JP2005204081A - Interface bridge apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for returning a result at high speed not only when the result of an instruction issued from one implement is erroneous but with respect to the succeeding instruction of one implement concerning an interface bridge apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: While the instruction B1(19) obtained by converting the instruction A1(18) from the electric implement A is issued to the electric implement B, table retrieval is performed with the instruction A1 as a key so as to acquire a prediction instruction A2 which is supposed to be issued from the electric implement A next time. When the result B1(20) of the issued instruction B1(19) and the prediction instruction A2 are acquired, a bridge issues the instruction B2(22) which is obtained by converting the prediction instruction A2, to the electric implement B. At the same time, a result A1(21) obtained by converting the result B1 is transmitted to the electric implement A. When the instruction A2(23) subsequently coincides with the prediction instruction A2, the result A2(25) obtained by converting the result B2(24) is returned to the electric implement A at high speed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an interface bridge device used when connecting a plurality of electric devices each having a unique interface.

As a conventional interface bridge device, for example, there is an interface bridge device described in Patent Document 1 below. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a flow of instruction processing of the interface bridge device described in Patent Document 1. In the interface bridge device of FIG. 1, the bridge issues an instruction C1 (1) from Channel as an instruction D1 (2) to the IO device. Therefore, when a result D1 (3) indicating an error is returned from the IO device, the bridge device issues a sense information acquisition command D2 (4) to the IO device before returning the error to the channel, and the result D2 (5). Get. After that, when the bridge returns an error as a result C1 (6) to Channel, Channel that knows the error issues a sense information acquisition instruction C2 (7). Since the bridge that has received this has already acquired the sense information, it can immediately return the sense information to the channel as the result C2 (8), so when viewed from the channel, the result C2 for the instruction C2 is returned at high speed. It has been.
JP-A-10-91567 JP-A-2-56041

  However, in the conventional interface bridge device, since the command that can return a result at high speed is limited to the sense information acquisition command, the speed of the bridge device is limited.

  Similarly, in the conventional interface bridge device, the result C1 (6) of the instruction C1 (1) is returned to the channel after the instruction D2 (4) is issued to the IO device and the result (5) is obtained. Therefore, the process D (9) of the IO device and the process C (10) of the channel are not executed in parallel but are executed sequentially, and this also causes the degree of speedup by the bridge device to be limited. It has become.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a higher-speed interface bridge device that solves the above problems.

To solve the above problems,
The invention according to claim 1 of the present patent application is
Means for receiving an instruction from the electric device A according to the interface with the electric device A, means for converting the instruction into an instruction to the electric device B according to the interface with the electric device B, and an interface with the electric device B Means for transmitting an instruction to the electric device B according to the above, means for receiving the result of the instruction from the electric device B following the interface with the electric device B, and the interface with the electric device A. Means for converting the result of the command from the electric device A according to the above, means for transmitting the result of the command to the electric device A according to the interface with the electric device A, and a command from the electric device A Means for storing the correspondence of the predicted command from the next electrical device A in a table, the predicted command from the electrical device A and the actual electrical device A Consists means for comparing the instruction, the results from the electrical device B to the electrical device A from the electrical equipment A to the instruction to the electric apparatus B was characterized in that it can be returned to the high speed, an interface bridge device.

The invention according to claim 2 of the present patent application is
The interface bridge device according to claim 1, wherein an instruction from the electric device A and a predicted instruction sequence from the next electric device A are stored in the table.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present patent application is
The interface device according to claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of tables for a plurality of electrical devices A.

The invention according to claim 4 of the present patent application is
The interface bridge device according to claim 1, wherein the contents of the table are rewritable.

The invention according to claim 5 of the present patent application is
The interface bridge device according to claim 4, wherein the contents of the table are acquired from the electric device A.

The invention according to claim 6 of the present patent application is
5. The interface bridge device according to claim 4, wherein the contents of the table are updated at any time based on an actual instruction sequence from the electric device A.

The invention described in claim 7 according to the present patent application is
5. The interface bridge device according to claim 4, wherein the contents of the table are first acquired from the electric device A and then updated as needed based on an actual instruction sequence from the electric device A.

The invention described in claim 8 according to the present patent application is
2. The interface bridge device according to claim 1, wherein the table stores an instruction from the electric device A and a result of an instruction predicted to be returned to the corresponding electric device A.

The invention according to claim 9 of the present patent application is
The interface bridge device according to claim 8, wherein there are a plurality of tables for a plurality of electrical devices B.

The invention according to claim 10 of the present patent application is
9. The interface bridge device according to claim 8, wherein the contents of the table are rewritable.

The invention described in claim 11 according to the present patent application is
The interface bridge device according to claim 10, wherein the contents of the table are acquired from the electric device B.

The invention according to claim 12 of the present patent application is
11. The interface bridge device according to claim 10, wherein the contents of the table are updated at any time based on a command from the electric device A or an actual result from the electric device B.

The invention according to claim 13 of the present patent application is
11. The interface bridge device according to claim 10, wherein the contents of the table are first obtained from the electric device B and then updated as needed based on a command from the electric device A or an actual result from the electric device B.

  According to the interface bridge device of the present invention, the number of instructions that can return a result at a high speed is not limited to the sense information acquisition command, but increases to the number of records in the table in the bridge device. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the time from issuing the instruction to obtaining the result is shortened.

  Further, the process D (9) and the process C (10), which have been problems in the past, are also executed in parallel, so that the entire system can be operated at higher speed.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration of interface bridge device>
FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the interface bridge device according to the embodiment of the present invention. This interface bridge device includes an instruction receiving unit 11, an instruction converting unit 12, an instruction transmitting unit 13, a result receiving unit 14, a result converting unit 15, a result transmitting unit 16, a table unit and a comparing unit 17. Prepare. The command receiving unit 11 receives a command from the electric device A along the interface with the electric device A. The command conversion unit 12 converts the command received by the command receiving unit 11 into a command to the electric device B that follows the interface with the electric device B. The command transmission unit 13 transmits a command to the electric device B that follows the interface with the electric device B to the electric device B. The result receiving unit 14 receives the result of the command from the electric device B that follows the interface with the electric device B. The result converting unit 15 converts the result received by the result receiving unit 14 into the result of the command from the electric device A that has taken the interface with the electric device A. The result transmission unit 16 transmits the result of the command to the electric device A that follows the interface with the electric device A to the electric device A. The table unit and comparison unit 17 stores the correspondence between the instruction from the electric device A and the predicted instruction from the next electric device A as a table. In addition, the table unit and the comparison unit 17 compare the predicted instruction from the electric device A with the actual instruction from the electric device A.

<Example of instruction processing flow 1>
An example of the flow of instruction processing of the interface bridge device shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. In this example, the bridge receives the command A1 (18) from the electric device A by the command receiving unit 11, converts the command by the command conversion unit 12, and sends the command B1 (19) to the electric device B by the command transmission unit 13. And the result receiving unit 14 receives the result B1 (20). On the other hand, the table unit 17 performs a table search using the instruction A1 (18) as a key, and then obtains an expected instruction A2 that is expected to be received from the electrical device A. When the result B1 and the predicted instruction A2 are obtained, the bridge converts the predicted instruction A2 to the electric device B by the instruction conversion unit 12, and issues the instruction B2 (22) by the instruction transmission unit 13. At the same time, the bridge converts the result B1 to the electric device A by the result conversion unit 15 and transmits the result A1 (21) by the result transmission unit 16.

  Thereafter, the electric device A processes the result A1 and issues an instruction A2 (23) to the bridge, and the bridge receives the instruction by the instruction receiving unit 11. The electric device B processes the command B2 and transmits the result B2 (24) to the bridge, and the bridge receives the result by the result receiving unit 14. The bridge compares the received command A2 and the predicted command A2 by the comparison unit 17 when both are in place. If the comparison results match, the bridge converts the result B2 by the result conversion unit 15 and transmits the result A2 (25) to the electric device A by the result transmission unit 16. If the comparison results do not match, the bridge discards the result B2 and processes the instruction A2 normally.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the instruction that can return a result at high speed is not limited to the sense information acquisition instruction, and the process A (26) and the process B (27) are performed simultaneously. High-speed operation can be realized as a whole system.

<Example 2 of instruction processing flow>
FIG. 4 shows another example of the instruction processing flow of the interface bridge device shown in FIG. In this example, the following commands A2 and A3 are held with respect to the command A1 from the electric device A in the table of the interface bridge device in the above-described example 1. In this way, it is possible to further speed up the instruction processing by storing the next expected instruction sequence from the electric device A with respect to the instruction from the electric device A in the table.

<Modification 1>
A plurality of the above-described tables may be prepared for a plurality of electrical devices A. As a result, when a plurality of electrical devices A are connected at the same time or when the bridge and the electrical device B are connected to the plurality of electrical devices A with the power on, the table contents for each electrical device A are retained. It becomes possible to refer to the optimum table for each of the plurality of electric devices A, and it is possible to operate at high speed.

<Modification 2>
The above table may be rewritable. For example, when the system starts up the table contents, or when the electric device A issues a command to set the table contents to the bridge, the bridge acquires the table contents from the electric device A and sets them. As a result, the contents of the table can be set as desired by the electric device A that issues an instruction to the bridge, and the possibility of comparing and matching predicted instructions increases.

  The contents of this table can be changed dynamically by the bridge monitoring the instructions from the electric device A and learning the instruction sequence. As a result, as described above, the possibility of comparison coincidence of prediction instructions increases.

  The above table rewriting methods may be combined.

<Example 3 of instruction processing flow>
Another example of the instruction processing flow of the interface bridge device shown in FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. In this example, the bridge receives the command A1 (28) from the electric device A by the command receiving unit 11, converts the command by the command conversion unit 12, and sends the command B1 (29) to the electric device B by the command transmission unit 13. Send. On the other hand, the table unit 17 performs a table search using the instruction A1 (28) as a key, obtains an expected result A1 that is expected to be returned to the electrical device A, and then obtains the predicted result A1 (30) by the result transmission unit 16 Transmit to device A.

  Thereafter, the electrical device A processes the result A1 and issues an instruction A2 (32) to the bridge, and the bridge receives the instruction by the instruction receiving unit 11. The electric device B processes the command B1 and transmits the result B1 (31) to the bridge, and the bridge receives the result by the result receiving unit 14. In the bridge, the result conversion unit 15 converts the result B1 to obtain the result A1. The bridge compares the converted result A1 and the predicted result A1 by the comparison unit 17 when both are obtained. If the comparison results match, the bridge continues normal operation, the command conversion unit 12 converts the command A2 to obtain the command B2, the command transmission unit 13 transmits the command B2 (33), and the result reception unit 14 The result B2 (34) is received, the result B2 is converted by the result conversion unit 15 to obtain the result A2, and the result A2 (35) is transmitted by the result transmission unit 16. If the comparison results do not match, the bridge transmits an error to the electric device A2.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the instruction that can return the result at high speed is not limited to the sense information acquisition instruction, and the process A (36) and the process B (37) are performed at the same time. The system as a whole can be operated at high speed.

<Modification 3>
A plurality of tables shown in Example 3 above may be prepared for a plurality of electrical devices B. As a result, when a plurality of electrical devices B are connected at the same time or when the bridge and the electrical device A are connected to the plurality of electrical devices B with the power on, the table contents for each electrical device B are retained. It becomes possible to refer to the optimum table for each of the plurality of electric devices B in the previous period, and it is possible to operate at high speed.

<Modification 4>
The table shown in Example 3 above may be rewritable. For example, the contents of the table are acquired by the bridge from the electric device B when the system is started, and set. As a result, the contents of the table can be set as desired by the electric device B that transmits the command result to the bridge, and the possibility of comparison coincidence of the prediction results increases.

  The contents of this table can be dynamically changed by the bridge monitoring the instruction from the electric device A or the result from the electric device B and learning the instruction or result. As a result, as described above, the possibility of comparison coincidence of prediction instructions increases.

  The above table rewriting methods may be combined.

  The interface bridge device according to the present invention efficiently processes a command from one side and a result from the other in a computer system in which an interface between a peripheral device and a device controlling the peripheral device such as a personal computer and a storage device is different. And its industrial applicability is very wide and large.

It is a figure which shows the flow of the command processing in the conventional interface bridge device. It is a figure which shows the structure of the interface bridge apparatus by embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the flow of the command processing of the interface bridge apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the flow of the command processing of the interface bridge apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the flow of the command processing of the interface bridge apparatus shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

11 Command receiving unit 12 Command converting unit 13 Command transmitting unit 14 Result receiving unit 15 Result converting unit 16 Result transmitting unit 17 Table unit and comparison unit

Claims (13)

Means (a) for receiving a command from the first electrical device along the interface with the first electrical device;
Means (b) for converting the instruction received by the means (a) into an instruction to the second electrical device according to an interface with the second electrical device;
Means (c) for transmitting a command to the second electrical device in accordance with the interface with the second electrical device to the second electrical device;
Means (d) for receiving a result of a command from the second electrical device along an interface with the second electrical device;
Means (e) for converting the command received by said means (d) into a result of a command from said first electrical device along an interface with said first electrical device;
Means (f) for transmitting a result of a command to the first electric device along the interface with the first electric device to the first electric device;
Means (g) for storing a correspondence between a command from the first electrical device and a predicted command from the next first electrical device as a table;
Means (h) for comparing the predicted instruction from the first electric device with the actual instruction from the first electric device;
An interface bridge device. In claim 1,
Storing a command sequence from the first electrical device and a predicted sequence of commands from the next first electrical device in the table;
An interface bridge device. In claim 1,
A plurality of the tables for a plurality of the first electrical devices;
An interface bridge device. In claim 1,
The contents of the table are rewritable;
An interface bridge device. In claim 4,
Obtaining the contents of the table from the first electrical device;
An interface bridge device. In claim 4,
Updating the contents of the table as needed based on the actual instruction sequence from the first electrical device;
An interface bridge device. In claim 4,
The contents of the table are first obtained from the first electrical device, and then updated as needed based on the actual instruction sequence from the first electrical device.
An interface bridge device. In claim 1,
Storing a command from the first electrical device and a result of a command predicted to be returned to the first electrical device corresponding to the command in the table;
An interface bridge device. In claim 8,
A plurality of the tables for a plurality of the second electrical devices;
An interface bridge device. In claim 8,
The contents of the table are rewritable;
An interface bridge device. In claim 10,
Obtaining the contents of the table from the second electrical device;
An interface bridge device. In claim 10,
Updating the contents of the table as needed based on instructions from the first electrical device or actual results from the second electrical device;
An interface bridge device. In claim 10,
The contents of the table are first obtained from the second electrical device, and then updated as needed based on instructions from the first electrical device or actual results from the second electrical device,
An interface bridge device.

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