JPH0552947U - Peripheral equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To obtain a peripheral device that is highly reliable and reduces the burden on the user. [Structure] The DRAM 2 is used as an additional memory of a personal computer, and the EEPROM 3 stores control method setting item data for determining the control method of the RAM board.
It can be written by software operation on a personal computer under the control of C5. The EEPROM 4 stores a first and a second interrupt processing setting program, a device driver built-in program and a device driver. By executing the interrupts sequentially, the device driver of the additional memory device is automatically incorporated (registered) on the MS-DOS. [Effect] Since the control method can be set by software operation and the device driver is automatically registered, the burden on the user is greatly reduced and the reliability is also improved.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial application]

 The present invention relates to a peripheral device used in a computer equipped with an OS capable of controlling the peripheral device by registering a peripheral device control setting program at initialization.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 An expansion memory device is one of the peripheral devices for personal computers. The additional memory device is needed for personal computer users who cannot satisfy the standard memory capacity of the personal computer because the application software used on the personal computer operates insufficiently and cannot handle a large amount of data.

An example of mounting the additional memory device on a personal computer will be described below by taking a PC-9801 series personal computer manufactured by NEC as a personal computer and a general-purpose RAM board for PC-9801 as an additional memory device.

First, the user, while looking at the instruction attached to the general-purpose RAM board, sets the control method of the RAM board to a desired control method. Match. After that, the general-purpose RAM board is inserted into the expansion slot on the back side of the personal computer, and the hardware level connection with the PC is performed.

Next, in order to make the RAM board actually controllable by the personal computer, the software operating level (DOS), which is software for performing basic operations on the personal computer, enables control of the additional RAM board. Connect with. Hereinafter, the MS-DOS (registered trademark) of Microsoft Corporation in the United States will be taken up as the DOS, and the connection method at the software level will be described.

On the MS-DOS, a software-level connection with a peripheral device is performed by registering (embedding) a program for controlling a peripheral device called a device driver in the system during the initialization operation of the MS-DOS. Be seen.

The device driver is always prepared corresponding to the peripheral device, and this device driver is stored in a disk accessed by the MD-DOS at the time of initialization with a predetermined file name. CONFIG. By writing in a special registration file called SYS, it can be installed on the system during the initialization operation of MS-DOS. Once the device driver is installed, the peripheral device can be controlled on the MS-DOS under the control of the device driver.

Therefore, the user himself / herself stores the device driver for the general-purpose RAM board on the disk, and the registration file CONFIG. By writing the device driver file name in SYS, the personal computer and general-purpose RAM board can be connected at the software level for the first time.

[0009]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 Peripheral devices used in computers equipped with an OS that enables control of peripheral devices by registering a peripheral device control program on the system, such as conventional memory expansion devices for personal computers equipped with MS-DOS To use, it was necessary to make connections at the hardware level and software level as described above.

In the hardware level connection, it is necessary to set the control method by operating a mechanical part such as a DIP switch, which is troublesome and easy to make an operation error. However, there was a problem of burdening the user. In addition, the mechanical part is easily damaged and has low reliability.

On the other hand, in the software-level connection, the user has to perform the registration work of the above-mentioned peripheral device control program called the device driver, which causes an extra burden on the user. there were.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to obtain a peripheral device for a computer, which is highly reliable and reduces the burden on the user.

[0013]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The peripheral device according to claim 1 according to the present invention is used for a computer equipped with an operating system (OS) capable of controlling a peripheral device by registering the peripheral device control program on the system. , Stores control method setting items to set its own control method, and externally rewritable storage means, and sets its own control method after power-on and reset of the computer based on the control method setting items And a control method setting means.

The peripheral device according to claim 2 is used in a computer equipped with an operating system (OS) capable of controlling a peripheral device by registering a peripheral device control program in the system. A storage means for storing its own peripheral device control program, and a peripheral device control program registration means for automatically registering the peripheral device control program on the OS when the OS is initialized. It is configured.

