JPH0399326A - Microprogram loading method, loading controller, information processor, and information processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain individual loading in addition to batch loading by forming individual addresses for individually specifying respective information processors in addition to a common address for specifying plural information processors. CONSTITUTION:In the case of individually loading microprograms, a CPU 11 loads a common microprogram to respective communication equipments 10 and writes microprogram data to be loaded in the individual address of the communication equipment LBn in an address space allocated to the CPU 11. In the communication equipment 10 LBn, the succeeding individual microprogram data are overwritten to the previously stored common microprogram data in a storage device 20. In the case of loading plural kinds of microprograms to respective information processors 10, the microprograms to be collectively loaded are collectively loaded and others are individually loaded, so that the degree of freedom in program loading can be improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a technology for loading microprograms into an information processing device that operates on microprograms, and in particular, to perform batch loading, individual loading, and other processes in a short time. The present invention relates to a microprogram loading method, a loading control device, an information processing device, and an information processing system suitable for.

[Prior Art] Information processing systems in which a plurality of information processing devices are connected via communication lines and microprograms required by each information processing device are loaded from a common storage device are becoming common. In such a system, if there are microprograms used by a plurality of information processing devices, it is more time-efficient to load the microprograms into each information processing device at once. Therefore, the special public official
No. 412, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-259725.

JP-A-57-15204.4, JP-A-62-44
In the prior art described in Japanese Patent No. 858, information processing apparatuses using the same microprogram can be loaded all at once.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The above-mentioned conventional technology is only intended for loading the same microprogram into multiple information processing devices at once; for example, each information processing device is loaded with two types of microprograms. Programs are coded, one type of which is a microprogram that is commonly loaded to a plurality of information processing apparatuses, but no consideration is given to the case where the other types differ depending on each information processing apparatus. Therefore.

The above-mentioned prior art has no problem with microprograms that are loaded all at once, but microprograms that must be loaded individually cannot be loaded unless some special device is provided. He also said that there were no problems with bulk-loading microprograms, but that doesn't mean there are no problems at all.

For example, if all the information processing devices that are loaded at once receive the microprogram correctly, there will be no problem, but if there is an error in one of them, the program will be reloaded only for that information processing device. Therefore, it is necessary to load the data once again to all information processing devices. In addition, when maintaining or inspecting information processing equipment while the system is in operation, or expanding the system, the information processing equipment cannot be started up. There is a need.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a microprogram loading method, a loading control device, an information processing device, and an information processing system that allow individual loading in addition to batch loading.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a microprogram loading method and a loading control device, as well as an information processing device and an information system, which can easily maintain and inspect information processing devices constituting a system, change operating procedures, and expand the system. It is about providing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The first purpose is to provide an address for specifying a plurality of information processing devices that constitute a system and receive microprogram loading, and an address to be allocated to each information processing device. This is accomplished by allocating a common address common to all devices and an individual address for each information processing device, specifying the loading destination information processing device using the common address for bulk loading, and specifying the information processing device to be loaded using the individual address for individual loading.

The second objective is achieved by sending an operation stop command to a certain information processing device when loading a microprogram into that information processing device to stop only the information processing device and loading the microprogram. Ru.

[Function] Batch loading is possible by loading microprograms at a common address, and individual loading is possible by loading microprograms at individual addresses. Therefore, when loading a plurality of types of microprograms into each information processing device, those that can be loaded at once can be loaded at once, and those that cannot be loaded individually.

In addition, if there is an information processing device that needs to be expanded, procedures changed, or maintained while the system is in operation,
First, the information processing device can be stopped with an operation stop command, a necessary microprogram can be loaded, and then the information processing device can be started up with, for example, an operation start command. Therefore, it is possible to expand the system even when other information processing devices are in operation.

[Example] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a communication device is used as the information processing device. The microprogram loading control device includes a central processing unit 11 and a storage device 1 in which various microprogram data, command data, etc. are stored and accessed by the central processing unit 11 and a communication device described below.
2 and are connected to a common bus 13. Then, a plurality of communication devices (LBo, LB□).

. . . , LBn) 10 are connected to this common bus 13.

Each communication device 1o has the same configuration, is loaded with different microprograms in addition to the common microprogram, and performs communication using different procedures. The communication device 1o includes a storage device 20 that stores microprograms loaded according to instructions from the central processing unit 11.
, a status register 21 that stores the status of the storage device 20, and a microcomputer 22 that controls the operation of this communication device.
, a data buffer 23, an address buffer 24, a local bus 25 connecting these, a command decoder 26, a flip-flop 27, and an address decoder 2.
8.

