JPH01216649A - Distribution output method for information - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the distribution of lots of information from a host computer and to relieve the load of the host computer by providing a storage device storing distribution information distributed from the host computer to a terminal controller. CONSTITUTION:A distribution control section 25 selects a terminal equipment being the destination of distribution and reads the distribution information to be outputted to the terminal equipment from a storage device 24. Then a terminal control section 23 sequentially outputs the distribution information read from the storage device 24 toward the terminal equipment 3. When the terminal control processing is finished, the notice of the result of reception of the distribution information is outputted from the terminal equipment 3. The processing above is repeated till all the distribution information stored in the storage device 24 is all released. If the distribution information outputted from the hot computer 1 exceeds the capability of the terminal equipment, the information is stored tentatively in the storage device 24 and the distribution information is outputted with a time consumption sequentially in matching with the reception capability of the terminal equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an information distribution output method for distributing information from a host computer to an online terminal device of a financial institution or the like.

(Prior Art) For example, in a financial institution, deposit and withdrawal processing at a large number of branches is controlled by a host computer provided at a management center.

For example, consider a case where transfer information from a specific branch is sent to another branch. In this case, the host computer receives and receives the transfer information from that particular branch and distributes it to other branches, ie, destination stores.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a terminal controller that controls the transmission of information from a host computer to a terminal device installed at a destination store.

In the figure, a host computer 1 distributes information to a terminal controller 2 provided at a destination store, and this terminal controller 2 outputs the information to a terminal device 3.

The terminal controller 2 is provided with a reception control section 21, an exchange control section 22, and a terminal control section 23. The reception control section 21 is comprised of a known communication control circuit that receives information from the host computer 1 through a communication line and performs constant communication control. Further, the exchange control section 22 is provided for each terminal device 3 and is a circuit that controls the connection between the reception control section 21 and the terminal device 3. In addition, the terminal control unit 2
3 is a so-called interface, which is a circuit for controlling information transmission between the terminal controller 2 and the terminal device 3.

Conventionally, in a system with such a configuration, when distributing predetermined information from the host computer 1 to the terminal device 3, the host computer 1 usually always distributes the information with the specific terminal device 3 in mind. That's what I was doing. Therefore, the host computer 1, for a specific terminal device 3,
The amount of information is output according to the receiving capacity of the terminal device, and if the amount of information exceeds the processing capacity of the terminal device, the information is divided and output. Furthermore, in the event that a failure occurs in a terminal device, a procedure is followed in which the information is output again after the failure has been recovered.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional system as described above, when outputting a large amount of information, for example, if the processing capacity of the terminal device at the destination store is small, the time required to process the information distribution is very long. There was a problem that it took a long time. Furthermore, when a failure occurs that requires time to recover, there is a problem in that re-output operations on the host computer side become complicated.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information distribution output method that enables a large amount of information to be distributed from a host computer and that can reduce the burden on the host computer. It is something.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The information distribution output method of the present invention includes a host computer, a terminal device that receives information distribution from the host computer, and a terminal device that is inserted between the host computer and the terminal device. A terminal controller is provided to control information transmission between the two, and the terminal controller temporarily stores distribution information distributed from the host computer to the terminal device in a storage device, and then The present invention is characterized in that a distribution control device sequentially reads out the distribution information from the storage device and distributes it to the terminal device at a predetermined timing.

(Function) According to the above method, since the terminal controller is provided with a storage device for storing the distribution information distributed from the host computer, the host computer can process a relatively large amount of distribution information without being aware of the terminal device. can be output all at once. In addition, since the terminal controller sequentially reads and outputs the distribution information stored in the storage device to the terminal devices connected to the terminal controller, the terminal device itself appears to receive the distribution information directly from the host computer. In addition, if a failure occurs in a certain terminal device, information is output to another terminal device in its place. Furthermore, the burden on the host computer regarding failure recovery processing is also reduced.

(Example) FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the information distribution output method of the present invention. Before explaining this flowchart,
A description will now be given of an apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a terminal controller implementing the method of the invention.

In the figure, this terminal controller 2 is inserted between a host computer 1 and a terminal device 3, and blocks having the same functions as the conventional terminal controller in FIG. 2 are given the same reference numerals.

That is, in this terminal controller, the reception control section 21 is a circuit that controls communication between the host computer 1 and the terminal controller 2, as in the conventional one, and the terminal control section 23 is a circuit that controls communication between each terminal device 3 and the terminal. This is a circuit that controls communication with the controller 2.

When carrying out the method of the present invention, the terminal controller 2 is also provided with a storage device 24 and a distribution control section 25.

The storage device 24 is, for example, a disk device or the like, and is a device for temporarily storing distribution information distributed from the host computer 1 through the reception control unit 21. Since the purpose of the present invention is to quickly receive a large amount of distributed information from the host computer 1, it is desirable that the storage capacity of the storage device 24 be as large as possible.

The distribution control unit 25 is a circuit that performs control to transmit the distribution information stored in the storage device 24 to a plurality of terminal devices 3 connected to the terminal controller 2 while selecting an available terminal device. . This distribution control section 25
The function is to read distribution information from the storage device 24,
The purpose is to select a terminal device to be outputted and to output distribution information to the terminal control unit 23 corresponding to the selected terminal device. Such operations can be achieved by a microprocessor or the like used for general communication control.

