JPH04239955A - Polling method in input/output device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the polling time by specifying the polling object input/ output device used for the prescribed processing and performing the polling only for the specified input/output device among plural input/output devices. CONSTITUTION:A polling object input/output device specifying means 13 in a main control unit 11 specifies the polling object input/output devices(card reader/printer 2, a banknote register 3, a dispenser of paper moneys 4 and a coin dispenser 5) based on the command transmitted corresponding to the pressing down of the operation keys in a customer operation part 6. A polling control means 14 performs the polling for the input/output devices 2 to 5 specified by the polling object input/output device specifying means 13.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a polling method for an input/output device, which is used in, for example, an automatic transaction device and polls the input/output device.

0002

[Prior Art] Automatic transaction devices generally used in financial institutions are equipped with input/output devices such as card readers/printers, bankbook entry machines, banknote deposit/withdrawal machines, etc., and these input/output devices are polled at predetermined time intervals. It is carried out. FIG. 2 shows a conventional automatic transaction device. The device shown in the figure includes a main control unit (MCU) 1, a card reader/printer 2, a bankbook entry machine 3, a banknote deposit/withdrawal machine 4, a coin deposit/withdrawal machine 5, and a customer operation section 6 as input/output devices. Become,
These devices are connected to a host 7 which is a host device.

[0003] The main control unit 1 is a device that controls the entire automatic transaction apparatus, and is composed of a processor and the like. The card reader/printer 2 is comprised of a printer that prints receipts and reads/writes cards. Further, the passbook entry machine 3 is a device that reads and writes the printed stripes of a customer's passbook, the banknote deposit and withdrawal machine 4 is a device that deposits and withdraws banknotes as cash, and the coin deposit and withdrawal machine 5 deposits and withdraws coins. It is a device. Further, each of these input/output devices and the main control unit 1 are connected by a serial interface, with the main control unit 1 as a master station and each input/output device as a slave station. The customer operation section 6 consists of a keyboard, a so-called touch panel on a CRT, etc., and is configured so that a predetermined operation can be selected by the customer.

[0004] Next, the operation of the automatic transaction apparatus having the above configuration will be explained. When the automatic transaction device is powered on, the main control unit 1 sends a polling signal to each input/output device at regular intervals to check whether each input/output device is connected normally. Check whether there is any information that should be sent from the source. Furthermore, after the transaction type is selected by pressing the transaction selection key on the customer operation unit 6,
The main control unit 1 (master station) sends a plurality of commands (commands) corresponding to the transaction to each input/output device (slave station), and performs transaction operations such as inhaling a card. Furthermore, it receives the resulting response, determines whether the input/output device has operated correctly, and completes the transaction operation.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of polling processing. First, the main control unit 1 sets a timer of 50 ms as the polling time interval (
Step S1), when this time has elapsed (Step S2
), and sends out a polling signal (step S3). When there is a polling response from each input/output device that has received the polling signal (step S4), it is determined whether there is data to be sent from the input/output device that responded (step S5).
). Further, if there is no response to the polling, it is assumed that a failure has occurred in the input/output device, and the handling as an automatic transaction device is discontinued (step S6). Furthermore, after the handling is stopped, it is monitored whether or not the faulty input/output device has been recovered (step S7), and if it has been recovered, the process returns to step S1 and the polling process is performed again. In step S5, if there is data to be sent from the input/output device, the main control unit 1 performs response reception processing, that is, the reception processing of the data sent from the input/output device (step S8).
Then, the polling target input/output device is changed (step S11). If there is no data to be sent from the input/output device, it is determined whether the main control unit 1 is sending a command to the input/output device (step S9). That is, for example, it is determined whether the card reader/printer 2 is instructed to suck a card, and if a command sending instruction has been issued, the command is sent (step S10) and the process moves to step S11.

FIG. 4 shows a time chart of polling intervals for each input/output device. That is, when a card intake instruction or a cash dispensing instruction is sent, polling is sequentially performed from the card reader/printer 2 to the coin depositing/dispensing machine 5 for each command. Therefore, 200ms for each command
polling time is required.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned polling method for an automatic transaction device, polling is performed from the main control unit 1 to each input/output device in sequence. Looking at the polling interval of , the service interval is 200ms. In other words, the time required to poll one input/output device is only 50ms, but since polling is performed on all input/output devices regardless of the transaction content, the percentage of wasted processing time for the entire transaction is The problem was that there were many. Moreover, since all input/output devices are polled sequentially for each command, there is also the problem that if one input/output device becomes unresponsive due to a failure, the entire automatic transaction device must also go down. Ta.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it shortens the polling time for each process and prevents the entire device from going down even if a failure occurs in one input/output device. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a polling method for input/output devices that can prevent such problems.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides an input/output device polling method for polling a plurality of input/output devices, in which an input/output device to be polled for use in a predetermined process is specified, and the input/output devices are Among them, this method is characterized by polling only the specified input/output device.

0010

[Operation] The input/output device polling method of the present invention specifies a polling target input/output device used for a predetermined process among a plurality of input/output devices, and polls only the specified input/output device. Therefore, the overall polling time for each input/output device is shortened, and even if a failure occurs in a specific input/output device, the entire polling device will not go down.

[0011]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an automatic transaction device for implementing the input/output device polling method of the present invention. The device shown in the figure is main control unit 1.
1, a memory 12, a card reader/printer 2, a bankbook entry machine 3, a banknote deposit/dispensing machine 4, a coin deposit/dispensing machine 5, and a customer operation section 6 as input/output devices, and these devices are connected to the host 7. It is connected.

