JP2673048B2 - Timeout monitoring processor - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a timeout monitoring process.
The present invention relates to a device , and more particularly, to a timeout monitoring processing device in a SCSI-compliant data processing device.

In a data processing device such as a computer processing system, generally, it is monitored whether or not a certain operation is completed within a predetermined time (whether a timeout has occurred). If the operation has not ended even after the time has elapsed, for example, a predetermined interrupt is generated and a predetermined process is performed.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional SCSI (Small Computer).
A timeout monitoring processing unit in a data processing unit conforming to (adopting) the System Interface is shown. In such a data processing device, a device such as an input / output device (SCS) connected to the processing device 1 via its SCSI control unit 5 is used.
The timeout detection for the I device (hereinafter, simply referred to as the device) 10A, 10B is performed by monitoring the time for starting the device. Since there are various differences between the devices 10A and 10B and the execution commands, the time monitoring is actually performed by the devices 10A and 1B.
The device control units 3A and 3B corresponding to each of the devices 10A and 10B and executing the control do not perform the SCSI control unit 5 that executes the SCSI protocol with 0B.

For example, the user program 2A activates the device control section 3A by a certain command and requests the device 10A to execute a certain operation (process). In response to this, the device control unit 3A causes the SCSI control unit 5 to operate the device 10A.
Is controlled to execute the operation and monitor the time. In this time monitoring, the monitoring is performed from the start by the command to the end of the operation (the signal is received).

[0005]

FIG. 5 shows the problems of the prior art. In FIG. 5, a to g represent time, and b = f and c = g. Further, the time a to the time b is referred to as time ab.

As for the device 10A, at time a, the device 10A is activated and started to operate, and time monitoring is also started. However, at time b, the operation may be temporarily suspended due to the circumstances of the device 10A. In this case, the operation is restarted at the time when it becomes feasible, that is, at time c, and then ends at time d. Therefore, no actual operation is performed at time bc. However, since the target of time monitoring is from the start to the end as described above, this operation requires time ad. That is,
Since the device control unit 3A is not actually executing the SCSI protocol with the device 10A, it cannot know the interruption of the operation.
For this reason, the time bc when it is not actually operating is included in the monitoring time, and it is not possible to perform appropriate time monitoring (obtain a correct monitoring time).

As for the apparatus 10B, at time e, the apparatus is started and the time monitoring is also started. However, since the device 10A has started to operate at this point,
Device 10B cannot start operation. That is, since the SCSI control unit 5 and the bus are used by the device control unit 3A for the operation of the device 10A, the device control unit 10B cannot use them. After that, when the operation of the device 10A is interrupted at time f (= b), the SCSI control unit 5
Performs processing according to the request of the device control unit 3B. That is, the operation of the device 10B is started, and then the time g (=
The procedure ends in c) (the operation of the device 10A can be restarted). As a result, this operation requires the time eg, and the monitoring time includes the time ef that is activated but not operating, so it cannot be said that appropriate time monitoring is being performed.

The above problems occur not only in the data processing device complying with SCSI, but also in various data processing devices having a similar configuration.

An object of the present invention is to provide a time-out monitoring processing device capable of performing an appropriate time monitoring in consideration of the operating state of the device .

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention, and shows a data processing apparatus according to the present invention. This data processing device includes a processing device 1 connected to each other via a single bus, and a device 10A such as a plurality of input / output devices.
It consists of 10B. The processing device 1 is composed of a CPU (central processing unit) and a memory, and has a plurality of user programs 2
A, 2B, a plurality of device control sections 3A, 3B and an interface control means 5. The device control units 3A and 3B respectively correspond to the devices 10A and 10B, and the user program 2
A device 10A corresponding to the case of being activated from A or 2B,
10B is controlled to perform a predetermined operation (process). The interface control means 5 includes a processing device 1 and a plurality of devices 10.
It controls the interface between A and 10B.

The interface control means 5 is provided with an operation monitoring section 7, a timer calculation section 8 and a timer setting section 9. The timer setting unit 9 has a timer and sets its value. The operation monitoring unit 7 monitors the operation state of each of the devices 10A and 10B. Based on the result of this monitoring, the timer calculation unit 8 obtains the value of the timer, and this is calculated by the timer setting unit 9
To set as the timer value.

[0012]

The time monitoring for time-out detection is performed by the interface control means 5, not by the device control units 3A and 3B. For this reason, the timer calculation unit 8 is configured to, based on the result of the monitoring, the device 10A corresponding to the device control unit 3A, 3B activated from the user program 2A or 3A,
When 10B is started and not operating, the timer setting unit 9 is caused to set the timer value to a predetermined value.
For example, the timer is stopped only during the period when it is started but not operating.