[0015]

[Action]

 The peripheral device according to claim 1 of the present invention stores a control method setting item for setting its own control method and has a rewritable storage means from the outside, so the control method setting on the OS of the computer is performed. The control method can be set by writing the control method setting item in the storage means by software operation by a program or the like.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the peripheral device control program registration means for a peripheral device automatically loads the peripheral device control program stored in the storage means onto the OS when the OS is initialized. Since the registration is performed, the user of the peripheral device can control the peripheral device on the OS simply by connecting the peripheral device to the computer at the hardware level without knowing the existence of the program for controlling the peripheral device.

[0017]

【Example】

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a general-purpose RAM board which is an additional memory device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, DRAM 2, EEP ROMs 3, 4 and ASIC 5 are provided on the board 1.

The AS (Application System) IC 5 is a memory control unit configured by a gate array and controlling the memories 2 to 4. The ASIC 5 is connected to a personal computer outside the board 1 via a personal computer bus 20, an address bus 21, a control bus 22 and a data bus 23, and is also connected to the DRAM 2 via an address bus 24, a control bus 25 and a data bus 23. The EEPROM 3 is connected via the data line 26 and the control bus 27, and the EEPROM 4 is connected via the address bus 24, the data bus 23 and the control bus 28.

The DRAM 2 is used as an expansion memory of a personal computer, and inputs / outputs data in parallel with the ASIC 5 or an external personal computer in a predetermined bit unit via the data bus 23. The EEROM 3 stores control method setting item data that determines the control method of the RAM board, and serially inputs / outputs data via the ASIC 5 and the data line 27. The EEPROM 4 stores a first and second interrupt processing setting program, a device driver built-in program, and a device driver, which will be described later, and the data is paralleled to the ASIC 5 or an external personal computer in a predetermined bit unit via the data bus 23. Input and output.

The connection between the personal computer and the general-purpose RAM board of the present embodiment at the hardware level and the software level will be described below by taking the PC-9801 series computer manufactured by NEC equipped with MS-DOS as an example. ..

First, the hardware level connection will be described. Insert the general-purpose RAM board into the expansion slot on the back side of the PC. The RAM board control method is set by executing the RAM board control method setting program prepared in advance on the personal computer. That is, according to the instruction of the RAM board control method setting program, the user operates the input device connected to the personal computer such as the keyboard to set the desired control method, and finally the control desired by the user is made. Data according to the method is written in the EEPROM 3 through the personal computer data bus 20, the ASIC 5, and the data line 26. The RAM board control method setting program can be selected, for example, in a menu format, so that even a beginner can easily set the control method.

Once the control method of the RAM board is set, the ASIC 5 reads the control method setting item data stored in the EEPROM 3 via the data line 26 after the personal computer is turned on (after reset). , Automatically set the function according to the control method setting item data.

As described above, since the setting of the RAM board control method conventionally performed by using the DIP switch or the like is performed by writing the control method setting item data to the EEPROM 3 in the RAM board by the operation on the personal computer, the operation is It is easy and less likely to cause operational mistakes, reducing the burden on the user. In addition, reliability is improved because the mechanical parts are removed.

Next, the connection at the software level will be described, but before that, the initialization operation of the MS-DOS will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the initialization operation when the power of the personal computer is turned on (when reset is executed). The initialization operation will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, a personal computer is executed by executing a basic input / output program called BIOS (Basic Input Output System) installed in the ROM of the personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “ROM / BI OS”) in step S1. The initialization operation of itself is performed.

When the ROM / BIOS is executed, various hardware such as the memory in the personal computer is initialized and the disk is also initialized. The disk initialization operation is usually performed on a disk (hard disk, floppy disk, etc.) built in the computer or connected externally. At this time, an initialization program for a peripheral device such as a RAM board connected to the expansion slot is also executed, and a predetermined address area is allocated for the peripheral device.

By executing the initialization of the disk, the personal computer can access the disk, and thereafter control is passed to a basic input / output program called a disk BIOS stored on the disk.

