JPH0375808A - Software timer control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the load of a main processor owing to timer interruption by controlling a software timer by means of an independent and private processor. CONSTITUTION:When a timer processing request is generated by software in the middle of operation on the main processor, the main processor 1 gives the timer processing request with the time out value of the timer and a task ID in the middle of operation to the timer control processor 2. It generates one corresponding control block with the given time out value and the task ID by the timer processing request and registers it to a timer control queue. The timer control processor 2 reduces the time out values of respective control blocks whenever timer interruption occurs. When the value comes to '0', the control blocks are removed from the timer control queue, and the task ID which is timed out is reported to the main processor 1. Thus, the main processor 1 is released from the simple interruption operation of prescribed time intervals.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to timer management for real-time systems, and particularly to a software timer management method.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, timer management in this type of real-time system is performed by a single processor receiving interrupt signals at regular intervals from a hardware timer using an interrupt handler, and managing registration and deletion using a queue as a management block with timer values. However, it appears that there are multiple timers, which are managed by software.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

In the conventional timer management method described above, a single processor manages the wear timer directly to rough 1 using an interrupt handler, so if the timer is set to a short interval, the number of timer interrupts increases and interrupt processing time may be long or long. Also, when a large number of timers are used, it takes a long time to process interrupts, and the system as a whole becomes less responsive.

[Means to solve the problem]

The software timer management system of the present invention has a processor dedicated to timer management that is independent of the main processor, and has means for exchanging data regarding timer information between the respective processors.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the software timer management system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a main processor 1 is connected to a timer management processor 2, and when a timer processing request is made by rough 1 to software running on the main processor, the timeout value of the timer and the running task ID
A timer processing request is given to the timer management processor. The timer management processor generates one management block corresponding to this timer processing request with the given timeout value and task ID, and registers it in the timer management queue. The timer management processor clears the timeout value of each management block every time a timer interrupt occurs,
When the value becomes 0, the management block is deleted from the timer management queue and the task ID that has timed out is reported to the main processor. By performing such operations, the main processor is freed from simple interrupt operations at fixed time intervals.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, by managing the software timer with an independent dedicated processor, it is possible to keep the interrupt load on the main processor relatively low. , the main management factor is simplified to only timer interrupts, making it possible to manage timers at short time intervals that could not be handled by a single processor, and for the entire system to handle harsh real-time tasks that were previously impossible to handle. This has the effect of making it possible to handle processing as well.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a software timer management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. ]...Main processor, 2...Timer management processor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In timer management in a real-time system, in order to reduce the load caused by timer interrupts on the processor, it has a processor dedicated to timer management independent of the main processor, and has a means for exchanging data regarding timer information between each processor. Software timer management method.