JPH0232453A - Message transfer testing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the load of a master board, and to shorten a time necessary for diagnosis by mutually continuously repeating the exchange of a prescribed message on the boards including a message transferring means. CONSTITUTION:When the input of a power source is required, a master board 111 transfers a message 101 in a prescribed form to a slave board 112 mounted on a slot 102 at a slot number 2 on the highest-order board out of slave boards 112 to 116. After the board 112 adds the discriminating information of the board itself to the end of the message, it transfers a message 102 to the slave board 113 at a slot number 3. In the same way as above, the messages are successively transferred by adding the discriminating information of the board itself. Finally, the master board 111 checks it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applied to a test system for message transfer in a multi-board system including message transfer means for mutual communication between processors.

〔overview〕

The present invention provides a message transfer test method in which boards including message transfer means repeatedly send and receive predetermined messages in a chain manner, thereby eliminating the need for the master board to issue test execution commands one by one and reducing the load on the master board. This makes it possible to reduce the amount of time required for diagnosis.

[Conventional technology]

Traditionally, the multi-board message transfer test method was
The sending test program, receiving test program, and transfer data are stored in the board that performs the message transfer test, and one board in the system performs the sending test, the other one performs the receiving test, and the receiving board The method was to check whether the specified data was received.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in this conventional message transfer test method, it is necessary for the master board to issue commands each time a transfer test is performed. , assuming that there are n slave boards, the master board issues at least 20 test execution commands and executes the test n times (transmission test,
(if counted as one time in a pair of reception tests) is required,
As a result, there was a drawback that the process became complicated and took a long time.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks and provides a message transfer test method that eliminates the need for the master board to issue test execution commands one by one, reduces the load on the master board, and shortens the time required for diagnosis. purpose.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention includes a plurality of boards including message transfer means for mutual communication within a multi-board system, and the plurality of boards include one master board and a slave board other than the master board for message transfer testing. In this method, each of the slave boards is assigned a unique ordinal number, and the message transfer means of the master board includes means for giving a message in a predetermined format to the first slave board in the ordinal number. The message transfer means of the slave board with the first ordinal number includes means for adding identification information of the own board to the message in the predetermined format and transmitting the message, and the slave board with the ordinal number after this first ordinal number is assigned. The message transfer means of the master board includes means for adding identification information of the own board to the message of the slave board which is earlier than the own board in the ordinal number and last, and outputting the message, and the message transfer means of the master board includes: The method is characterized in that it includes means for checking the output of the slave board of the last ordinal number.

[Effect]

Assign each slave board to a unique ordinal number. The message transfer means of the master board provides a message in a predetermined format to the first slave board in the ordinal number. The message transfer means of the slave board having the earliest ordinal number adds identification information of its own board to the message in the predetermined format and transfers the message. The message transfer means of a slave board to which an ordinal number after the first ordinal number is assigned is a message transfer means of a slave board whose ordinal number is earlier than that of its own board and which is the last one (this means that the message transfer means is attached with identification information of the own board). The message transfer means of the master board checks the output of the slave board of the last ordinal number.

The above operation eliminates the need for the master board to issue test execution commands one by one (the load on the master board can be reduced and the time required for diagnosis can be shortened).

The "first" of an ordinal number is a small number when the ordinal number increases sequentially from a small number, and it is a large number when the ordinal number decreases sequentially from a large number.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure is a block configuration diagram of a message transfer test device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the message transfer test device includes a plurality of boards 11 which are mounted in slots 101 to 106 provided in the order of slot numbers 1 to 6 and include message transfer means 121 to 126 for mutual communication within a multi-board system. and slot 10. The plurality of boards 11 are connected to one master board 10 . and slave boards 10□ to 106 other than this master board.

Here, the feature of the present invention is that the slave board 1
1□ to 116 are assigned to non-overlapping ordinal numbers corresponding to slot numbers 2 to 6, respectively, and the master board 11. The message transfer means 12゜ transmits a message 101 in a predetermined format to the slave board 11□ with the smallest ordinal number.
The message transfer means 12 of the slave board 112 with the minimum ordinal number includes means for adding identification information of the own board to the message 102 in the predetermined format and transmitting the message 102 with the minimum ordinal number. The message transfer means of the slave boards 113 to 116 that are larger in number than the own board include means for adding identification information of the own board to the message of the slave board whose ordinal number is one smaller than the own board, and outputting the message, and the message transfer means of the master board 111 121
consists in including means for examining the messages 106 of the slave boards 116 of the greatest ordinal number.

The operation of the message transfer test device having such a configuration will be explained. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the master board of the message transfer test device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the minimum ordinal number slave board of the message transfer test device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of slave boards other than the minimum ordinal number of the message transfer test device of the present invention. The table shows messages of a predetermined format for the message transfer test device of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a multi-board system consisting of six boards, in which the board mounted in the lower slot number is the upper board, and the board mounted in slot number 1, slot 10. A master board 111 is mounted on the .

1 to 4, when the need arises, such as when power is turned on, the master board 11. is the slot 102 with slot number 2, which is the highest board among the slave boards.
The message 101 in a predetermined format is transferred to the slave board 11□ mounted on the slave board 11□ (Sl). The slave board 11□ adds its own board identification information to the end of the message, and then transfers the message 102 to the slave board 11° of slot number 3 (Sll). Similarly, while adding the own board's identification information, transfer the message in the order of slot number 3 → slot number 4 → slot number → slot number → slot number (master board 111).
21), and finally the master board 111 checks this (S4). An error occurs in one or more boards in the board table in the system, and a message is sent to the master board 11. It is possible that the message is not returned within a certain period of time, but if you use a time monitoring means to see if the message is returned within a certain amount of time (S3), you can detect an abnormality (S3).
5).

Next, an example of a predetermined format message is shown in the table.

This is multipath If (MULTIB[IS n)
This is an unsolicited message packet of the system, and is an example of a message transferred from slot number 4 to slot number 5. Regarding multipath■, please refer to Ohmsha's
18 of Electronic Information and Communication Handbook J (1988)
There is a detailed description on page 25. 0FFH in the 5th byte indicates a predetermined format, and the 6th to 8th bytes below indicate slave boards 11□, 11. ．． 11. identification information 0
2H103H104H is stored.

In this embodiment, the slot number is used as is as board identification information.

Table and above In this embodiment, a case has been described in which the ordinal numbers increase sequentially from a small number, but a case where the ordinal numbers sequentially decrease from a large number may also be used.

A simpler method than the present invention is a method in which the master board performs a message transfer test with each slave board one by one, but in this case, the transfer is performed twice: from master board to slave board, and from slave board to master board. However, there is a drawback that it requires twice as much processing time as the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has the advantage of being able to test the message transfer means of all the boards in the system without the need for the master board to intervene one by one, reducing the load on the master board and shortening the time required for diagnosis. It has a positive effect.

10, -10. ...Slot, 11. ...Master board, 11□~116...Slave board, 121~
12. . . . message transfer means, 20 . . . system bus, 101 to 106 . . . message in a predetermined format.

Patent applicant: NEC Corporation 1.11, agent: Naotaka Ide, patent attorney

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a message transfer test device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the master board of the message transfer test device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the minimum ordinal number slave board of the host message transfer test device. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of slave boards other than the minimum ordinal number of the message transfer test device of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A multi-board system includes a plurality of boards including message transfer means for mutual communication, and the plurality of boards include one master board and slave boards other than the master board. In the message transfer test method, each of the slave boards is assigned a unique ordinal number, and the message transfer means of the master board is configured to send a message in a predetermined format to the first slave board in the ordinal number. The message transfer means of the first slave board in this ordinal number includes means for adding identification information of the own board to the message in this predetermined format and transmitting the message, and the message transfer means of the slave board at the beginning of this ordinal number The message transfer means of the slave board to which is assigned includes means for adding identification information of the own board to the message of the slave board that is earlier and last than the own board in the ordinal number, and outputting the message, and the message transfer means of the slave board that is assigned the master board. A method for testing message transfer, wherein the means includes means for inspecting the output of the slave board of the last ordinal number.