JP2560836B2 - Multi-firmware status recognition method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a multi-firmware state recognition method.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, as a method of recognizing the completion of startup of other firmware in a multi-firmware system,
A method of issuing an inquiry signal directly to the partner firmware and knowing the status of the partner firmware from the response,
There is a method in which the main firmware is set and the sub firmware notifies the main firmware when the startup is completed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Among the above-mentioned conventional multi-firmware state recognition methods, the method of directly communicating with the partner firmware,
The communication has to be started after waiting for a sufficient time for the firmware to start up, which has the disadvantage of increasing the time required to start up the system. In addition, with the method in which the sub firmware notifies the main firmware of the completion of startup, the status of the main firmware is not known to the sub firmware, so it is unavoidable that the sub firmware notifies the main firmware before it starts up. There is a drawback that it is not recognized by the main firmware and may cause misrecognition.

[Means for solving the problem]

The multi-firmware status recognition method of the present invention introduces a status display signal, which is activated by a plurality of firmwares at each rising edge, to an input / output port via a wired OR connection, and the input / output port includes all of the firmware. Only when the status display signal becomes active, the active status is displayed, and each of the firmware activates the status display signal at the completion of the start-up of itself, and then reads the status display of the input / output port. Recognize whether or not the firmware has started up.

〔Example〕

 Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
Firmware that has its own CPU and executes its own programs to perform its individual functions 1
3 to 3 are active states indicating that the state display signals indicating whether or not the functions individually possessed can be executed after completion of the respective rising from "1" at the time of power-on to indicate that the respective functions individually possessed can be executed. Set to “0”. Common part 9
Then, connect the status display signals of the firmware 1 to 3 by wired or connect them to one signal line and input / output port 8
Take in. Since the status display signals fetched to the input / output port 8 are fetched by the wired OR connection of the status display signals of the firmware 1 to 3, all the status display signals of the firmware 1 to 3 become active "0". When it is turned on, it becomes active "0" and the signal output from the input / output port 8 to the data bus 10 is turned on.

Each of the firmware 1 to 3 should output the address corresponding to the input / output port 8 which is generally required when the data is taken in from the data bus to the address bus (not shown) after activating the status display signal when it starts up. Thus, by reading the contents of the input / output port 8 from the data bus 10 and checking whether it is on or off, it is possible to recognize whether all the firmware 1 to 3 have been started up.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention takes wired or of the status display signal that becomes active when each firmware starts up, makes all firmware active when the status display signal becomes active, and allows each firmware to read. By storing in the I / O port of the common part, each firmware can read the contents of the I / O port immediately after activating the status display signal at the completion of its own startup, and confirm whether all the other firmware has started up. As a result, the startup time of the entire apparatus can be shortened as compared with the conventional method, and the firmware can be synchronized to ensure the communication between the firmware.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1,2,3, ... Firmware, 8 ... I / O port, 9 ...
… Common part, 10 …… Data bus.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A status display signal that a plurality of firmwares activate at each rising edge is led to an input / output port via a wired OR connection, and the input / output port activates the status display signals of all the firmwares. When all the firmware has started up by reading the status display of the input / output port after activating the status display signal at the completion of its own startup, A multi-firmware state recognition method characterized by recognizing whether or not.