JPH04316115A - Data processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the power consumption of a data processor by setting the time interval for stopping the drive of a magnetic disk device based on the actual use state of the device. CONSTITUTION:Different time intervals are respectively assigned to plural counters (14-1)-(14-n) and the values of the counters corresponding to actual instruction issuing time intervals to a hard disk drive 19 are updated. Accordingly, the statistics of the instruction issuing time intervals are collected from the values of the counters (14-1)-(14-n) and the motor stopping reference time interval Tk of the drive 19 which is appropriate to stop the drive of a motor can be selected from the statistics. A time interval at which the issuing frequency of an instruction having a time interval longer than the motor stopping reference time interval Tk is selected as the time interval Tk.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus such as a personal computer or a word processor, and more particularly to a data processing apparatus equipped with a magnetic recording/reproducing device.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, personal computers and word processors have become smaller and smaller, and various portable small electronic devices such as so-called laptop types and notebook types have been developed.

[0003] Since these small electronic devices such as personal computers and word processors are often used battery-powered, it is required to reduce their power consumption. In particular, in devices equipped with magnetic disk devices, a large amount of power is consumed to drive the magnetic disk device, especially the motor of the magnetic disk device, so it is important to reduce the power consumption by driving the motor. It is.

[0004] For this reason, in conventional equipment, as a measure to reduce power consumption, a method has been adopted in which the drive of the magnetic disk device is stopped when the magnetic disk device is not used for a certain reference time or more.

[0005] However, since the reference time interval for stopping the drive was fixedly determined by the user,
The motor is stopped only when the magnetic disk drive has not been used for a considerable period of time so as not to interfere with the actual use of the magnetic disk drive.

[0006] Therefore, when the magnetic disk drive is used intermittently at relatively short time intervals, there is a problem in that the motor is not stopped at all and power consumption is not reduced.

[0007] In order to reduce power consumption, it is necessary to set the reference time interval as short as possible. but,
The actual usage time interval of a magnetic disk device varies greatly depending on the user, the content of data processing, etc. For this reason, it has been extremely difficult to set the reference time interval to an appropriate value.

[0008]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, the time interval for stopping the drive of a magnetic disk device was fixed, so when the magnetic disk device was used intermittently at relatively short time intervals, However, there was a problem in that the drive was not stopped and the power consumption was not reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is possible to set the time interval for stopping the drive of a magnetic disk device based on the actual usage status of the magnetic disk device, thereby reducing power consumption. An object of the present invention is to provide a data processing device that can efficiently realize the following.

0010

[Means and effects for solving the problems] This invention has the following features:
In a data processing device equipped with an input/output device, means for measuring the issuance time interval of instructions accessed to the input/output device, and means for taking statistics of the instruction issuance time interval, and based on the statistical results, the input/output device and means for determining a non-issuance time interval of the command and comparing it with the drive stop time, and suppressing the drive of the input/output device based on the comparison result. shall be.

[0011] In this data processing device, statistics of instruction issuance time intervals are taken, and an appropriate drive stop time for stopping the driving of the input/output device is selected based on the statistical results. As a result, it becomes possible to set the drive stop time based on the actual usage status of the input/output device such as a magnetic disk device, and it becomes possible to efficiently reduce power consumption.

0012

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of a data processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This data processing device is, for example, a small portable personal computer such as a laptop or notebook type, or a word processor, and is configured to be battery-powered.

This data processing device includes a CPU 11, a system bus 12, and a memory 13, and the storage area of the memory 13 includes a counter group 14 configured by software, an instruction issue time storage section 15, and a motor stop reference time. An interval (TK) storage section 16 is allocated.

Furthermore, the data processing device includes a clock device 1.
7, a hard disk controller 18, and a hard disk drive 19 are provided.

The CPU 11 is in charge of overall control of this data processing device, and executes various processes according to a control program (not shown) stored in the memory 13. This CPU 11 has a function to determine the motor stop reference time interval (TK) for stopping the motor of the hard disk drive 19, and a function to determine the motor stop reference time interval (TK) for stopping the motor of the hard disk drive 19, and a function to determine the motor stop reference time interval (TK) for stopping the motor of the hard disk drive 19 when the hard disk drive 19 is unused for the motor stop reference time interval (TK) or more. A function is provided to stop the motor.

