JPH04216367A - Disk control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control seek operations in parallel by plural floppy disk driving means. CONSTITUTION:The disk control device 220 for controlling read and write operations by one of plural floppy disk driving means is constituted by providing a driving signal generating means 111 for generating a driving signal S under time sharing for driving plural floppy disk driving means 101 in movement of their respective heads and sending the signal to the plural floppy disk means 101 and a driving control means 121 for inputting a driving instruction I showing the timing for generating the driving signal corresponding to each floppy disk driving means 101 and making the operation of a relevant floppy disk driving means 101 effective in synchronization with the timing for generating each driving signal.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk control device for controlling the operation of a floppy disk device. Floppy disk devices are used as external storage devices for various information processing devices such as computers and word processors. Further, in a printer device, a floppy disk device is used as a loader, and when the power is turned on, firmware related to the control of the printer device, pattern data representing the shape of characters, etc. are loaded into a control memory or a character generator.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art A floppy disk device is connected to an information processing device or a printer device via a disk control device. The operation is controlled according to instructions from an information processing device or the like.

Normally, there is a one-to-one correspondence between a disk control device and a floppy disk drive unit (drive) provided in a floppy disk device, and after outputting an instruction to the drive, the disk control device The system waits for a response from the drive and then inputs the next instruction. Therefore, when executing a seek command to move the head of a floppy disk drive, the disk control device inputs a pulse instructing the floppy disk drive to drive the step motor, and the head moves one cylinder from the floppy disk drive side. The next pulse is input after waiting for a response indicating that the robot has moved by a certain amount. Therefore, the seek operation requires a time obtained by multiplying the time t required for the step motor to complete one pulse of rotation operation by the amount of movement of the head (number of cylinders).

0004

By the way, in a printer device or the like, there are cases where it is desired to add a drive to a floppy disk device in response to an increase in the capacity of firmware to be loaded or the addition of new pattern data. In this case, if a disk control device corresponding to the added drive is added, the circuit scale will increase, leading to an increase in the size of the printer device.

On the other hand, if the configuration is such that the operation of one drive is controlled after the operation of the other drive is completed, it is possible to control two drives with one disk control device. In this case, the seek operation takes twice as long as the conventional one. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a disk control device that controls seek operations by a plurality of floppy disk drive means in parallel.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention. The present invention relates to a disk control device that controls reading and writing operations by any one of a plurality of floppy disk drive means 101. In the floppy disk drive means 101 , a drive signal generating means 111 generates a drive signal for driving the movement of the head of each of the plurality of floppy disk drive means 101 in a time division manner and sends it to the plurality of floppy disk drive means 101 .
Then, a drive instruction indicating the generation timing of the drive signal corresponding to each floppy disk drive means 101 is input, and drive control is performed to enable the operation of the corresponding floppy disk drive means 101 in synchronization with the generation timing of each drive signal. It is characterized by comprising means 121.

[0007]

[Operation] The present invention provides that the drive control means 12
By enabling the floppy disk drive means 101 to which No. 1 corresponds, it becomes possible to time-divisionally input the corresponding drive signals to these floppy disk drive means 101, and the seek operation by the plurality of floppy disk drive means 101 becomes possible. can be controlled in parallel.

[0008]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an embodiment of a printer device to which the disk control device of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 2, the printer device includes a microprocessor (hereinafter referred to as M
(abbreviated as PU) 211 and a control storage unit (CS) 212
, a character generator (CG) 213, and a printing section 214 are connected via a bus. This printer device is equipped with two floppy disk drive means 101 (hereinafter referred to as drive a and drive b) as a loader and a disk control device 220, and these drives a and b are controlled via the disk control device 220. and is connected to the bus mentioned above.

The two drives a and b mentioned above receive selection signals Sela and S that are input from the disk controller 220.
Each becomes valid according to elb, and the step pulse S
The configuration is such that a designated head is moved in response to the input of tep and surface designation signal Dir. In the figure, the disk control device 220 includes a drive signal generation means 111 consisting of a floppy disk control circuit (FDC) 222, a pulse generation circuit 223, a surface designation signal generation circuit 224, a switching signal generation circuit 227, and a multiplexer 228; The configuration includes a selection signal generation circuit 226 corresponding to the drive control means 121.