The data buffer 23 is connected to the data bus that constitutes the common bus 13, the address buffer 24 is connected to the address bus of the common bus 13, and the address decoder 28 reads the access signal from the central processing unit 11 and the address designation signal is the common address. When it is a signal or its own individual address signal, the gates of the data buffer 23 and address buffer 24 are opened and the common bus 1 is connected to each buffer 23 and 24.
3. Import the data above. And each buffer 23.2
The microprogram data taken into the microprogram 4 is output to the local bus 25 and stored in the storage device 20.

The command decoder 26 decodes the command sent from the central processing unit 11 onto the common bus 13 and resets the flip-flop 27, and the flip-flop 27 outputs a signal to start and stop the operation of the microcomputer 22. do. In this embodiment, when the system is started up, the output state of the command decoder 26 in each communication device 10 is the same as the state when the operation stop command is received from the central processing unit 11. In other words, it is in a state where it can accept microprogram loading according to instructions from the central processing unit 11.

FIG. 2 is a memory map configuration diagram of the storage device 12.

In the address space of the central processing unit 11, each communication device LB
A common address and individual addresses are assigned to each individual address. Each individual address is assigned an address a individually assigned to a command decoder (command register) provided in each communication device, Address b assigned to the status register provided in the device
and an individual address C of the storage device 20 provided in each communication device.

In the information processing system configured as described above, when the system is started up, the microcomputer 22 in each communication device 10 receives the output signal of the command decoder 26 via the flip-flop 27 and stops operating as described above. . In this state, the central processing unit 11 first reads the microprogram data to be loaded commonly to each communication device from the storage device 12, and loads this microprogram data into each communication device allocated to the address space of the central processing unit 11. Write to a common address in the device (in each memory location). This operation is performed when the central processing unit 11
This is done by outputting a common address to the address decoder 28 in each communication device, identifying this common address, and opening the gates of the data buffer 23 and the address buffer 24 of each communication device. The central processing unit 11 repeats this operation until the microprogram data to be commonly loaded has been stored in the storage device 20 of each communication device.

Next, a case in which microprograms are individually loaded will be explained. In this case, the communication procedure for the communication device LBn is different from that of the other communication devices LB~LBn-□, so
Suppose we need to load another microprogram data. Therefore, the central processing unit 11 loads the common microprogram into each communication device, and then
A microprogram to be loaded into the communication device LBn is read from the storage device 12, and this microprogram data is written to an individual address of the communication device LBn (the storage device thereof) in the address space allocated to the central processing unit 11. Thereby, this microprogram data is stored in the storage device 20 of only the communication device LBn. As a result, in this embodiment, in the storage device 20 of the communication device LBn, the previously stored common microprogram data is overwritten with the subsequent individual microprogram data.

After loading the microprogram into each communication device 10 as described above, the central processing unit 11 connects to the common bus 1.
3, an operation start command is issued to each communication device 10. The command decoder 26 of each communication device 10 decodes this operation start command and turns the flip-flop 27 on. As a result, the flip-flop 27 starts the microcomputer 22. When the microcomputer 22 starts operating, it reads and executes the microprogram stored in the storage device 20.

Before each microcomputer 20 starts a communication procedure according to the microprogram, each microcomputer 20 first checks whether the microprogram loaded therein has been loaded correctly. This check is performed by comparing the sum check data attached to the loaded microprogram with the sum check data created by the microprogram itself and determining whether they match. If so, it is determined that the loading has been performed correctly, and the result is stored in the status register 21.

After the central processing unit 11 issues the operation start command,
The contents of the status register 21 of each communication device 10 are read to determine whether the microprogram has been correctly loaded, that is, whether each communication device LB, -LBn is operable.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure for individually loading microprograms. Since the details have been described above, this procedure will be briefly explained here. First, the central processing unit 11 loads the microprogram at address C of the communication device to which it is loaded, and then issues an operation start command to address a of the command decoder 26 of the communication device. Then, specify the address b of the status register 21 of the communication device, read the data in the register 21, determine whether or not the loading was done correctly, and if it is correct, end the processing for this communication device, and if it is not correct, then repeats again from loading the microprogram.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure for loading individually after batch loading.

First, load it all at once to a common address, then load it individually, specify the common address of the command decoder of each communication device, issue an operation start command, and read the data in each status register 21 of each communication device individually. to determine whether it has been loaded correctly.

