JP2968390B2 - Master device in data aggregation system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a master device in a data totaling system which is installed in various stores and includes a plurality of electronic cash registers for registering sales information such as sales volume and sales amount of goods. .

[0002]

FIG. 4 shows a conventional POS (Point Of Point).
1 is a configuration diagram of an electronic cash register having a Sales point of sale information management system. In the conventional electronic cash register (hereinafter abbreviated as ECR), the closing process such as daily account settlement and printing of a daily report is performed by the master device 20 by each slave device 2.
The processing is performed after the totaling of the single item data for each item such as the item name, the department number, and the unit price by polling from 1 is completed. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional store closing operation. In step c1, the master unit 20 checks whether or not all the single unit data has been totaled by the master unit's polling task with respect to a certain slave unit 21.
In step c2, it is checked whether or not the operator has performed the registration function stop processing of the slave unit 21. If the registration function of the slave unit 21 has been stopped, the process proceeds to step c2.
Then, the process proceeds to 3 and the closing process of the slave unit 21 is started.

Next, in step c2, the operator
If the CR registration function has not been stopped, and step c3
If the processing has been completed, the process proceeds to step c4, where it is checked whether the closing processing of all the slave units 21 has been completed. If the closing process of all the slave units 21 has been completed, it is checked in step c5 whether or not all the slave units 21 have been completed normally. If it has been completed normally, the polling program is executed in the next step c6. Is stopped, and in the next step c7, the closing process of the master machine 20 is started. Step c4
If the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step c2.

[0004] Further, if the counting of the single item data has not been completed in step c1 or if all the slave units 21 have not been normally terminated in step c5, error processing is performed. There are two methods for this error processing, and either one is selected and performed according to the situation at that time. The first of these methods is a method called manager retry, in which the store closing process is restarted. If the process did not complete successfully,
This is because if the operation is a temporary malfunction, the same operation may be executed again to end normally. Another method is a method called “accept”, in which even if an error occurs, the store closing process is ended for the time being and the cause of the error is verified later. Even when any of the above methods is selected and an error occurs, the store closing process may be terminated.

In step c8, which error processing is to be performed is selected. If manager retry is selected, manager retry processing is executed in step c9. If manager retry is successful in step c10, normal termination is determined. Become. Step c8
When the accepting process is selected in the above, the accepting is executed in the next step c11, and the process is terminated with an error. If the manager retry processing has failed in step c10, the processing returns to step c8, and a selection is made as to whether to perform manager retry processing again or change to accept processing.

[0006]

In an ECR provided with a multitasking system, the multitasking system is roughly divided into a main task and a polling task. It collects single item data from each slave unit 21 and the like. Since the processing priority of the polling task is lower than the priority of execution of the operation program in the ECR by the main task, if an interruption of the main task occurs during the execution of the polling task, the data collection work is often interrupted, and the main task is interrupted. In order to perform the store closing process by the task, it is necessary to wait for the end of the collection of the single item data remaining in each of the slave units 21 in the polling task, and it took a long time to perform a smooth store closing process. .

An object of the present invention is to provide a master device in a data totaling system in which a predetermined process can be performed without waiting for the end of data collection by a polling task, and the usability is significantly improved. .

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a master data collection system comprising a slave device and a master device which controls the slave device and collects data stored in the slave device by a polling method. An apparatus, wherein the master device has a main task processing mode and a polling task processing mode, and the master device shifts to a polling task processing mode when it is idle in the main task processing mode;
Data collection is performed in a normal polling process, and when a predetermined interrupt request is made in the polling task processing mode, the data collection in the polling task processing mode is stopped, and the mode shifts to the main task processing mode. , A master device in a data totaling system, which is configured to collect data by polling processing in the main task processing mode.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when a master device such as a second electronic cash register collects data from a slave device such as a first electronic cash register and executes a polling task, the data collection operation is performed. When the data collection during the polling task is not completed due to the interruption of the main task, the operation of the polling task is stopped, and the operation of the first electronic cash register or the like is performed by the polling operation of the main task. Collect data for slave devices.

When starting the data processing of the main task, the data collection by the main task can be immediately performed without waiting for the completion of the data collection by the execution of the polling task. When an interruption of the main task occurs during the polling task in this way, the data collection operation performed by the polling task is stopped, and a specific process by the main task is performed based on the interruption. In this way, the operation by the main task can reduce the time required for collecting data from the slave device by stopping the execution of the polling task even during the execution of the polling task. Thus, the data collection operation of the main task has a higher priority than the data collection operation of the polling task.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows a plurality of ECs according to an embodiment of the present invention.
R, ie, master unit 1 and generally a plurality of slave units 1
1 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of a POS system, which is an apparatus including a POS system; Master unit 1 and slave unit 1
1 includes central processing units (hereinafter abbreviated as CPUs) 2 and 12 as arithmetic means including a microprocessor, for example.
Has a read-only memory (hereinafter abbreviated as ROM) in which programs for controlling various operations of the ECR are stored.
7 and 17 are respectively connected, and programs for the main task and the polling task are stored in the ROMs 7 and 17. In addition, a random access memory (hereinafter, R
Abbreviated as AM. ) 6 and 16 store various files necessary for the sales registration process. Also, keyboards 5, which are means for keying in product information and the like, are provided to the CPUs 2 and 12, respectively.
15. Printer 4, 1 that prints receipts etc. handed to customers
4. Display devices 3 and 13 for displaying the total price of the products calculated by the CPU are connected. A plurality of ECRs configured as described above are installed, one of which has a function of controlling other ECRs as a master unit 1 and the other as a slave unit 11 and a LAN (Local Arrangement).
The master unit 1 has a file for referring to the product price, responds to an inquiry from the slave unit 11, and connects to each other via the local unit information communication network). Collect sales data.

The CPUs 2 and 12 manage two program areas, that is, main program areas 8 and 18 and polling program areas 9 and 19. CPU2, 1
2 controls the keyboards 5 and 15 as input devices and the display devices 3 and 13 and the printers 4 and 14 as output devices with reference to the main program areas 8 and 18;
Reference numeral 12 refers to the polling program areas 9 and 19 and transmits single item data such as sales amount to the master unit 1 from the RAM 16 which is a storage device of the slave unit 11.

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2, the CPU 2 executes the main task in step b1, and there is no customer to make a payment in step b2. If not, a polling task is executed in step b3 to collect single item data from the slave unit 11. Next, when there is an interruption such as a main task such as a key input in step b4, the process returns to step b1 to execute the main task.

If there is no interruption of the main task in step b2, the main task is executed and the registration task is performed. If there is no interruption of the main task in step b4, the polling task is executed in step b3. Execute to collect single item data. In this way, the main task is processed prior to the polling task. Therefore, an embodiment of the present invention is to temporarily stop the collection of single item data performed in the polling task and continue the collection by the polling method in the main task.

Next, FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a store closing processing operation which is a registration operation by executing a main task according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows the operation of the main task in step b1 of FIG. In step a1, the single item data collection operation by the polling task is stopped, and the process shifts to execution of the main task. At step a2, it is checked whether the operator has stopped the function of one slave unit 11,
If the ECR has stopped functioning, the process proceeds to step a3, in which the master unit 1 outputs a single item data collection request signal to the slave unit 11, and in step a4, the slave unit 11 transmits single item data according to the request of the master unit 1. Then, after the master unit 1 collects the single item data by the polling method and completes the single item data transmission, the slave unit 11 performs the store closing process in step a5.

Next, in step a6, the master unit 1 issues a store closing request to all the slave units 11, and it is checked whether or not all the slave units 11 have completed the store closing process. If it has been completed, it is confirmed in step a7 whether all the slave units 11 have normally completed the store closing process. If it has been completed normally, the master unit 1 is closed in step a8, and the process ends normally. And

If the operator has not performed the registration process for the slave unit 11 from which the single item data has been collected in step a2, the process proceeds from step a3 to step a6 without performing the process of step a5. If the closing process of all the slave units 11 has not been completed in step a6, the process from step a2 is repeated. Next, if all slave units 11 are not normally terminated in step a7, the single item data collection program of the polling task is restarted in step a9, and error termination processing is performed in the next step a10. The details of the error processing are the same as those described in steps c8 to c11 in the section of the prior art, and steps a10 to a13 correspond to steps c8 to c11 in FIG. 5, respectively.

As described above, in the POS system including the master unit 1 and the plurality of slave units 11, when performing the store closing process by the main task, it is not necessary to wait for the aggregation of the single item data by the polling task from the slave unit 11,
Further, by stopping unnecessary polling tasks at the beginning of the store closing process, it is possible to concentrate on only the store closing process, and it is possible to greatly shorten the store closing process time.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to wait for the completion of data collection by the polling task when starting data processing by the main task, and data collection is immediately performed by the main task. Therefore, the time required to collect data from slave devices such as the first electronic cash register can be reduced. That is, according to the present invention, the main task is performed by interrupting the data collection operation of the polling task, and therefore, even when data collection by the polling task may be performed for a long time, at the start of data collection in the main task. Since the data collection operation of the main task having a higher priority than the data collection operation of the polling task is performed, the time required for collecting data from the slave device can be reduced as described above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a POS system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a priority order in the multitask system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an ECR store closing operation according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a system diagram of a conventional POS system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an ECR closing operation according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Master unit 8, 18 Main program area 9, 19 Polling program area 11 Slave unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A master device in a data totaling system comprising a slave device and a master device which controls the slave device and collects data stored in the slave device by a polling method, wherein the master device is provided. Has a main task processing mode and a polling task processing mode, and when the master device is in an idle state in the main task processing mode, the master device shifts to a polling task processing mode and collects data by normal polling processing. When a predetermined interrupt request is made in the polling task processing mode, the data collection in the polling task processing mode is stopped, the mode is shifted to the main task processing mode, and the polling processing in the main task processing mode is performed. Configured to perform data collection Master device in a data aggregation system characterized by comprising Te.