The main control unit 11 is provided with polling target input/output device specifying means 13 and polling control means 14. The polling target input/output device specifying means 13 has a function of identifying the polling target input/output device based on a command sent in response to the press of an operation key of the customer operation section 6, and
4 has a function of polling the input/output device specified by the polling target input/output device specifying means 13. The memory 12 is comprised of a read-only memory, etc., and stores control programs and the like corresponding to each transaction in the automatic transaction device. In addition, each input/output device 2 to 5
and the main control unit 1 are connected by a serial interface with the main control unit 1 as the master station and each of the input/output devices 2 to 5 as slave stations, and furthermore, the customer operation section 6 and host 7 are the same as the conventional configuration. , corresponding parts are given the same reference numerals and their explanations will be omitted.

Next, the operation of the automatic transaction apparatus having the above configuration will be explained. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the transaction operation of a general automatic transaction device. First, if the automatic transaction device is not in use and is waiting for a customer (step S10), and the transaction selection key of the customer operation section 6 is not pressed (step S10),
11) The main control unit 11 sends a check command to each input/output device (step S12). This check command is used to check, for example, whether the receipt in the card reader/printer 2 is missing or whether all kinds of banknotes are present in the banknote deposit/withdrawal machine 4. A check command signal is sent every 5 seconds using the signal cycle. When the customer presses the transaction selection key, payment processing, deposit processing, bookkeeping processing, etc. are performed depending on the details of the transaction. For example, in the case of payment processing by card, first, the card reader/printer 2 is used to suck the card and read its data (step S13). Next, the main control unit 11 reads the payment amount input by the customer (
Step S14), and communicates with the host 7 to check whether there is a balance in the customer's account, etc. (Step S15). host 7
If there is no problem in communication with
18) The card is returned (step S19) by the card reader/printer 2, and the banknote deposit/withdrawal machine 4 discharges cash banknotes (step S20) to complete the payment transaction. Furthermore, since the deposit transaction process and the bookkeeping transaction process are performed in the same way as the payment process described above by a command group (step S30, step S40) corresponding to these transactions, a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

Next, the polling process of the present invention will be explained. That is, in the present invention, polling is sent only to input/output devices that have been instructed to send a command from the main control unit 11, or to input/output devices that are waiting for a response indicating their operating status after sending a command. For example, in the card suction and read processing (step S13) in the flowchart of FIG. polling will not be sent if

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of polling processing. First, as described above, it is determined whether the main control unit 11 is sending a command to each input/output device or is in a state of waiting for a response from each input/output device due to command sending (step S50). Here, if it is a command sending instruction or a response is being waited for, polling is sent out at intervals of 50 ms as in the conventional case (steps S51, 52, and 53). As a result, if there is a polling response (step S54), it is determined whether there is data to be sent from the polling target input/output device (step S55). Further, if there is no response to polling in step S54, processing such as line failure processing or the like is performed to disable only that input/output device (step S5
6) Change the input/output device to be polled (step S60). If there is data to be sent from the input/output device in step S55, response reception processing such as checking the content of the response is performed (step S57);
Change the input/output device to be polled (step S6
0). If there is no data to be sent, the polling target input/output device is checked to see if there is any other command sending instruction (step S58), and if there is a sending instruction, that command is sent (step S58). S59), the process proceeds to step S60, and if there is no transmission instruction, the process directly proceeds to step S60. Therefore, for example, in the payment process shown in FIG.
9 and 20, 6 commands are used, so polling time for each step conventionally took 200 ms, but in this embodiment, it takes 50 ms for each step, so the overall device time is 150 ms x 6 = 900 ms. time has been shortened.

FIG. 7 shows a polling time chart corresponding to the payment transaction processing shown in FIG. In this way, since the polling time is 50 ms for each command, the total time is 300 ms, which is a significant time reduction compared to the conventional method. In addition, in the above embodiment, if there is no response from polling, only that input/output device is disabled, so transactions that do not use the disabled input/output device can be executed, and all transactions can be performed as before. is prevented from becoming infeasible.

[0017] In the above embodiment, the polling method of the input/output device was explained using an automatic transaction device as an example.
It is not limited to this, but it also has multiple input/output devices such as teller devices used in financial institutions, performs various processes using any of these input/output devices, and performs these input/output devices. If polling is performed on the device, the same effects as in the above embodiment can be achieved.

[0018]

As explained above, according to the input/output device polling method of the present invention, polling is performed only to the input/output device used for a predetermined process among the plurality of input/output devices. A device that can significantly reduce the overall polling time for each input/output device, and that can adapt to the problem without causing the entire device to go down even if a failure occurs in an input/output device used only for specific processing. The reliability of the system can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an automatic transaction device for implementing the input/output device polling method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an automatic transaction device for implementing a conventional input/output device polling method.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of polling processing of a conventional automatic transaction device.

FIG. 4 is a time chart of polling processing of a conventional automatic transaction device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the transaction operation of the automatic transaction device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of polling processing of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a time chart of polling processing according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Card reader/printer 3 Passbook recording machine 4 Banknote deposit/dispensing machine 5 Coin deposit/dispensing machine 6 Customer operation section 13 Polling target input/output device specifying means 14 Polling control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1. In an input/output device polling method for polling a plurality of input/output devices, an input/output device to be polled used for a predetermined process is specified, and the input/output device specified among the plurality of input/output devices is A polling method for input/output devices characterized by polling only devices.