JPH0317764A - Inter-channel device communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a hardware quantity and to perform communication among plural channel devices at a high speed by connecting plural channel devices in serial loop connection. CONSTITUTION:A channel device 5 sends the host address of a communication destination and the communication data to a communication control part 21 in response to the instruction of a controller of a host system 1 and inserts the delimiters into the positions before and after a data frame to send the data to a loop connection part 22. The part 22 sends the data frame to a channel device 6 via an interface signal line 10 and sends the data frame to a channel device 7 when its own address is not designated at a transmission destination address part. The device 7 sends the received data frame to the part 21 from the part 22 when the transmission destination address part designates the address of a host system 3. Then the part 21 sends a transmission originating address part and a data part to the system 3 via a channel controller interface part 20. In such a constitution, the overall hardware quantity of the system can be reduced and the communication is executed to many host systems at a high speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is utilized in a communication device between multiple operating systems. In particular, it relates to communication devices between channel devices.

〔overview〕

The present invention uses a loop line as a communication path in a communication device between channel devices included in an input/output processing device, thereby reducing the amount of hardware in the entire system and enabling high-speed communication. It is something.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of host-to-host communication device includes an adapter device that performs communication via a plurality of channel devices and an inter-channel device communication adapter device, and a serial communication device that communicates between a plurality of input/output control devices each connected to a plurality of channel devices. There is an input/output control device communication device connected to the loop.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Such conventional adapter devices and communication devices between input/output control devices require communication adapter devices between channel devices or communication devices between input/output control devices, and the amount of hardware required for the entire system is large. There is a drawback that the number of possible hosts is small, and furthermore, since the communication device between input/output control devices goes through the input/output control device, high-speed transfer is not possible.

The present invention aims to eliminate such drawbacks and provides an inter-channel device communication device that can realize high-speed data transfer with a small amount of hardware.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides an inter-channel device communication device that performs communication between channel devices included in a human output processing device coupled to each of a plurality of computers with different operating systems, in which the address of a destination computer, data to be transmitted, etc. and frame structuring means for assembling information including the address of the computer connected to the channel device into one frame, and sending means for sending out the frame edited by the frame structuring means to the loop line; Receiving means for providing the computer to which the channel device is connected with data contained in a frame with an address that matches the address of the computer to which the channel device is connected; and information indicating that the receiving means has received the data. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a transmission stage for transmitting a frame containing this data to a channel device to which a transmission source address is attached.

[Effect]

A plurality of channel devices are serially connected in a loop, and communication data is sent and received between each operating system. That is, when data including a transmission destination address and a transmission source address is received, information indicating reception success is sent back to the channel device connected to the computer of this transmission source address.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, host systems 1, each having a different operating system,
2, 3 and 4, and channel devices 5, 6, 7 and 8 are connected to each host system 1, 2, 3 and 4. Inter-channel interface signal lines 10, 11, 12 and 13 connect channel devices 5, 6, 7 and 8 in series in a loop.

Channel devices 5, 6, 7 and 8 each have a channel control device interface unit 20 connected to each of host systems 1, 2, 3 and 4 via an interface signal line 30, and an interface, as shown in FIG. a communication control unit 21 connected to the channel control device interface unit 20 and the loop connection unit 22 via signal lines 31 and 32, respectively; an interface signal line 32; and an inter-channel interface signal line 10, 13 or 11;
A communication control section 21 and a loop connection section 22 are connected to the channel devices 6, 8, 7, 5, or 8, 6, or 5, 7 via 10 or 12, 11 or 13, and 12, respectively.

That is, this embodiment includes a communication control unit 2l, which is a frame configuring means that configures information including the address of a destination computer, data to be transmitted, and the address of a computer connected to a channel device into one frame;
A channel control device interface section 20, which is a receiving means for giving data included in a frame with an address that matches the address of a computer connected to a channel device, to a computer connected to a channel device, and a frame configuring device generated by this frame configuring device. a loop connection, which is a sending means for sending the received frame to a loop line, and a sending means for sending information indicating that the receiving means has received data to a channel device attached with the source address of the frame containing this data. 22.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained using a case where the host system 1 communicates with the host system 3 as an example.

FIG. 3 shows the data frame format used in this embodiment. Channel device 5 receives a communication destination host address and communication data via interface signal line 30 in response to instructions from the channel control device of host system 1 , and sends them to communication control section 21 . The communication control unit 21 inserts the communication destination host address into the destination address field 41 of the data frame, the communication data into the data field 44, and inserts the own host address into the source address field 42 and the loop control command field. The loop command format and loop control information are
A code for checking the validity of data is inserted into the frame check code section, and delimiters are inserted before and after the data frame, and the code is sent to the loop connection section 22. The loop connection unit 22 sends a data frame to the channel device 6 via the inter-channel interface signal line IO. The channel device 6 receives the data frame sent from the channel device 5, and checks whether or not its own host address is specified in the destination address field 4l. If the own address is not specified, the data frame is immediately sent to the channel device 7 via the inter-channel interface signal line 11. The channel device 7 receives the data frame sent from the channel device 6 via the inter-channel interface signal line l1, and checks whether the destination address section 41 specifies the address of the host system 3. When the address of the host system 3 is specified, the received data frame is sent from the loop connection section 22 to the communication control section 21. The communication control section 21 sends the source address section 42 and the data section 44 to the host system 3 via the channel control device interface section 20.

Further, the communication control unit 21 controls the data frame indicating that the data frame has been normally received, and similarly transfers the data frame from the host system 3 to the host system 1.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention connects a plurality of channel devices in series in a loop and transmits and receives communication data between each operating system, thereby reducing the amount of hardware required for the entire system, and making it possible to reduce the amount of hardware needed for many host systems. This has the effect of allowing high-speed communication.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the channel device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a format diagram showing the structure of a data frame. 1, 2, 3, 4... host system, 5, 6, 7, 8
... Channel device, 10, l1, 12, 13... Inter-channel interface signal line, 20... Channel control device interface section, 21... Communication control section, 22
...Loop connection part, 30, 31, 32...Interface signal line.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an inter-channel device communication device that executes communication between channel devices included in input/output processing devices coupled to each of a plurality of computers with different operating systems, the address of a destination computer; frame configuring means for composing information including data to be transmitted and the address of the computer connected to the channel device into one frame; and sending means for transmitting the frame generated by the frame configuring means to a loop line; receiving means for providing the computer to which the channel device is connected with data contained in a frame with an address that matches the address of the computer to which the channel device is connected; and information indicating that the receiving device has received the data. and sending means for sending a frame containing this data to a channel device to which a source address is attached.