JPH0573451A - Terminal controller and terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a CPU load of a host device, and to easily change a communication function. CONSTITUTION:A terminal controller X is provided with an instruction data receiving function (program 30) for receiving instruction data from a terminal equipment and storing it in an instruction data storage device 21, an instruction data transmitting function (program 40) for reading out the instruction data from the instruction data storage device 21 and transmitting the instruction data to a host device, an answer data receiving function (program 50) for receiving answer data to the instruction data from the host device, an answer data transmitting function (program 60) for transmitting the answer data to a terminal equipment being a transmitting origin of the instruction data, and a communication code data transmitting function (program 70) for reading out communication code data from a communication code data storage device 26 and transmitting it to the terminal equipment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In a system composed of a plurality of electronic computers, the present invention relates to communication control for efficient communication when data communication is performed between the electronic computers. The present invention relates to a terminal control device and a terminal that control communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, communication control for a terminal is performed in a host machine. The host machine analyzes the instruction data received from the terminal machine, processes the data, creates reply data based on the data processing result, and manages communication with the terminal machine such as reading the instruction data and sending the reply data. ..

[0003]

However, in the conventional system, when the number of terminals connected to the host machine increases, the number of instruction data fetched increases, and the CPU of the host machine for controlling the terminal machine increases. The load was increasing.
As a result, there is a problem that the response speed of the host machine is reduced when viewed from the terminal machine. Further, in order to compensate for this decrease in response speed, it is necessary to use an electronic computer with high CPU power as a host computer, but an electronic computer with high CPU power is expensive and a system with good cost performance is constructed. There was a problem that it was difficult.

Further, when changing the communication function of the system, it is necessary to change the function of the terminal device or the function of the host device, and each time the system operation form changes, the change is accompanied by the change contents. There has been a work to manually reset the data and programs that have been set for all terminals. That is, in order to perform communication between the terminal device and the host device, it is necessary to establish a communication protocol and both parties must communicate according to this communication protocol. When changing the communication function, a new communication protocol is defined and the host device And it is necessary to change the communication function so that the terminal communicates with the new communication protocol. Therefore, in the conventional system, when changing the communication function, it is necessary to change the communication function based on the new communication protocol for the host machine and all terminals. There is a serious problem for the system management that not only it takes a long time, it takes a lot of man-hours to change, but also the interruption of the system becomes long.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a terminal control device and a terminal device that can reduce the CPU load of the host machine and easily change the communication function.

[0006]

A terminal control device according to claim 1 has an instruction data receiving function, an instruction data transmitting function, a response data receiving function, a response data transmitting function, and a communication function data transmitting function. is there. The instruction data receiving function receives instruction data from the terminal and stores it in the instruction data storage device. The instruction data transmission function reads the instruction data from the instruction data storage device and transmits the instruction data to the host machine. The reply data receiving function receives reply data for the instruction data from the host machine. The reply data sending function sends reply data to the terminal device that is the sender of the instruction data. The communication protocol data transmission function reads the communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device and transmits it to the terminal when receiving the communication request from the terminal.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal control device according to the first aspect, which has a function of receiving communication protocol data from a host machine or a terminal and storing the data in a communication protocol data storage device. A terminal control device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the terminal control device according to the first aspect, having a function of storing information indicating whether or not the communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal in the communication protocol data storage device. ..

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the terminal control device according to the third aspect, the communication protocol data of the communication protocol data is received when a transmission stop command is received from the terminal device while transmitting the communication protocol data to the terminal device. It has a function of stopping transmission. A terminal according to claim 5 has a function of receiving communication protocol data and a function of changing the communication function based on the received communication protocol data.

[0009]

According to the structure of the present invention, the instruction data receiving function receives the instruction data from the terminal and stores it in the instruction data storage device, and the instruction data transmission function reads the instruction data from the instruction data storage device and instructs the host machine. Send data. Then, the response data reception function receives the response data for the instruction data from the host machine, and the response data transmission function transmits the response data to the terminal device that is the transmission source of the instruction data. Thereby, communication control between the host machine and a plurality of terminals can be performed.

When a communication request is received from the terminal, the communication protocol data transmission function reads the communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device and transmits the data to the terminal.
Then, the terminal receives the communication protocol data and changes the communication function based on the received communication protocol data. Therefore, by changing the communication protocol data stored in the communication protocol data storage device, it is possible to easily change the communication function between the host machine and the plurality of terminals.

Further, by adding the function of receiving the communication protocol data from the host machine or the terminal and storing the communication protocol data in the communication protocol data storage device, the communication protocol data can be updated from another device. Can
New functions can be easily developed and updated. Also, a function for storing in the communication protocol data storage device whether or not the communication protocol data has been transmitted and a communication protocol when a transmission stop command is received from this terminal while transmitting the communication protocol data to the terminal. By adding the function of stopping the data transmission, the terminal does not receive the received communication protocol data in duplicate, and the communication time can be shortened.