If there is a communication device that has not been loaded correctly, load the microprogram (either a common microprogram or an individual microprogram) into that communication device individually, and perform the following processing. repeat. If there are many communication processing devices that are not loaded correctly, a large proportion of common microprograms are being loaded that day, and it is better to start over from batch loading, start over from batch loading.

After starting up the system, 1, for example, communication device L B.

If it becomes necessary to perform maintenance and inspection on the communication device LB,
The communication device LB specifies address a of the command decoder 26 and issues an operation stop command to stop the operation of the communication device LB. After maintenance and inspection, the necessary microprogram is loaded by specifying the individual address of the storage device 20 of the communication device LB, and then an operation start command is issued by specifying the address of the command decoder 26 of the communication device. do. As a result, if loading has been performed correctly, the communication device starts operating. In other words, maintenance and inspection can be performed without stopping the operation of other communication devices. This also applies when a different microprogram is reloaded into a communication device in order to change the communication procedure of that communication device.

When expanding the system, by loading a microprogram into a newly added communication device and starting up that communication device, the expansion can be done without stopping the operation of other communication devices.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it becomes possible to freely perform individual loading in addition to batch loading, and there is an effect that the degree of freedom is increased. Furthermore, even after system startup, system expansion, maintenance and inspection, etc. can be performed without stopping other information processing devices.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a memory map diagram showing the address space of the central processing unit shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the microprogram loading processing procedure. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Communication device (information processing device), 11... Central processing unit, 12... Common storage device, 13... Common bus, 20... Storage device, 21... Status register, 22 ...Microcomputer, 23...Data buffer,
24...Address buffer, 25...Local bus, 26...Command decoder, 27...Flip-flop, 28 Address decoder.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a microprogram loading method that loads a microprogram to a plurality of information processing devices at once and also loads a microprogram to each information processing device individually, specifying a plurality of information processing devices. In addition to the common address for each information processing device, an individual address is provided to specify each information processing device, and when loading the microprogram in bulk, the common address is used to load the microprogram, and when loading individually, the microprogram is loaded using the individual address. A microprogram loading method characterized by: 2. In a microprogram loading method for loading a microprogram into an information processing device, a stop command is sent to the information processing device to be loaded to stop the operation of only that information processing device, and then the microprogram is loaded into the information processing device. A microprogram loading method characterized by: 3. In a microprogram loading method that loads microprograms into multiple information processing devices at once and also loads microprograms individually into each information processing device, in addition to the common address that specifies multiple information processing devices, An individual address is provided to specify each information processing device, and when loading the microprogram in bulk, the common address is used to load the microprogram, and when loading individually, the individual address is used to send an operation stop command to process the information. A microprogram loading method characterized by loading a microprogram after stopping the operation of a device. 4. A microcomputer that includes a storage device that stores microprograms to be loaded into a plurality of information processing devices, and a central processing unit that instructs loading of the microprograms into the information processing devices using an address that specifies the information processing devices. A microprogram loading control device, characterized in that the addresses include a common address that collectively specifies a plurality of information processing devices, and an individual address that specifies each information processing device individually. 5. A microprogram loading control device comprising a storage device that stores a microprogram to be loaded into an information processing device, and a central processing unit that instructs loading of the microprogram into the information processing device, wherein the central processing unit is configured to load a microprogram into the information processing device. 1. A microprogram loading control device, characterized in that when loading a microprogram, an operation stop command is sent to an information processing device to which the information processing device is loaded, stopping only that information processing device and instructing the loading of the microprogram. 6. Identify the address data sent from the microprogram loading control device, and if the address specifies the self, in the information processing device that takes in the microprogram data loaded from the microprogram loading control device, other information processing An information processing device characterized in that two addresses are allocated to it: an address common to the device and an individual address that designates only itself. 7. An information processing device that captures microprogram data sent from a microprogram loading control device, characterized in that the information processing device receives an operation stop command from the microprogram loading control device, stops the operation, and then captures the microprogram data. Information processing device. 8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, further comprising means for checking whether the loaded microprogram is correct or not, and reloading the loaded microprogram if it is incorrect. 9. An information processing system comprising a microprogram loading control device according to claim 4 and a plurality of information processing devices according to claim 6 connected by a communication line or a bus. 10. An information processing system configured by connecting the microprogram loading control device according to claim 5 and the information processing device according to claim 7 via a communication line or a bus. 11. The information processing system according to claim 9 or claim 10, wherein the information processing apparatus includes means for checking whether the loaded microprogram is correct or not, and reloading the microprogram if it is incorrect.