The system bus 12 is a communication path that interconnects the CPU 11, memory 13, clock device 17, and hard disk controller 18, and is composed of various control signal lines, an address bus, and a data bus.

The counter group 14 allocated to the storage area of the memory 13 includes n counters (C
1 to Cn) 14-1 to 14-n.

These counters (C1 to Cn) 14-
1 to 14-n are used to obtain statistics on instruction issuance time intervals of access commands (data write commands, data read commands, etc.) issued from the CPU 11 to the hard disk controller 18, and these counters (C1 to C
n) Different time intervals are assigned to 14-1 to 14-n.

In this case, counters (C1 to Cn)1
The time intervals respectively assigned to 4-1 to 14-n are calculated from the counter (C1) 14-1 to the counter (Cn).
14-n, it is set to increase successively at a constant increment width. Counter (C1 to Cn) 14-1
~14-n are each updated by +1 when the corresponding instruction issue time interval is detected.

[0021] The instruction issue time storage unit 15 stores the CPU 11
The time when the command was sent from to the hard disk controller 18 is stored. In the motor stop reference time interval (TK) storage unit 16, the CPU 11 stores counter group 1.
Motor stop reference time interval (TK) obtained in conjunction with 4.
is stored.

The clock device 17 periodically generates an interrupt to measure the time interval between issuing instructions to the hard disk controller 18 .

The hard disk controller 18 is a CP
It drives and controls the hard disk drive 19 under the control of U11, and executes data write/read control, stop control of the hard disk drive 19, and the like.

The hard disk drive 19 is configured to write data on a plurality of disk-shaped magnetic recording media, and has two motors, namely, a spindle motor that rotates the magnetic recording medium, and a magnetic head. It includes a carriage motor that rotates the carriage on which it is mounted.

Since the spindle motor consumes relatively large power, stopping of the spindle motor is controlled by the hard disk controller 18 here.

Next, the setting operation of the motor stop reference time interval (TK) in the data processing device of FIG. 1 and the stop control operation of the motor of the hard disk drive 19 will be explained with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3. .

When the CPU 11 issues a command to the hard disk controller 18 to write/read data to the hard disk drive 19, the process shown in FIG.
The motor stop reference time interval (TK) setting processing routine is started.

In this routine, first, CPU1
1, the instruction issuance time interval T to the hard disk drive 19 is determined (step S1). This instruction issue time interval T is determined by subtracting the previous instruction issue time stored in the instruction issue time storage section 15 from the current time, that is, the current instruction issue time.

Next, the content of the instruction issue time storage section 15 is updated by the CPU 11 (step S2). That is, the CPU 11 sets the current time, that is, the current instruction issue time, as the new instruction issue time and stores it in the instruction issue time storage unit 1.
Store in 5.

After this, the counters (C1 to Cn) 14
-1 to 14-n, a counter (Ci) to which a time interval corresponding to the instruction issuance time interval T found in step S1 is assigned is found, and the counter (Ci
) is incremented by +1 (step S3).

Here, if the time interval assigned to the counter (Ci) is ti, then the counter (Ci-1)
If the time interval assigned to
A counter (Ci) that satisfies <T≦ti is
The counter is selected as a counter corresponding to the instruction issuance time interval T.

Next, the CPU 11 registers the counter group 14.
, that is, the counters (C1 to Cn) 14-1 to 14
−nThe sum of all counter values (i=1Σn Ci)
is obtained (step S4).

Thereafter, the CPU 11 converts a certain counter (Ck) 14-k to the final counter (Cn) 14.
- sum of counter values up to n (i=kΣn Ci)
is calculated, and the ratio of the total value (i=kΣn Ci) to the total sum (i=1Σn Ci) of the counter group 14 calculated in step S4 {(i=kΣn
A value k such that Ci )/(i=1Σn Ci )} is smaller than a predetermined value P is determined (step S5).
.