[0012]

1 is a block diagram of a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1
As shown, the terminal control device X comprises a CPU (central processing unit) 90, a communication device 10, an instruction data storage device 21, a communication protocol data storage device 26, and an input / output device (not shown).

A program 30 having an instruction data receiving function for receiving instruction data from the terminal device and storing it in the instruction data storage device 21, and an instruction for reading the instruction data from the instruction data storage device 21 and transmitting the instruction data to the host device. A program 40 serving as a data transmission function, a program 50 serving as a reply data receiving function for receiving reply data for instruction data from a host machine, and a reply data transmitting function for sending reply data to a terminal device which is a sender of the instruction data. The program 60 and a program 70 serving as a communication protocol data transmission function of reading communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device 26 and transmitting the communication protocol data to the terminal when a communication request from the terminal is received.

The terminal control device configured as described above will be described in detail below. First, the storage device 20, the CPU 90, and the communication device 10 will be described. The storage device 20 including the communication protocol data storage device 26 and the instruction data storage device 21 includes a ROM and a RAM. The communication protocol data storage device 26 stores the communication protocol data and the name of the terminal device that has transmitted the communication protocol data.
The function of the terminal and the operation with the terminal are changed by changing the communication protocol data stored in the communication protocol data storage device 26. When the change is made, the communication protocol data is set not to be transmitted to the terminal. This allows the updated communication protocol data to be sent to all terminals. Further, the instruction data storage device 21 stores instruction data received from the terminal.

The CPU 90 is a communication device 10 and a storage device 20.
And the operation of the input / output device. The communication device 10 is capable of communicating with at least one host machine and a plurality of terminals, and has a one-to-one correspondence such as a serial interface, and an n-to-n correspondence such as a carrier sense multiple access method called Ethernet or a token passing method. It is possible to configure any type of system.

That is, FIG. 2A is an example of the former, and the communication device 10a is composed of a communication device 11 with a host machine and a communication device 12 with a plurality of terminals. Each communication device 11, 12 has an instruction data receiving function (program 30)
And the ability to pass the received data to the response data reception function (program 50) and to transmit the transmission data from the instruction data transmission function (program 40) and the response data transmission function (program 60) to the host machine and the terminal machine. There is. 2B is an example of the latter case, in which one communication device 10b can communicate with a plurality of partner devices (host device and terminal device). The destination data is attached to the communication data so that the communication partner can be identified. In addition,
In FIGS. 2A and 2B, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 denote the same parts.

Next, each of the programs 30 to 70, that is, each function will be described. The program 30 shown in FIG.
The function is an instruction data receiving function for receiving instruction data and storing it in the instruction data storage device 21. A flow chart of this program 30 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
1 monitors the reception of instruction data from a plurality of terminals. When the instruction data is received, the communication device 1 is processed in process 32.
Receive data from 0. In step 33, the terminal device of the data transmission source is identified. Then, the process 70 causes the program 70 having the communication protocol data transmission function to be executed. The communication protocol transmission function (program 70) is used to check, for example, whether or not the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal device that is the source of the data. It is to be sent to the takeout terminal.

Next, in process 35, the source of the received data, which is the instruction data, is identified and stored in the instruction data storage device 21. Specifically, the transmission source information, for example, the communication device number is added to the received data and stored. And
When the recording of the received data is completed, the process returns to the process 31 to monitor the data reception.

When the communication device is constructed as shown in FIG. 2B, since the sender information is originally added to the received data, the reply data sending function 60 for sending reply data can be recognized. Record the received data in a format. Next, the program 40 shown in FIG. 1 has an instruction data transmission function of reading instruction data from the instruction data storage device 21 and transmitting it to the host machine. A flow chart of this program 40 is shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, the communication device 10 is monitored in process 41 for data transmission to the host machine. When the data can be transmitted, the process 42 reads the instruction data from the instruction data storage device 21. At this time, if there is no unread instruction data in the instruction data storage device 21 and the data cannot be read, the process returns to step 41. Next, the instruction data read by the process 44 is transmitted to the host machine. Then, in the process 45, information indicating that is added to the read instruction data, and the process shifts to the program 50.

Next, the program 50 shown in FIG. 1 has a response data receiving function for receiving response data from the host machine. In addition, the program 60 has a response data transmission function of transmitting response data to the terminal device that is the source of the instruction data. A flow chart of the programs 50 and 60 is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the program 50 monitors the communication device 10 until the process 51 receives the response data from the host machine. When the reply data is received, the reply data is fetched and the program 60 is entered.