As a result, the time monitoring according to the present invention is performed as shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is contrasted with FIG. 5, and shows time monitoring for the same case as in FIG. Regarding the device 10A, the timer is stopped only during the time bc when the operation is interrupted due to the circumstances of the device 10A. That is, the progress of the monitoring time is stopped and the time bc is removed from the monitoring time. Similarly, regarding the device 10B, the timer is stopped only during the time ef in which the operation cannot be started even if the device 10B is started. In addition, "the operation is interrupted"
Corresponds to the device connect notification from the device 10A, for example.
The device 10A executes the input / output operation.
In the process, it became unnecessary to connect with the SCSI bus.
Operation to connect the I / O operation being executed
doing. This operation enables effective use of the SCSI bus.
It enables simultaneous operation of scales and devices.

According to the above, since the time required for each operation in the devices 10A and 10B is the time when each device 10A, 10B was actually operating, it is possible to appropriately monitor the time.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIG. 1, a processing unit 1 comprises a cpu (central processing unit) and a memory. On this memory, there are user programs 2A and 2B, a device control program that constitutes the device control units 3A and 3B, and a SCSI control program that constitutes a SCSI control unit that is the interface control means 5.

User (application) program 2
A and 2B send a predetermined command to the desired device controller 3A,
It is issued to 3B and activated, and a predetermined operation (processing) is requested. For example, when the device 10A is an input / output device,
The user program 2A issues an input / output command to the device control unit 3A and requests an input / output operation.

When activated by a certain command, the device control sections 3A, 3B set the timer value corresponding to the command, that is, the operation executed by the command, in the registers 4A and 4B. Registers 4A, 4B
Is, for example, a register of the cpu or a predetermined area of the memory. The timer value defines the time when the operation should finish executing.

Since the data processing apparatus of this embodiment complies with SCSI, the interface control means 5 is configured as a SCSI control unit (hereinafter, SCSI control unit 5). SCS
The I control unit 5 executes the SCSI protocol to transmit / receive data to / from the devices 10A and 10B, and controls one bus to which the plurality of devices 10A and 10B are connected. Thus, in the data processing device complying with SCSI,
A plurality of devices 10A and 10B are connected to one bus, and, for example, while one device 10A is operating using the bus, the other device 10B cannot use the bus. Since the device control units 3A and 3B comply with SCSI, S
Although the devices 10A and 10B are controlled via the CSI controller 5, for example, while one device controller 3A controls the device 10A, the other device controller 3B cannot control the device 10B.

The SCSI controller 5 has a timer receiver 6. The timer receiving unit 6 includes the activated device control unit 3A,
3B causes the timer values A, B in its registers 4A, 4B to be set upon its activation. This timer value is
It is sent to the timer calculator 8. The timer calculation unit 8 is the device 1 that should perform the operation corresponding to the received timer values A and B.
The operation monitoring unit 7 is requested to monitor whether 0A and 10B are actually operating. The operation monitoring unit 7 includes each device 10
For A and 10B, the operation is monitored from the start to the end, and the result is notified to the timer calculation unit 8. For this reason, for example, the operation monitoring unit 7 has a control line different from the bus between each of the devices 10A and 10B.

For example, when the device 10A is actually operating, the timer calculation unit 8 which has received the notification to this effect sends the corresponding timer value A to the timer setting unit 9 to instruct the start of the timer. On the other hand, when the device 10A is not operating and there is no other process waiting, the timer calculation unit 8 which has received the notification to this effect from the operation monitoring unit 7 causes the timer setting unit 9 to stop the timer, for example. Give instructions. After stopping this timer,
The timer calculation unit 8 which receives the notification of the operation restart from the operation monitoring unit 7 instructs the timer setting unit 9 to restart the timer.

The timer setting unit 9 sets the timer value received from the timer calculation unit 8 in the timer and also starts the timer in response to an instruction such as start.

In this method, the monitoring time (timer value) is set to an appropriate value by stopping the timer only while the apparatus 10A is not operating, but it is not operating. You may make it advance a timer also during a period and add it to a timer only for the time corresponding to this period. That is, based on the notification from the operation monitoring unit 7, the timer calculation unit 8 obtains the time, and instructs the timer setting unit 9 to add this time to the timer when the timer is restarted. As a result, the time when the operation should be ended is extended by the time that should not be included in the monitoring time, and the two can be offset to obtain the correct timer value.

FIG. 3 is a time-out monitoring processing flow. In step 1, for example, the user program 2
The device control unit 3A is activated by A and requests the SCSI control unit 5 to perform processing for controlling the device 10A. As a result, the operation monitoring unit 7 starts monitoring the device 10A, the timer value A of the register 4A is sent to the timer receiving unit 6, and the timer value of the timer setting unit 9 is set via the timer calculation unit 8. In step 2, the SCSI control unit 5 checks whether or not it is performing another process. If another process is in progress, the process request from the activated device control unit 3A is connected to the process waiting queue, and step 2 is repeated. If no other processing is being performed, it is further checked in step 3 whether or not the processing request is waiting for restart. When waiting for restart, stop the timer waiting for restart. If it is not waiting for resumption, step 4 is not executed.