Next, in step S2, the reading operation of the MS-DOS system is performed. First, a boot sector, which is a program that calls MS-DOS, is read out into the main memory, and IO. Which is the basic program of MS-DOS is read by this boot sector. SYS and MSDOS. Read out SYS. And IO. SYS and MSDOS. Initialize the internal table in SYS. The boot sector, IO. SYS and MSDOS. Since all the SYS is a program stored on the disk, its read operation is performed by executing the disk BIOS.

When the reading operation of the MS-DOS system is performed in step S2, the personal computer operates thereafter under the control of the MS-DOS.

Then, in step S3, initial setting on the MS-DOS is performed. During the initial setting operation, the interrupt processing initial setting is performed to enable execution of interrupt processing on the MS-DOS such as function requests. After that, various basic operations on MS-DOS are performed by executing a basic program called a function request.

Then, after initializing the peripheral device on the MS-DOS and the like, an operation of incorporating a peripheral device control program called a device driver is performed. At this time, the user of the conventional RAM board, as described in the conventional example, registers the registration file C ONFIG. It was necessary to perform registration work such as writing the device driver for the RAM board in SYS beforehand.

Next, in step S 4, finally COMMAND. A command processor called COM is read out, and the user gives a command from an input device such as a keyboard to set an environment in which a file on the disk can be operated. Only in this situation can the user execute the desired application software.

In the above flow, the disk BIOS and the function request are both executed by interrupt processing. That is, the disk BIOS is pre-assigned with 1BH as the interrupt vector number and 21H as the function request's interrupt vector number, and the start addresses of the disk BIOS and the function request are assigned beforehand. Execution becomes possible by writing to the interrupt vector areas of the embedded vector numbers 1BH and 21H.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first interrupt processing setting program. The first interrupt processing setting program is stored in the EEPROM 3 in advance as an initial setting program for the general-purpose RAM board. Therefore, when the initialization program of the peripheral device connected to the expansion slot in step S1 during the initialization operation of the personal computer shown in FIG. 2 is executed, the first interrupt processing setting program is executed. The operation of the first interrupt processing setting program will be described below with reference to FIG.

In step S11, the start address of the second interrupt processing setting program is written in the interrupt vector area assigned to the interrupt vector number 1BH of the disk BIOS. Therefore, when the disk BIOS execution is requested, the interrupt processing setting registration is performed so that the second interrupt processing setting program is interrupted and executed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second interrupt processing setting program. Referring to FIG. 4, it is checked in step S21 whether the function request can be executed. Whether or not the function request can be executed can be determined by whether or not the segment of the interrupt vector area assigned to the function request exceeds 400H.

When it is determined in step S21 that the function request can be executed, the start address of the device driver embedded program stored in the EEPROM 4 is stored in the interrupt vector area assigned to the interrupt vector number 21H of the function request in step S22. Write. Therefore, after the execution of step S22, when the execution of the function request is requested, the interrupt process setting registration is performed so that the device driver embedded program is executed by interruption.

Then, in step S23, the start address of the original program for the disk BIOS is written in the interrupt vector area assigned to the interrupt vector number 1BH. Therefore, after execution of step S23, the interrupt setting of the second interrupt processing setting program is canceled, and even if the disk BIOS execution is requested, the second interrupt processing setting program will not be executed.

Then, in step S 24, the original program for the disk BIOS is executed and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S21 that the function request cannot be executed, steps S22 and S23 are skipped, and the original disk BIOS program is executed in step S24, and the process ends. That is, the processing of the original disk BI OS is only executed, and the processing ends.

Since the second interrupt processing setting program interrupts the disk BIOS, until the step S23 is executed, the boot sector, IO. SYS and MSDOS. It is always executed when reading a stored program on the disk such as SYS.

Note that the function request is actually determined to be executable in step S21, and steps S22 and S23 are executed at the time of initial setting in step S3 of the initialization operation of the MS-DOS shown in FIG. Then, when the disk BIOS is called at the time of initializing the peripheral device on the MS-DOS after the interrupt processing initial setting operation on the MS-DOS is performed, this timing is the timing of the device driver. It is empirically known that before the embedding operation is performed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the device driver built-in program. Referring to the figure, in step S31, it is checked whether or not the function request is requesting all memory for memory allocation. The timing at which the function request makes all memory requests is immediately before the device driver embedding operation at the time of initial setting of MS-DOS in step S3 in the initializing operation of MS-DOS shown in FIG. This is the most desirable timing for incorporating the example RAM board device driver.

Referring to FIG. 5, when it is determined in step S31 that the function request has issued all memory requests, that is, when it is determined that it is desirable to incorporate the device driver of the RAM board of the present embodiment. , And proceeds to step S32.

In step S32, a device driver installation area is secured from the memory area on the MS-DOS. Then, in step S33, the device driver for the RAM board of this embodiment stored in the EEPROM 3 is copied to the memory area secured in step S32.

Next, in step S34, the copied device driver is initialized, and in step S35, the device driver is registered in the MS-DOS link table, so that the device driver is loaded on the MS-DOS. Registration is complete.

Then, in step S36, the start address of the original function request is written in the interrupt vector area assigned to the interrupt vector number 21H. Therefore, after step S36 is executed, the interrupt setting of the device driver built-in program is canceled, so that the device driver built-in program is not executed even if the execution of the function request is requested.

Then, in step S37, the original function request interrupt process is performed and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S31 that there is no memory request, steps S32 to S36 are skipped, and the original function request interrupt process is executed in step S37, and the process ends. In other words, it ends only by executing the original function request interrupt process.

As described above, the first and second interrupt processing setting programs and the device driver built-in program are appropriately interrupted and executed at the time of the initialization operation of the MS-DOS, so that the general-purpose RAM board for this embodiment can be used. The device driver is automatically installed at the time of the initialization operation of MS-DOS. Therefore, the user does not need to register the device driver at all, which significantly reduces the burden on the user. In other words, the user does not have to consider the software level connection of the RAM board to the personal computer at all.

In this embodiment, the additional memory device is taken as an example of the peripheral device, but the present invention is not limited to this and the present invention can be applied to other peripheral devices such as a mouse.

[0053]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, according to the peripheral device of the first aspect of the present invention, since the control method setting item for setting the self control method is stored and the external rewritable storage means is provided, The control method can be set by writing the control method setting items in the storage means using software such as a control method setting program on the OS of the computer.

Therefore, by creating the control method setting program having good operability, the user of the peripheral device can easily perform the control method setting operation, and the load thereof is reduced. In addition, reliability is improved because the control method is set without operating the mechanical part.

According to the peripheral device of the second aspect of the present invention, the peripheral device control program stored in the storage device is stored in the OS when the OS is initialized by the peripheral device control program registration means. Since the information is automatically registered, the user of the peripheral device can control the peripheral device on the OS simply by connecting the peripheral device to the computer at the hardware level without knowing the existence of the program for controlling the peripheral device. As a result, the burden on the user of the peripheral device is significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a general-purpose RAM board which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an initialization operation of a personal computer.

FIG. 3 shows the first mounted on the general-purpose RAM board of this embodiment.
5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the interrupt processing setting program of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a second board mounted on the general-purpose RAM board according to the present embodiment.
5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the interrupt processing setting program of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of a device driver built-in program mounted on the general-purpose RAM board of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 board 2 DRAM 3 EEPROM 4 EEPROM 5 ASIC

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A peripheral device used in a computer having an operating system (OS) capable of controlling the peripheral device by registering the program for controlling the peripheral device on the system, and setting its own control method. Control method setting items to be stored,
A peripheral device comprising: an externally rewritable storage means; and a control method setting means for setting its own control method after the computer is powered on and reset based on the control method setting item. 2. A peripheral device for use in a computer equipped with an operating system (OS) capable of controlling a peripheral device by registering a peripheral device control program on the system, the peripheral device controlling itself. A peripheral device comprising: a storage unit that stores a program for the peripheral device; and a peripheral device control program registration unit that automatically registers the peripheral device control program on the OS when the OS is initialized.