The above-mentioned floppy disk control circuit 22
2 corresponds to a conventional disk control device,
It operates in response to instructions from the MPU 211 and controls the operation of a designated drive. This floppy disk control circuit 222 operates according to the seek command.
Step pulse Step0 and surface designation signal Dir0
and outputs these signals as the first drive signal.

The pulse generation circuit 223 and the surface designation signal generation circuit 224 operate according to instructions from the MPU 211, and generate the step pulse Step1 and the surface designation signal Di at a timing different from the first drive signal described above.
It is configured to output a second drive signal consisting of r1. For example, as shown in FIGS. 3A to 3D, the step pulse Step1 and the surface designation signal Di are delayed by a predetermined time δ from the first drive signal composed of the step pulse Step0 and the surface designation signal Dir0.
It is sufficient to output a second drive signal consisting of r1. Here, this predetermined time δ may be, for example, half of the time t required for the head to move by one cylinder in response to the input of the step pulse Step in the drives a and b.

[0012] This second drive signal and the above-mentioned first drive signal are each input to a multiplexer 228. Further, as shown in FIG. 3(e), the switching signal generation circuit 225 outputs a logic "1" as a switching signal in synchronization with the first drive signal described above, and supplies the first drive signal to the multiplexer 228. The configuration is such that it instructs the selection of a signal, and outputs a logic "0" in synchronization with the second drive signal to instruct the selection of the second drive signal.

[0013] As a result, the multiplexer 228 outputs the first drive signal and the second drive signal in a time-division manner.
Step pulse St as shown in Fig. 3(f),(g)
A drive signal consisting of ep and a surface designation signal Dir is obtained. This drive signal is input to both of the two drives a and b mentioned above as an output of the disk control device. Further, the selection signal generation circuit 226 receives control information indicating which drives are respectively driven by the first drive signal and the second drive signal described above by the MPU 211, and based on this control information, the first drive signal and the second drive signal are Second
In synchronization with the selection of drive signals, a selection signal Sela (or a selection signal Se) is activated to enable the corresponding drive.
The configuration is such that a pulse with a pulse width τ is output as lb). This pulse width τ may be determined so that the step pulse can be read accurately on the drive side.

The selection signals Sela and Selb are outputted from the disk controller 220 to the two drives a,
b. Hereinafter, a method will be described in which the disk control device 220 described above drives the two drives a and b in response to instructions from the MPU 211 and executes seek operations in parallel.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart representing a seek operation. First, the MPU 211 calculates the head movement amount as the number of cylinders for each of drives a and b (step 401). Furthermore, based on this movement amount, the drives to be driven by the first drive signal and the second drive signal are respectively determined, and control information indicating this determination is input to the selection signal generation circuit 226 described above (step 402).

Next, the MPU 211 instructs the floppy disk control circuit 222 to specify the destination cylinder number and the specified surface in the corresponding drive, and
Pulse generation circuit 223 and surface designation signal generation circuit 224
Instructs the amount of movement in the drive corresponding to the second drive signal and the specified surface (step 403), outputs a seek command, and starts the disk control device 220 (step 404).

In response, the floppy disk control circuit 222, pulse generation circuit 223, and surface designation signal generation circuit 224 generate a first drive signal and a second drive signal, respectively (FIG. 3(a) to ()). d) Reference)
. A switching signal is generated by the switching signal generation circuit 225 in synchronization with the first drive signal and the second drive signal, and the multiplexer 228 operates according to this switching signal, and the first drive signal and the second drive signal are Figure 3 is selected alternately.
As shown in (f) and (g), the step pulse Ste
p and a surface designation signal Dir.

[0018] Here, according to the above-mentioned control information, the first
If it is shown that the drive signal and drive a correspond and the second drive signal and drive b correspond, the selection signals Sela and Se generated by the selection signal generation circuit 226
lb changes as shown in FIGS. 3(h) and (i). In this case, drive a selects the selection signal Sela.
A head movement operation is performed in response to a step pulse Step and a surface designation signal Dir inputted in synchronization with the selection signal Sela. The head is moved in accordance with the surface designation signal Dir.

In this way, the first drive signal and the second drive signal are switched by the multiplexer 228 and outputted in a time-division manner, and the corresponding drive is enabled in synchronization with this switching operation, whereby the first drive signal The corresponding drives are driven in parallel by the second drive signal and the second drive signal.
Seek operations can be executed simultaneously in the two drives a and b.

