JPH0553966A - Electronic computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically identify connected peripheral equipments such as a printer and a display or the like with comparatively inexpensive configuration when selectively connecting the plural peripheral equipments to the main body of an electronic computer. CONSTITUTION:A pulse generator 111 to generate a pulse signal having an intrinsic frequency decided for each kind of the peripheral equipment is built in plural intrinsic equipments 11 connected to a main body 10 of the electronic computer, and this pulse signal having the intrinsic frequency is outputted through the interface of a signal transmitting function part to the main body 10 of the electronic computer. On the main body 10 side of the electronic computer, a peripheral equipment specifying function part specifies the pulse signal having the intrinsic frequency among the signals transmitted from the respective connected peripheral equipments 11 to the main body side transmitting function part, the kind of the connected equipment is discriminated corresponding to the specified frequency, and processings on a hardware and a software are executed corresponding to the connected equipment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic computer system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an electronic computer system is generally constructed by connecting a peripheral device such as a printer, a display and a keyboard to an electronic computer main body. What peripheral device is connected to the electronic computer main body? The following is adopted as a method of automatically identifying whether or not there is.

A) The interface signal includes about 3 to 5 identification signal lines, and a code signal set according to the type of the peripheral device is output from the peripheral device side.

B) Using the original interface signal, the identification information is transmitted to the computer body at the time of initial setting, and the computer body receives the identification information for identification.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional method, in the case of a), a plurality of identification-dedicated lines must be included in the interface signal, and the number of signals of the connector or cable increases. There was a problem to do. Moreover, the number of types of peripheral devices that can be identified is limited with a small number of identification signal lines, and there is a problem that the identification lines are insufficient when a new peripheral device is connected.

Further, in the case of b), a microprocessor or a communication interface is required as a means for transmitting the device information on the peripheral device side, and it cannot be used for a simple device such as a display monitor. However, there is a problem that the device is limited because it cannot be applied to a device such as a printer having only an output interface.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and increases the number of connectors and cables with a simple structure when a plurality of peripheral devices are selected and connected to the computer main body. An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic computer system capable of automatically identifying a peripheral device that is connected without any problem.

[0008]

An electronic computer system according to the present invention is a pulse generator for assigning a unique frequency to each peripheral device and generating a pulse signal of a frequency pre-assigned to each peripheral device. With a built-in, the interface for transmitting a pulse signal of a specific frequency generated by the pulse generator in the signal transmission function section between the peripheral device and the computer body, each of the peripheral device in the computer body The transmission function unit on the main body side, which exchanges signals with the transmission function unit, discriminates the pulse signal of the frequency unique to each peripheral device sent from the interface of the transmission function unit of each peripheral device, and is connected. It is provided with a peripheral device specifying function section for specifying a peripheral device that is present.

[0009]

In the electronic computer system according to the present invention, a plurality of peripheral devices connected to the electronic computer main body are provided with a pulse generator for generating a pulse signal having a specific frequency determined for each type, and the pulse signal having the specific frequency is incorporated. Is output to the computer main body through the interface of the signal transmission function unit.

On the computer main body side, a pulse signal of a specific frequency is specified by the peripheral device specifying function part from the signals sent from the connected peripheral devices to the main body side transmission function part, and the specified frequency is specified. According to the above, the type of the connected device is determined, and the processing on the hardware and software according to the connected device is performed.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 shows a detailed internal configuration. As shown in FIG. 2, the computer system of this embodiment is
A plurality of types of peripheral devices 1 connected to the computer body 10
, And each of which is connected between the computer main body 11 and each of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ... By interface cables 21, 22 ,.

The computer main body 10 has a built-in frequency identification processing unit 101 as a peripheral device specifying function unit. Further, each peripheral device 11, 12, ... Continues a pulse signal of a predetermined specific period t1, t2, .. (a pulse signal of 1 / t1, 1 / t2 ,. Pulse generator 11
, 121, ... Are built in.

The detailed configuration of the computer main body 10 and the plurality of types of peripheral devices 11, 12, ...
As shown in FIG. 1, the computer main body 10 incorporates various functions that a normal computer has, and as shown as a representative one, a control unit 102 and an arithmetic processing unit 1
03, a storage unit 104, an input / output control unit 105 for exchanging signals with peripheral devices such as a printer, a display, a keyboard, an external storage device, and a modem, and the above-described frequency identification processing unit 101.

Each peripheral device 11, 12, ...
2, 122, ..., Main function processing units 113, 123, ... For executing the unique functions of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ..., For example, a print function, a display control function, a key signal input function, and the computer main body 10. , And the above-mentioned pulse generators 111, 112, ... For exchanging signals with each other.

Then, the input / output control unit 105 of the computer main body 10 and the input / output control unit 1 of each of the peripheral devices 11, 12, ...
Are connected with the conventional interface signals by interface cables 21, 22, ... Which transmit the signals from the pulse generators 111, 121 ,.

Next, the operation of the electronic computer system having the above configuration will be described.

The peripheral devices 11, 12, ... In the pulse generators 111, 121 ,.
1 / t2, ...) is continuously generated, and this frequency pulse signal is used together with the data signal output from the main function processing units 113, 123 ,. Input / output control units 114 and 12
Interface cables 21, 22, via 4, ...
To the input / output control unit 105 of the computer main body 10.
Transmit to.

In the computer body 10, the input / output control unit 105 receives the data signal and the pulse signal input from the interface cables 21, 22, ... And the frequency identification processing unit 101 sends the frequency of the pulse signal. Is given to the control unit 102 by hardware circuit processing such as a detection circuit or software processing, and the control unit 102 identifies from the frequency data what the connected peripheral device is.
For example, if it is determined that a printer, a display, a keyboard, a modem, etc. are connected, the arithmetic processing unit 103
Outputs the result of arithmetic processing to the connected peripheral device, or arithmetically processes the input from the connected peripheral device.

In this way, it is possible to determine what peripheral device is connected to the computer main body, and continuously output the pulse signal of a predetermined specific frequency from each connected peripheral device. Then, the computer main body side identifies the frequency of the pulse signal to determine the type of connected peripheral device, and performs normal data processing.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be widely applied to general connection of information equipments and control equipments each having a built-in microcomputer and transmitting data. .

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a pulse signal having a unique frequency is assigned to each of a plurality of types of peripheral devices connected to the computer main body, and the frequency pulse signal is continuously generated to produce the electronic computer. Since it transmits to the main body side together with a normal data signal via the interface cable, and the peripheral equipment connected by the peripheral equipment specific function unit on the computer main body side is identified from the pulse signal specific to the frequency, The system can be configured with one interface signal and a simple circuit configuration, the cost can be reduced, and the system can be used for small-scale peripheral devices. Further, even if a new type of peripheral device is added, the interface itself does not need to be changed, and therefore, even if many peripheral devices are connected, there is no shortage of identification lines as in the conventional case.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a detailed functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a waveform diagram showing the relationship between frequency pulse signals of the peripheral devices of the above-described embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Computers 11, 12, ... Peripheral devices 21, 22, ... Interface cable 101 Frequency identification processing unit 105 Input / output control unit 111 Pulse generator 114 Input / output control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A peripheral device is provided with a pulse generator for allocating a specific frequency to each peripheral device, and each peripheral device has a built-in pulse generator for generating a pulse signal having a frequency pre-assigned to the peripheral device. An interface for transmitting a pulse signal of a specific frequency generated by the pulse generator is provided in a signal transmission function section between the computer and The peripheral device specific function unit that identifies the connected peripheral device by discriminating the pulse signal of the frequency unique to each peripheral device sent from the interface of the transmission function unit of each peripheral device to the main body side transmission function unit An electronic computer system provided.