In step 61, the program 60 sends the response data to the terminal device that sent the instruction data. At this time, since the information regarding the transmission source of the instruction data is attached to the instruction data stored in the instruction data storage device 21, it is designated by referring to it. After transmitting the response data, the instruction data corresponding to the transmitted response data is deleted from the instruction data storage device 21.

Here, a case will be described in which the program 30 having the instruction data receiving function is provided with a function of checking the instruction data received from the terminal. A flow chart in this case is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 100 indicates a check function. As shown in FIG. 5, the process 51 monitors reception of instruction data from the terminal. And when receiving the instruction data,
In process 52, the received data is fetched from the communication device 10. After the data transmission source terminal is identified by the process 33, the check function 100 is performed. In the check function 100, the process 54 checks whether or not the received data is replyable data. If a reply is possible (inquiry to the host machine is not necessary), response data is created in step 55, the response data is transmitted to the terminal device that is the source of the instruction data, and the process returns to step 51.

On the other hand, when an inquiry is required from the host machine, the instruction data is stored in the instruction data storage device 21 by making it possible to identify the terminal device which is the sender of the instruction data in step 57.
Then, the process returns to the process 51. As described above, when the reply can be made without waiting for the reply from the host machine, the check function 100 that enables immediate transmission of the reply data to the terminal machine is used as the instruction data receiving function program 3
By adding 0, the response speed to the terminal device is increased and unnecessary instruction data is not sent to the host device, so the load on the host device can be reduced.

The process 5 in the check function 100
The specific content of 4 is a format check of instruction data. Data that does not meet the regulations will be returned to the terminal as an error without inquiring of the host. For the instruction data whose response content can be defined in advance, a correspondence table of the instruction data and the response data is created and stored. Then, when the instruction data is received, it is checked whether or not the instruction data is registered in the correspondence table, and if the instruction data is registered, the corresponding response data is transmitted to the terminal.

Next, the program 7 serving as a communication protocol data transmission function for reading the communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device 26 and transmitting this communication protocol data to the terminal.
Specific examples 1 to 3 of No. 0 will be described. In addition, -shows a processing order. (Specific Example 1) It is checked whether or not the received data is data that is about to start communication with the host machine (generally called a connection command, a login command, etc., hereinafter referred to as "communication start data").

If it is not the communication start data, it terminates its own program 70. If it is the communication start data, it is checked from which terminal the communication start data is sent. The communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal device that is the source of the communication start data. After the transmission is completed, the program 70 of its own is terminated.

(Specific Example 2) It is checked from which terminal the received data is sent. It is checked whether the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal device that is the source of the received data. If it has been transmitted, the program 70 of its own is terminated. If it has not been transmitted, the communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal device that is the transmission source of the received data.

After the transmission is completed, the fact that the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal is recorded in the communication protocol storage device 26, and the program 70 of its own is terminated. (Specific Example 3) It is checked from which terminal the received data is sent. Check whether it is the communication start data that is about to start communication with the host machine.

If the data is not the communication start data, the subsequent steps are executed. If it is communication start data, communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal, and the subsequent steps are executed. It is checked whether or not the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal. If it has been transmitted, the program 70 of its own is terminated. If not transmitted, the communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal.

After the transmission is completed, the fact that the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal is recorded in the communication protocol storage device 26, and the program 70 of its own is terminated. In addition, in the specific example 2 or the specific example 3 described above, when data that has already been received from the terminal is received during communication protocol data transmission,
It is possible to add a function (hereinafter, referred to as a "communication protocol data transmission cancel function") for canceling the transmission of the communication protocol data and performing the subsequent processing assuming that the transmission of the communication protocol data is completed.

In this case, in order to enable the communication protocol data transmission stop function, it is necessary to add an update number to the communication protocol data and determine whether the terminal has received the data or new data. The update number is added to the beginning of the communication protocol data. As a result, it is possible to judge whether or not the data is new data only by receiving the update number. Further, if the serial number or the number indicating the update date and time is used as the update number, it is easy to manage.

By adding such a function to the communication protocol data transmission function, the terminal does not receive the received communication protocol data in duplicate, and the communication time can be shortened. Here, an example in which the program 70 having the communication protocol data transmitting function described above is incorporated in the program 30 having the instruction data receiving function will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6, the process 61 monitors the data reception from the terminal. By the process 62, when the data is received from the terminal, it is checked whether or not it is the communication protocol data. If it is not the communication start data, it is checked in step 63 whether the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal device that has received the data. If it has been transmitted, the process 64 stores the instruction data in the instruction data storage device 21 so that the sender of the received data can be identified, and then the process 65 returns to the data reception monitoring.