In step 5, for example, device 10A
The process in is started. In step 6, the timer calculation unit 8 which has been notified of the start of this processing by the notification from the operation monitoring unit 7
Instructs the timer setting section 9 to start the timer, and the timer starts. Then, in step 7, for example, the process in the device 10A is being executed. During this time, the process in the other device 10B cannot be executed.

After that, when the processing in the apparatus 10A is stopped,
The SCSI control unit 5 checks in step 8 whether or not the process is stopped due to the end of the process to be executed. In the case of ending, in step 9, a predetermined ending process (for example, stop of the timer, end notification to the device control unit 3A) is executed. If it does not depend on the end (for example, due to the convenience of the apparatus 10A), in step 10,
It is determined that the processing is interrupted. In this case, further, step 11
At, the SCSI control unit 5 checks whether or not there is another processing request connected to the queue for processing. If there is, the timer calculation unit 8 instructs the timer setting unit 9 to stop the timer in step 12, and the timer stops.
If not, step 12 is not executed. That is, if there is a request to wait for processing, the free time of the bus due to interruption of processing can be used for other processing, and there is no dead time as a whole, so the timer may be stopped. In step 13, the interrupted processing request is queued for processing,
Waiting for resumption.

After a lapse of a certain time, in step 14, the device 10A notifies the SCSI controller 5 of the restart of the previously interrupted processing request, and the processing is restarted. In step 15, the timer calculator 8 which has learned from the operation monitor 7 that the process has been restarted checks in step 12 whether the timer has been stopped. If it is stopped, in step 16, the timer calculation unit 8 instructs the timer setting unit 9 to restart the timer, and the timer is restarted. If it is not stopped, step 16 is not executed. Then, step 7 and subsequent steps are executed.

Applying the above processing to the case of FIG. 2,
It becomes as follows. When the device control unit 3A is activated at time a, the device 10A is in operation by executing steps 1 to 7. In this state, when the device control unit 3B is activated at time e, step 1 and step 2 are executed, and the process waits. At this time, the timer for device 10B has not started because step 6 is not executed.

When the device 10A is interrupted at time b = f, steps 10 to 13 are executed. That is, since there is a process waiting, step 12 is executed and the timer for the device 10A is stopped. On the other hand, the device 10
For B, steps 2 to 7 are executed,
It is in operation. Therefore, the timer for device 10B is started.

At time g = c, when the processing of the device 10B ends, steps 8 and 9 are executed, and the ending processing is performed. Therefore, the timer is also stopped and reset. On the other hand, for the device 10A, steps 14 to 16 are executed. That is, the process is restarted and the timer is restarted. Thereafter, at time d, the apparatus 10A also ends by executing step 9.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the timeout monitoring process, the interface control means such as the SCSI control unit monitors the time for detecting the timeout, so that the period during which the device is not actually operating can be excluded from the monitoring time. It can be carried out.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a time-out monitoring processing flow.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a conventional technique.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a problem in the conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Processor 2 (2A, 2B) User Program 3 (3A, 3B) Device Control Unit 4 (4A, 4B) Register 5 Interface Control Means (SCSI Control Unit) 6 Timer Reception Unit 7 Operation Monitoring Unit 8 Timer Calculation Unit 9 Timer Setting unit 10 (10A, 10B) device

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A processing device (1) and a plurality of devices (10A, 10B) connected to each other via a single bus, and the processing device (10A, 10B) corresponding to the plurality of devices (10A, 10B). 1) provided in the user program (2A, 2
Device (10A, 10)
Device control unit (3) for controlling B) to perform a predetermined operation
A, 3B), and interface control means (5) provided in the processing device (1) and controlling an interface between the processing device (1) and the plurality of devices (10A, 10B). In the time-out monitoring processing device in the data processing device, the interface control means (5) has an operation monitoring unit (7) for monitoring the operation states of the plurality of devices (10A, 10B), and a timer, Timer setting section to set (9)
Based on the result of the monitoring by the operation monitoring unit (7),
A timer calculation unit (8) for obtaining the value of the timer is provided, and the timer calculation unit (8) operates so that the activated devices (10A, 10B) operate at the same time.
10B) occupies the bus,
Correspondingly, said timer with respect to the timer of the other one device
A time-out monitoring processing device characterized by causing the timer setting unit (9) to set the value of the timer to a predetermined value so as to correct the value. 2. The one device (10A or 10B) is a bus
When occupying a
By stopping the timer of the device, the value of the timer
Is set to the predetermined value.
The time-out monitoring processing device described in 1. 3. The one device (10A or 10B) is a bus
When occupying, only the time corresponding to the occupying time
By adding to the timer of the other device,
The time-out monitoring processing device according to claim 1, wherein a value of a timer is set to the predetermined value . 4. The interface control means (5) is an SC.
4. The time-out monitoring processing device according to claim 1, wherein the time-out monitoring processing device is a SCSI control unit that executes an SI protocol.