In this case, {( i=kΣn Ci )/
There may be multiple values of k that satisfy (i=1Σn Ci)}<P. At this time, among these multiple k, {( i=kΣn Ci )/( i=1Σ
n Ci )} is selected as k.

Furthermore, if there is a counter whose counter value is "0", {( i=kΣn Ci )/( i=1Σ
n Ci )}<P among k such that {( i
= kΣn Ci )/( i = 1Σn Ci )} is the largest value.

Therefore, in the next step S6, C
The PU 11 determines the minimum time interval Tk {Tk = min(tk )} among the time intervals tk assigned to the counter Ck corresponding to the value of k determined in step S5, and uses that time interval Tk as the motor stop criterion. It is stored in the motor stop reference time interval storage unit 16 as a time interval (step S7).

When the value of k is close to 1, it is preferable to select a time interval that is about two to three times the minimum time interval Tk as the motor stop reference time interval. In this way, hard disk drive 1 can be updated at relatively short time intervals.
Even if access to the hard disk drive 19 is requested, the access can be executed without stopping the motor of the hard disk drive 19.

Next, the stop control operation of the motor of the hard disk drive 19 will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

[0039] The CPU 11 periodically activates interrupt processing at certain fixed time intervals. In this interrupt processing, first, the timer 17 determines the unissued time interval T' of commands such as writing/reading data from the CPU 11 to the hard disk drive 19 (step S11).

The instruction non-issuance time interval T' is obtained by subtracting the previous instruction issue time stored in the instruction issue time storage section 15 from the current time when the interrupt process was activated.

Next, the CPU 11 executes a comparison process between the command unissued time interval T' obtained in step S11 and the motor stop reference time interval Tk stored in the motor stop reference time interval storage section 16, and the command It is determined whether or not the unissued time interval T' is greater than or equal to the motor stop reference time interval Tk (step S12).

If the command non-issuance time interval T' has a value greater than or equal to the motor stop reference time interval Tk, the CPU 11
A motor stop command is issued to the hard disk controller 18 (step S13). Then, upon receiving the motor stop command, the hard disk controller 18 stops the rotation of the spindle motor of the hard disk drive 19.

As described above, in this embodiment, different time intervals are assigned to the plurality of counters (C1 to Cn) 14-1 to 14-n, and the actual instruction issuance time interval to the hard disk drive 19 is The value of the counter corresponding to T is updated. For this reason, statistics of command issuing time intervals are taken based on the values of these counters 14-1 to 14-n, and based on the statistical results, an appropriate motor stop reference time interval is determined for stopping the drive of the motor of the hard disk drive 19. Tk can be selected.

As this motor stop reference time interval Tk, a time interval is selected such that the frequency of issuing commands having a longer command issuance time interval than the motor stop reference time interval Tk is smaller than a predetermined value P.

As a result, the motor stop reference time interval Tk is determined based on the actual usage state of the hard disk drive 19.
In addition, it becomes possible to set the motor stop reference time interval Tk to the shortest value within the range that does not hinder access to the hard disk drive 19, and it is possible to efficiently reduce power consumption. It becomes possible.

In this embodiment, the counters 14-1 to 14-1
14-n is realized in software on the memory 13, but it is also possible to realize them in hardware.

Furthermore, the present invention is applicable not only to hard disk drives but also to floppy disk drives.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention, the time interval for stopping the drive of a magnetic disk device can be set based on the actual usage status of the magnetic disk device, thereby reducing power consumption. This can be achieved efficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation for setting a motor stop reference time interval in the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a motor stop control operation in the same embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11...CPU, 12...System bus, 13...Memory, 1
4... Counter group, 15... Motor stop reference time interval storage section, 16... Command issue time storage section, 17... Timing device, 18...
Hard disk controller, 19...hard disk drive.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data processing device equipped with an input/output device, comprising: means for measuring an issuance time interval of instructions accessed to the input/output device; and a means for measuring the instruction issuance time interval, and based on the statistical results. , means for determining a driving stop time of the input/output device, and means for determining a time interval during which the command is not issued and comparing it with the driving stop time, and suppressing driving of the input/output device based on the comparison result. A data processing device comprising: