JP4867896B2 - Information processing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing system in which a plurality of OSs operate simultaneously.

  In recent years, research and development and practical application of an information processing system having a plurality of OSs (operation systems) have been promoted.

  In this regard, with respect to setting up a logical path from a processor (central processing unit) to a controller of a computer input / output (I / O) system through a channel, in particular, a dynamic switch has one or more channels and one or more channels. An invention related to setting of a logical channel path between a processor, a channel, and a control device arranged between control devices is disclosed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  The document states that as soon as a failure of the master operating system (master OS) is detected, the notification of the underwriting is notified to all other processors of the one or more processors, so that the other processor of the one or more processors. Initializing a new routing table in the new master operating system by having the new master operating system take over the responsibility of the master operating system and obtaining configuration status from each of all other processors in one or more processors Is described.

If the master system fails, any other running system assumes responsibility for the master system as soon as it detects the failure.
Japanese Patent No. 2566728

  However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, since the failure of the master OS is detected based on the monitoring result by one OS, the monitoring accuracy may be lowered.

  The present invention is for solving such problems, and provides an information processing system capable of accurately detecting an abnormality of a master OS and appropriately performing processing when the master OS is abnormal. Is the main purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, one embodiment of the present invention provides:
An information processing system having a master OS that monitors a plurality of OSs,
Each of the plurality of OSs monitors an operation status of the master OS.

  According to this aspect of the present invention, since the operating status of the master OS is monitored by a plurality of OSs, it is possible to accurately detect an abnormality in the master OS. Further, since processing such as storing an error log or notifying the user when the master OS fails can be performed efficiently, processing when the master OS is abnormal can be performed more appropriately.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
When all of the plurality of OSs detect an abnormality of the master OS, at least a part of the plurality of OSs may perform an abnormality process.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
When a predetermined number or more of the plurality of OSs detect an abnormality of the master OS, at least a part of the plurality of OSs may perform an abnormality process.

In one embodiment of the present invention,
The abnormal time process may include a process in which at least a part of the plurality of OSs acts as the master OS.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing system capable of accurately detecting an abnormality of a master OS and more appropriately performing a process when the master OS is abnormal.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, an information processing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

[Constitution]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an information processing system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The information processing system 1 includes a multi-core processor 10, a master OS 20, slave OSs 30A, 30B (hereinafter abbreviated), a shared memory 40, and an error log writing memory 50 as main components. Note that there may be one slave OS or three or more slave OSs. Hereinafter, it will be referred to as “each slave OS” or the like as necessary.

  The multi-core processor 10 has a core 0, a core 1,. Each core is a functional unit having a function corresponding to a conventional CPU (Central Processing Unit). That is, it comprises an ALU (Logical Operation Unit), a control device, a register, a clock generator, and the like. The multi-core processor 10 may be configured as a single chip or a set of a plurality of chips.

  The master OS 20 is an OS for specially monitoring each slave OS, and periodically monitors the slave OS. As the master OS 20, an OS with relatively high operation reliability is selected.

  Each slave OS controls the execution of the application program in charge. For example, a general-purpose large-scale OS is selected as each slave OS. Each slave OS monitors the operating status of the master OS 20.

  Here, a case where the information processing system 1 is applied to an in-vehicle system will be described. In this case, each slave OS includes, for example, an OS in charge of a navigation function, an OS in charge of communication processing, an OS in charge of a mobile cooperative application, an OS in charge of image processing, a user interface (GUI; Graphical User Interface, VUI; This corresponds to the OS in charge of the Voice User Interface. By distributing the assigned OS in this way, the processing speed can be improved, and functions of other OSs can be maintained even when an abnormality occurs in some OSs.

  The shared memory 40 may be any storage medium that can be read and written. For example, a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) or the like can be used.

  The abnormality log writing memory 50 uses a storage medium that is not erased even when the power is turned off, such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The abnormality log writing memory 50 may be the same hardware as the shared memory 40.

[Mutual monitoring processing]
FIG. 2 is a diagram conceptually showing how the OSs monitor each other's operation status in the information processing system 1. The characteristic mutual monitoring of the information processing system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. In this figure, the application program is not shown.

  The monitoring of each slave OS by the master OS 20 (indicated by (1) and (3) in the figure) is performed using, for example, a known watchdog system. That is, a WDC (watchdog counter; hereinafter abbreviated) corresponding to each slave OS is set in the shared memory 40 or other storage medium. Each slave OS sends an increment signal to the WDC periodically (for example, every predetermined time).

  The master OS 20 periodically monitors the WDC and determines whether or not the operation status of each slave OS is normal. That is, if there is a slave OS that has not sent an increment signal to the WDC after a certain period, it is determined that the slave OS is in an abnormal state such as a hang-up, and the slave OS is stopped and restarted or degenerated. Processing such as driving is performed. Then, regarding the slave OS that is in an abnormal state, as much information as can be collected about the cause of the abnormal state is stored in the abnormality log writing memory 50.

  The operating status of each slave OS may be monitored by any other method, not limited to the one using the watch dog system. For example, each slave OS has a module for detecting its own abnormality, and an abnormality occurs in the master OS 20 by sending and receiving inter-core transmission / reception signals such as IPI signals (inter-core interrupt signals) and NMI signals (non-maskable interrupt signals). May be notified. In other words, the master OS 20 recognizes that each slave OS is in an abnormal state by transmitting the above signal from the core executing each slave OS to the core executing the master OS 20.

  Further, the amount of information communication performed by each slave OS may be monitored. That is, when the amount of information communication per unit time deviates from the range normally performed by each slave OS, it is determined that the slave OS is in an abnormal state. This is because it is assumed that the slave OS in an abnormal state inputs / outputs an extremely large amount of information compared to the normal amount of information communication or information communication is interrupted.

  On the other hand, in this embodiment, each slave OS monitors the operating status of the master OS 20. The monitoring of the master OS 20 by each slave OS (indicated by (2) and (4) in the figure) may be performed using, for example, a watchdog system as described above, or an IPI signal (inter-core interrupt signal) or The master OS 20 may notify each slave OS of the occurrence of an abnormality by exchanging inter-core transmission / reception signals such as NMI signals (interrupt signals that cannot be masked).

  When each slave OS detects an abnormal state of the master OS 20, a master OS abnormality flag is set at a predetermined address preset for each slave OS in the shared memory 40 (indicated by (5) and (7) in the figure). ). Information about the flag set by itself is held, for example, in a register in the core. Note that the predetermined address set for each slave OS is prohibited from being written from another slave OS.

  Each slave OS periodically monitors whether another slave OS has set a master OS abnormality flag with reference to the shared memory 40 (indicated by (6) and (8) in the figure). When it is detected that the master OS abnormality flag has already been set and all other slave OSs have similarly set the master OS abnormality flag, it is determined that the master OS 20 is in an abnormal state, Perform processing when the master OS is abnormal.

  Note that it is not always necessary to determine that the master OS 20 is in an abnormal state when “the master OS abnormal flag has already been set and all the other slave OSs have similarly set the master OS abnormal flag”. For example, it may be determined that the master OS 20 is in an abnormal state when “the self has already set the master OS abnormality flag and other slave OSes have set the master OS abnormality flag”. .

  By such processing, the monitoring accuracy can be improved as compared with the case where a failure of the master OS is detected based on the monitoring result of a single OS or the like. That is, it is possible to accurately detect an abnormality in the master OS.

  In the master OS abnormality process, first, each slave OS stores as much information as can be collected in the abnormality log writing memory 50 regarding the cause of the abnormal state of the master OS 20 ((9), (Indicated by (10)). Then, for example, the OS in charge of image display and user interface is notified to the user about the abnormal state, and the entire system is shut down. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and one of the slave OSs may perform the process of substituting the function of the master OS 20.

  Here, since the abnormality log writing memory 50 uses a storage medium that is not erased even when the power is turned off, it usually takes time to write information about the cause of the abnormal state. It is. On the other hand, when applied to an in-vehicle device as described above, it is required to shut down the entire system promptly in consideration of safety.

  On the other hand, in the information processing system 1 of the present embodiment, information about the cause of the abnormal state is written by the plurality of slave OSes, so that a lot of information can be left within a limited time. In addition, for example, the slave OS that notifies the user sets the role sharing such as not performing the above-described writing, so that the shutdown at the time of abnormality is performed more efficiently while leaving the information on the abnormal state. be able to.

  Therefore, it is possible to accurately detect the abnormality of the master OS and more appropriately perform processing when the abnormality of the master OS occurs.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. And substitutions can be added.

  For example, the hardware configuration of the multi-core processor 10, the shared memory 40, the abnormality log writing memory 50, and the like is merely an example of a device for realizing the functions of the present invention, and any change is allowed. In addition, names such as “master OS” and “slave OS” are just for convenience.

  The present invention can be used in the automobile manufacturing industry, the automobile parts manufacturing industry, and the like.

It is a figure showing an example of the whole composition of information processing system 1 concerning one example of the present invention. It is a figure which shows notionally a mode that each OS monitors each other's operation condition in the information processing system 1. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Information processing system 10 Multi-core processor 20 Master OS
30A, 30B Slave OS
40 Shared memory 50 Error log memory

Claims (3)

A plurality of OSs that control the execution of application programs in charge ;
A master OS monitoring said plurality of OS,
An information processing system having
Each of the plurality of OSs monitors the operating status of the master OS, and as a result of the monitoring, when performing processing when the master OS is abnormal, at least some of the plurality of OSs are abnormal in the master OS. The information that can be collected about the cause of the condition is stored in a non-volatile memory .
Information processing system. When a predetermined number or more of the plurality of OSs detect an abnormality of the master OS, at least a part of the plurality of OSs performs an abnormality process.
The information processing system according to claim 1. The abnormal time process includes a process in which at least a part of the plurality of OSs acts as the master OS.
The information processing system according to claim 1 or 2 .

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