Now, returning to FIG. 1, the information distribution output method of the present invention will be specifically explained.

The flowchart in FIG.
(FIG. 3), predetermined distribution information is sent to the storage device 24, and then the distribution control section 25 starts distribution.

First, the distribution control unit 25 selects a distribution destination terminal (step Sl). This is terminal controller 2
This is carried out by assigning an appropriate ranking to the terminal devices 3 connected to the terminal device 3, and automatically selecting the terminal device 3 from the top ranking.

Next, it is determined whether the selected terminal is outputting (step S2). If the terminal is outputting, that is, if the terminal is in operation, another terminal will be selected, so the process moves to step S4.

If the terminal is not outputting, it is determined whether the terminal is in trouble (step S3). If there is some kind of failure in the terminal, the selection will be switched to another terminal and the process will proceed to step S4. When selecting another terminal, it is determined whether the search has been completed to the final terminal (step S4). Here, for example, if a certain terminal is selected and there is a terminal that has not been selected yet, the process returns to step Sl and another terminal is selected. If the result is that all terminals cannot be selected, the process ends.

Now, in steps S2 and S3, if the terminal is not outputting data and no failure has occurred, the process proceeds to step S5.

That is, the distribution control unit 25 in FIG. 3 reads distribution information to be output to the terminal from the storage device 24 (step S5).
). Then, terminal control processing is started in the terminal control unit 23 (step S6), that is, the terminal control unit 23
The distribution information read from the storage device 24 is sequentially output to the terminal device 3 according to a predetermined protocol.

When the terminal control process is started, information indicating that the terminal is currently outputting is set (step S7). That is, this information that the terminal is currently outputting is used for the determination in step S2 described above, and the terminal is prevented from being further selected as a distribution destination during this outputting.

After that, when the terminal control process ends (step S8),
A notification of the reception result of the distribution information is output from the terminal device 3 (step S9). This is received by the distribution control unit 25,
It is determined whether the result is normal (step 5IO). If the result is abnormal, information indicating that the terminal is in trouble is set (step 511). Then, the distribution using this terminal device is subsequently stopped, and the process shifts to selecting another distribution destination terminal again (step Sl).

On the other hand, if the output result of the distribution information to that terminal device is normal, the information being outputted for that terminal is reset (step 5L2). That is, this terminal device is then in a state in which it can receive new distribution information. Then, the distribution control unit 25 releases the information for the terminal for which distribution has already been completed from the storage device 24. That is, when the information is normally delivered to the terminal device, the information is deleted from the storage device 24, and when some kind of failure occurs and the information is not output to the terminal device, the information is deleted from the storage device 24. The information will be saved and can be retransmitted.

The process shown in FIG. 1 is repeated until all the distribution information stored in the storage device 24 is released. If,
If the amount of distribution information output from the host computer 1 is large relative to the capacity of the terminal device, the storage device 24
The information is temporarily stored in the terminal device, and the distribution information is sequentially outputted over time according to the reception capability of the terminal device.

However, when there is very little distribution information, although the information is temporarily stored in the storage device 24, the information is immediately output to the terminal device 3 via the distribution control section 25, and the terminal device 3 appears to be directly connected to the host. The same operation as receiving and receiving distribution information from the computer 1 is performed.

In the above embodiment, the terminal controller 2
It has been explained that all the terminal devices 3 connected to the terminal device 3 are searched for free terminals, and the distribution information is unconditionally output to the free terminals. However, if the distribution information is to be output only to a specific number of terminal devices or one terminal device,
In the flowchart of FIG. 1, it is only necessary to limit the terminals in the selection process (step Sl) of the distribution destination terminal.It should be noted that, as in the above embodiment, multiple terminals all receive the same distribution information. If the system is configured to be able to receive messages, for example, even if a failure occurs in one terminal device, another terminal device will immediately take its place, and there is an advantage that the response to the failure will be smooth.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the information distribution output method of the present invention described above, if the storage capacity of the storage device provided in the terminal controller is increased, even when there is a large amount of distribution information, the host computer can The burden of repeatedly dividing and outputting the information can be reduced. In addition, by selecting an empty terminal among multiple terminal devices connected to the terminal controller and outputting distribution information, it becomes possible to output a large amount of data in a short time.
It is possible to smoothly disconnect a terminal device in which a failure has occurred. Furthermore, the host computer only needs to output distribution information to the terminal controller in a fixed procedure without being aware of a specific terminal, which also reduces the burden on the host computer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart explaining the information distribution output method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a circuit including a conventional terminal controller, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a circuit including a terminal controller implementing the method of the present invention. It is a diagram. l... host computer, 2... terminal controller, 3... terminal device,
21... Reception control unit, 23... Terminal control unit, 24.
...Storage device, 25...Distribution control unit. Patent Applicant: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Conventional terminal controller 2 block diagram (Figure 2), terminal controller block diagram using method 1 of the present invention (Figure 3)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A host computer, a terminal device that receives information distribution from the host computer, and a terminal controller that is inserted between the host computer and the terminal device and controls information transmission between them. provided, the terminal controller temporarily stores distribution information distributed from the host computer to the terminal device in a storage device, and then a distribution control device provided in the terminal controller reads the distribution information from the storage device. A method for distributing and outputting information, characterized in that the information is sequentially read out and distributed to the terminal device at a predetermined timing.