[0020] As a result, the time required for the seek operation can be significantly shortened compared to the case where the seek operations in the two drives a and b are performed sequentially, and firmware and pattern data can be loaded at high speed. can. Furthermore, since the pulse generation circuit 223, surface designation signal generation circuit 224, switching signal generation circuit 225, and selection signal generation circuit 226 described above can be realized with simple circuits, the addition of these circuits can improve the performance of the disk control device. The circuit scale does not increase.

By the way, in this case, for the drive driven by the floppy disk control circuit 222, the floppy disk control circuit 222 notifies the MPU 211 whether or not the seek operation has been completed normally. You can confirm that the seek operation has completed successfully. However, with respect to the drive driven using the second drive signal, it is not possible to confirm the normal completion of the seek operation depending on the normal function of the floppy disk control circuit 222.

Hereinafter, a method for confirming the normal completion of a seek operation for a drive driven using this second drive signal will be explained. Floppy disk control circuit 22
2 outputs the first drive signals for the number of cylinders instructed in step 402 described above, performs interrupt processing in response to a response from the drive side, and notifies the MPU 211 that the seek operation has ended. Accordingly, M.P.
The U211 determines that the seek operation has ended, makes an affirmative determination in step 405, and determines whether the seek operation has ended normally based on the above-mentioned end notification (step 406).

In the case of an affirmative determination in step 406, the MPU 211 provides control information for the selection signal generation circuit 226 in which the drive determined to be driven by the second drive signal in step 402 (for example, drive b) is the first drive signal. The information corresponding to the signal is input (step 407). Furthermore, the MPU 211 specifies the cylinder number to which the head of this drive will move, instructs the floppy disk control circuit 222 to drive this drive, and starts a seek operation (step 408
).

[0024] Here, in response to the above-mentioned second drive signal,
If the drive in question is working properly, proceed to step 4.
When the seek operation is started in 08, it is already
The head is moving to the position specified by the cylinder number. Therefore, in this case, the floppy disk control circuit 2
22 confirms the position of the head of the corresponding drive before outputting the first drive signal, the drive side returns the cylinder number of the destination, and the floppy disk control circuit 222 causes the MPU 211 to perform a seek operation. You will be notified that the process has ended. In response to this termination notification, MPU
211 determines in step 409 that the simultaneous seek operation has ended normally, and ends the seek operation.

On the other hand, in the case of a negative determination in step 406 and step 409 described above, the MPU 21
1, error handling is performed. Note that there is no limit to the number of drives that perform seek operations at the same time; for example,
A configuration may be adopted in which four drives are driven in parallel. In this case, in addition to the floppy disk control circuit 222, three pulse generation circuits 223 and three surface designation signal generation circuits 224 are provided, and drive signals for the four drives are time-divisionally outputted by a multiplexer. Similarly, the generation circuit 226 may output a selection signal for each drive based on control information regarding the correspondence between each drive signal and each drive.

[0026]

As described above, the present invention enables each floppy disk drive means to be activated in synchronization with the generation timing of the drive signal corresponding to each floppy disk drive means. This makes it possible to control the seek operations of these floppy disk drives in parallel, and shortens the time required for seek operations by these floppy disk drive means, thereby increasing the data access speed of the floppy disk drive as a whole. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a printer device to which the disk control device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a timing diagram showing the operation of the disk control device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representing a seek operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 Floppy disk drive means 111 Drive signal generation means 121 Drive control means 211 Microprocessor (MPU) 212 Control storage section (CS) 213 Character generator (CG) 214
Printing section 220 Disk control device 222 Floppy disk control circuit (FDC) 22
3 Pulse generation circuit 224 Surface designation signal generation circuit 225 Switching signal generation circuit 226 Selection signal generation circuit 228 Multiplexer

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A plurality of floppy disk drive means (
101), in which a drive signal for driving the movement of each head of the plurality of floppy disk drive means (101) is generated in a time-sharing manner, drive signal generating means (111) for sending to the disk drive means (101); and each of the floppy disk drive means (101).
A drive control means (121) receives a drive instruction indicating the generation timing of the drive signal corresponding to 01) and enables the operation of the corresponding floppy disk drive means (101) in synchronization with the generation timing of each drive signal. A disk control device comprising: