reception device and line can be used in any message exchange, unless occupied by another message exchange.

Also, when the data transmission / reception device is not occupied by another message exchange, it can receive a request to transfer an arbitrary number of data blocks of an arbitrary number. .

A means for providing a counter indicating the number of data transmission / reception dedicated lines which are not occupied, and for selecting the data transmission / reception dedicated line in the fastest way to perform data transfer from the value indicated by the counter and the number of data of attached data. Have.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As shown in FIG. 1, a dedicated line for transmitting and receiving a request and a response (hereinafter referred to as a dedicated line for transmitting and receiving a request / response) 102 and a dedicated line for transmitting and receiving data 104 are provided for one message transmission path. A plurality is provided. In response to the request / response transmission / reception line 102 described above, the transmission side and the reception side each have means 101A and 101B having means for reading and transferring data from the storage device and means for receiving the transferred data and storing the data in the storage device. This device is referred to as a dedicated device for request / response transmission / reception. Hereinafter, the request / response transmission / reception device shown in FIG. 2 will be described. Request address register that holds the address where the request is stored
203A-D, a register holding an address where a response is stored is referred to as a response address register 204A-D, and a register holding a mask indicating a dedicated line for data transmission / reception used for data transfer is referred to as a use data line mask register 205A-D. . The above-described request / response transmission / reception dedicated devices 101A and 101B have an arbitrary number N of buffers 202A-D, and each of the buffers 202A-D has the above-described request address register 203A-D,
It has response address registers 204A-D and use data line mask registers 205A-D. Upon receiving a request for request transmission from the microprogram, the transmission / reception dedicated transmission / reception devices 101A and 101B request data from the request storage area 206A-D indicated by the request address register 203A-D having the buffer number specified in the request. Transfers the number of bytes specified by. The microprogram sets the used bit of the buffer in the main storage area accessible by the microprogram to 1 until a response to the request transmission is received, so that the buffer cannot be used by other messages. I do. Also, a request / response transmission / reception dedicated line busy bit 207 indicating that the dedicated transmission / reception transmission / reception circuit 210 described above is used for request / response transmission / reception is provided on the transmission side and the reception side, respectively. Provides a means to know if is in use. Accordingly, when the transmission / reception dedicated transmission / reception line 210 is not in use, another request transmission using another buffer becomes possible.

The data transmission / reception dedicated line 104, 409A-D
For the data transmission / reception device 10 on the transmission side and the reception side.
3A and 103B are provided, and the data transmission / reception dedicated lines 104 and 409A are provided.
Latches 402A-D for holding busy bits indicating that D is in use, registers 403A-D for holding the transfer direction of transmitting or receiving data, and registers 403A-D for holding the size of data to be transferred 404A-D, register 405A-D holding the size of untransferred data, register 406A-D holding the number of data to be transferred, register 407A-D holding the number of untransferred data, holding the storage address of the data to be transferred The maximum number of data registers 408A-D are as follows. When there is data attached in the message exchange,
Data transmission / reception dedicated devices 401A-D and lines 409A-D used for data transfer are selected and indicated by the used data line mask. The dedicated data transmission / reception devices 401A-D designated by the above-mentioned used data line mask can individually transfer data, and operate as shown in the flowchart of FIG. When performing data transfer using the dedicated data transmission / reception device 401A-D, the microprogram sets the corresponding data line busy bit 402A-D to 1 (step 501), and changes the data size value specified in the request to the data size. After setting the data numerical value in the holding register 404A-D to the register 406A-D holding the number of data (steps 502-503), the data transmitting / receiving device 401A-D is activated (step 504).

Activated data transmission / reception device 401A-
D sets the value of the register 404A-D holding the data size in the register 405A-D holding the remaining data size, and the value of the register 406A-D holding the number of data in the register 407A-D holding the remaining data number (Steps 505-506), the data transmission / reception is enabled, and the data transmission / reception-dedicated device of the connection partner waits for the data transmission / reception-enabled state (Step 507). Data transfer starts when data transmission / reception is enabled. Data transfer is performed by repeatedly transferring data of a certain number of bytes.Each time transfer is performed, the number of transferred data bytes is subtracted from the value of the register 405A-D holding the remaining data size (step 509). When the register 405A-D holding the data size becomes 0, 1 is subtracted from the value of the register 407A-D holding the number of remaining data (step 51).
4) The process is repeated until the values of the registers 405A-D holding the remaining data size and the registers 407A-D holding the number of remaining data both become 0. The data storage location at the time of data transfer is read from the data address registers 408A-D, the value of the registers 405A-D holding the remaining data size becomes 0, and the value of the registers 407A-D holding the number of remaining data is read. Subtract 1 to use data address register 4.
08A-D is performed next (step 51).
6). When both the values of the registers 405A-D holding the remaining data size and the registers 407A-D holding the number of remaining data become 0, the data line busy bits 402A-D are reset to 0 (step 512), and If the bit of the data line in the used data line mask register 205A-D in the buffer is 0
Is reset to (step 513). In addition, an empty data line counter 410 is provided for one message transmission path, which indicates the number of dedicated lines for data transmission and reception in which the data line busy bits 402A-D are not 1. With these, the number of dedicated data transmission / reception lines 409A-D that are not used at the time of data transfer can be known, the available data transmission / reception dedicated lines 409A-D can be freely selected, and the individual data transmission / reception dedicated devices 401A-D can be selected.
It is possible to transfer any number of pieces of data of any size.

Next, the operation of the above-described apparatus when exchanging messages will be described in detail. When the operating system issues a command for executing message exchange, the number of data specified by the command is compared with the free data line counter 410 to confirm whether there is a free line for the data transfer. If the number of lines required for data transfer is not available, another transmission path is selected. If there is no other transmission path, or if the required number of dedicated data transmission / reception lines cannot be secured even on another transmission path, the operation will be described later. When it is confirmed that the required number of lines can be secured by the above-described message exchange command, the in-use bits of the buffer are checked one by one to search for a buffer that is not in use.

For example, a buffer for request / response transmission / reception
Suppose 0 202A is available.

The microprogram obtains a request storage address of buffer 0 and prepares a request in that area. Next, in order to inform the receiving side which data transmission / reception dedicated line is to be used for data transmission, the data line busy bit 402A-
Check D, select an unused data transmission / reception dedicated line, and create a used data line mask. The order of data is ascending order. For example, if data transmission / reception dedicated lines 0, 1, and 3 are used to transfer data having a data size of 1 Kbyte and the number of data is 3, b'1101 'is obtained, and the first 1K Byte data is the data transmission / reception dedicated line 0, 2nd
1K bytes of data are dedicated to data transmission / reception line 1, 3rd 1K
The byte data is transmitted using the data transmission / reception dedicated line 3. The microprogram checks the request / response transmission / reception dedicated line busy bit 207. When the request / response transmission / reception dedicated line becomes available, the microprogram determines a request in which the information of the buffer number, the request address, the used data line mask, and the request size is disabled. Issued to the request / response transmission / reception device. In response to this request, the request / response transmission / reception exclusive device sets the request address described above in the request address register of the designated buffer, sets the used data line mask to the used data line mask register, and sets the used data line mask in the area indicated by the request address. The prepared buffer number 301, used data line mask 302, and data size 30 shown in FIG.
3. A request including the information of the number of data 304, the request size 305, and the request type 306 is transmitted.

The receiving side sets the storage addresses of the requests in the request address registers 203A-D of all the buffers in advance, and keeps the transmitted requests always receivable. Request / response transmission / reception dedicated line in use bit 20
7 is set to 1 at the start of the request transmission, and is reset to 0 when the specified number of bytes have been transmitted. The receiving side that has received the request stores the request in the area indicated by the request address register 206A of the buffer indicated by the buffer number 301 in the request, and sets the used data line mask 302 in the used data line mask register 205A. Next, the data transmission / reception dedicated device 401A-
After setting the data line busy bits 402A-D to 1 in D, the registers 403A-D indicating the transfer direction are set based on the received request type 306, and the data line mask 302,
A register 404A-D that holds the data size based on the data size 303 and the number of data 304, a register 406A-D that holds the number of data, and a data address register 408A-D are set.
Data transmission / reception is enabled. On the transmitting side, the data line busy bit 402A-D and the register 4 indicating the transfer direction are also used.
When the setting of 03A-D, the register 404A-D for holding the data size, the register 406A-D for holding the number of data, and the data address register 408A-D are completed, the data transfer starts when both are ready for data transmission and reception. . When the receiving data line mask registers 205A-D all become 0, the receiving side becomes ready to transmit a response, prepares a response, confirms that the request / response transmission / reception line busy bit 207 is not 1, and responds with the response storage address. The address is set in the address registers 204A-D, and response transmission is started.

Next, a description will be given of a case where the required number of data transmission / reception dedicated lines cannot be secured in performing data transfer. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when there are four data transmission / reception dedicated lines, a request 701 is transmitted first using buffer 0, and data 707 is transferred using data transmission / reception dedicated line 0. The message exchange is performed by transferring data 709-715 having a data size of 1 Kbyte and a data number of 7. At this time, the first thing to do is try to see if the same data can be transferred on another transmission path, but if the required number of lines cannot be secured on other transmission paths,
Next, a value obtained by doubling the value of the free data line counter 410 is compared with the number of transfer data. Even so, the number of lines is less than the required number, so another attempt is made on another transmission path. Try this operation three times and four times in order until the required number of lines can be secured,
Or until the maximum number of data that can be specified by the instruction is reached. In this case, the required number of lines can be secured when the available data line counter 410 is tripled, so the data transfer follows the rule of using the lines in ascending order, and specifies a data size of 1 Kbyte and a data number of 3 for the dedicated device 1 for data transmission and reception. And the first, second, and third data 709
Transfer -711, specify the data size 1Kbyte and the number of data 3 to the data transmission / reception device 2, and transfer the fourth, fifth, and sixth data 712-714 on the data transmission / reception line 2, and use it exclusively for data transmission / reception. The data size 1 Kbyte and the number of data 1 are designated for the device 3, and the seventh data 715 is transferred by the data transmission / reception dedicated line 3.

In FIG. 7 for explaining the present embodiment, four dedicated data transmission / reception devices 103A and 103B and a dedicated data transmission / reception line 104
Although the communication apparatus having the request / response transmission / reception exclusive devices 101A and 101B which can be shared by two message exchanges is shown, in the present invention, the request / response transmission / reception exclusive devices 101A and 101B have an arbitrary number N of buffers. Since the data transmission / reception devices 103A and 103B and the line 104 have the maximum number of data that can be specified by an instruction, they can be shared for N message exchanges.

[0023]

Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, when a line is occupied by message exchange, the occupation time greatly changes depending on the size of attached data between the transmission of a request and the reception of a response.

However, according to the present invention as described above,
Requests and responses with a short transfer time are sent and received on a shared line, and data with a large transfer amount is transferred in parallel with multiple lines, so that multiple messages can be exchanged when one message transmission path is shared. Waiting time can be reduced. This solves the problem that one message is delayed by message exchange having large data, and all message exchanges can be performed smoothly. In addition, by making it possible to set an arbitrary number of transfer data size and number of transfer data for the data transmission / reception device, a plurality of unused data transmission / reception lines which are not used can be used without waste.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system configuration using the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an apparatus provided for a device dedicated to transmission and reception of a request and a response of the present invention to be shared for a plurality of message exchanges.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a request for notifying information necessary for message exchange when the present invention is provided on a transmitting side and a receiving side.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a data transmission / reception device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the data transmission / reception device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing message exchange in a conventional method.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101A, 101B: Request / response transmission / reception device, 102: Request / response
Dedicated response transmission / reception line, 103A, 103B: Data transmission / reception dedicated device, 104: Data transmission / reception dedicated line, 105A-F: Communication device,
110: Computer A, 111: Computer B, 202A-D: Buffer, 203
A-D: Request address register, 204A-D: Response address register, 205A-D: Used data line mask register, 2
06A-D: Request storage area, 207: Request / response transmission / reception dedicated line busy bit, 208: Request, 209: Response, 210: Request / response transmission / reception dedicated line, 301: Buffer number, 302: Used data line mask, 303 ... data size, 304 ... number of data, 305 ... request size, 306 ... request type, 401A-D: dedicated device for data transmission and reception, 402A-D: data line busy bit, 403A-D: register for holding data transfer direction, 404
A-D: Register holding data size, 405A-D: Register holding remaining data size, 406A-D: Register holding data number, 407A-D: Register holding remaining data number, 408A-D ... Data address register, 409
A-D: data transmission / reception dedicated line, 410: free data line counter, 411A-D: data storage area.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A message exchange is performed between computers as a series of procedures of request transmission, transmission or reception of data which can be divided, and response reception, and parallel processing of a plurality of message exchanges and data attached to each message exchange. A computer system that performs high-speed message exchange and maximum utilization of a message transmission path connecting computers by performing division and parallel transfer. 2. The communication system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of dedicated devices for transmitting and receiving requests and responses and a plurality of dedicated devices for performing only data transmission and reception. 3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein
A register for holding an address from which data is read, means for reading and transmitting data from the main storage area indicated by the register, a register for holding an address for storing data, and storing received data in the main storage area indicated by the register An apparatus for exclusively transmitting and receiving a request and a response, wherein the apparatus has a plurality of apparatuses having means for performing the above operations and can be shared by a plurality of message exchanges. 4. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein
A device for exclusively transmitting and receiving a request and a response having means for notifying a connection partner of a dedicated device for performing only data transmission and reception selected for use in data transfer when data attached to the message exchange exists. 5. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein
A device for exclusively transmitting and receiving a request and a response having means for knowing whether or not all the dedicated devices used only for data transmission and reception used in the data transfer have completed transfer when there is data attached in the message exchange. 6. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein
When there is data attached to the message exchange, it has a register that holds the size of the data and a register that holds the number of data, sets an arbitrary numerical value to them, and accepts a start request to increase the size of the data. Means for transferring the data of the size indicated by the register holding the number of data by the number indicated by the register holding the number of data, does not accept another activation request during the transfer, and immediately transmits another request when the transfer is completed. A dedicated device that only sends and receives data that can be activated by 7. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein
For data transmission / reception attached to the message exchange, only the data transmission / reception that has a register that holds the data size and a register that holds the number of data that can set a value can be set only when it is in a startable state. Dedicated equipment to perform. 8. The number of dedicated devices that constantly monitor all the dedicated devices that perform only data transmission and reception according to claim 6 and perform only the data transmission and reception in a state that can be activated for data exchange of message exchange. A device for transmitting and receiving a request and a response exclusively for having a register for holding a request. 9. A dedicated device that performs only individual data transmission and reception based on a value of a register that holds the number of dedicated devices that perform only the data transmission and reception in a state that can be activated for data exchange of message exchange according to claim 8. Method to determine the number of data to be transferred to