If it is the communication start data, the process 66
Sends the update number of the communication protocol data to the terminal.
Then, in process 67, the presence / absence of data received from the terminal is checked. If there is no received data, process 68 sends all communication protocol data to the terminal, and process 69 returns to data reception monitoring.

On the other hand, if there is data received from the terminal, it is checked in step 70a whether or not the data indicates that data has been received. If the data has not been received, the process returns to the data reception monitoring by the process 71b. If the data has already been received, the process 72c stores in the communication protocol data storage device 26 that the communicating terminal has already transmitted the communication protocol data, and then returns to the data reception monitoring by the process 73d. ..

By adding the function of receiving the communication protocol data from the host machine or the terminal and storing the communication protocol data, the communication protocol data can be updated from another device, and a new function is provided. Easy development and update. Next, a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. The terminal is connectable to the terminal control device of the embodiment having a communication protocol data transmission function.

The terminal is configured by adding a communication protocol receiving function and a communication protocol data function to the normal terminal function. The communication protocol reception function receives communication protocol data,
It is a function of updating the communication function based on the received data. Hereinafter, this communication protocol receiving function will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. When data is received from the terminal control device by the process 71, it is checked whether or not the data is communication protocol data. If it is not the communication protocol data, the process shifts to the normal terminal function of the process 72, and the process 73 returns to the data input monitoring.

On the other hand, if it is the communication contract data, the process 74
Check whether or not the update number of the communication protocol data matches the received number and the stored number. If they match, the process 75 sends the data notifying that the communication protocol data has been received, and the process 76 returns to the data input monitoring. If they do not match, process 7
In step 7, all communication protocol data is received, in step 78, the received communication protocol data is stored and the communication protocol data is updated. Then, the communication function is updated based on the communication protocol data updated in the process 79. After that, the operation shifts to the updated terminal function to communicate with the terminal control device.

The above-mentioned normal terminal function refers to a communication function for transmitting and receiving data based on defined communication protocol data and a processing function for processing received data. As described above, the terminal control device can control communication between the host machine and a plurality of terminals. Therefore, the host machine only needs to communicate with the terminal control device and does not need to perform communication control for a plurality of terminals. As a result, the CPU load on the host machine can be reduced.

The terminal control device also has a communication protocol data transmission function of reading communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device and transmitting the data to the terminal upon receiving a communication request from the terminal. As a result, when changing the communication function of the terminal and the operation of the terminal, it is only necessary to change the communication protocol data stored in the communication protocol data storage device. There is no need to change it via. Therefore, the work of changing the communication function can be performed in a short time, and the time for stopping the system can be shortened or eliminated.

[0042]

According to the terminal control device of the present invention, the instruction data is received from the terminal by the instruction data receiving function and stored in the instruction data storage device, and the instruction data is read from the instruction data storage device by the instruction data transmitting function. Send instruction data to the host machine. Then, the response data reception function receives the response data for the instruction data from the host machine, and the response data transmission function transmits the response data to the terminal device that is the transmission source of the instruction data. Thereby, communication control between the host machine and a plurality of terminals can be performed. As a result, the host machine only needs to communicate with the terminal control device, and it becomes unnecessary to carry out communication control for a plurality of terminal machines, and the CPU load is reduced.

Further, according to the terminal control device and the terminal, when the communication request is received from the terminal, the communication protocol data transmission function reads the communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device and transmits it to the terminal. Then, the terminal receives the communication protocol data and changes the communication function based on the received communication protocol data. Therefore, by changing the communication protocol data stored in the communication protocol data storage device, it is possible to easily change the communication function between the host machine and the plurality of terminals. As a result, it is not necessary to manually change the function, and it is possible to shorten or eliminate the time for stopping the system when changing the function.

Further, the terminal control device is provided with a function of receiving the communication protocol data from the host machine or the terminal and storing the communication protocol data in the communication protocol data storage device so that the communication protocol data can be updated by other means. This can be done from the device, and new functions can be easily developed and updated. Also, a function to store information indicating whether or not the communication protocol data has been transmitted to the terminal control device in the communication protocol data storage device and a transmission stop command from this terminal while transmitting the communication protocol data to the terminal device. By adding the function of stopping the transmission of the communication protocol data when the message is received, the terminal does not receive the received communication protocol data in duplicate, and the communication time can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a communication device which constitutes a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a program 30 having an instruction data receiving function, which constitutes a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a program 40 serving as an instruction data transmitting function, a program 50 serving as a reply data receiving function, and a program 60 serving as a reply data transmitting function, which constitute a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. is there.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a program in which a check function 100 is added to a program 30 serving as an instruction data transmitting function, which constitutes a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a program in which a communication protocol data transmitting function is added to a program 30 which is an instruction data receiving function, which constitutes a terminal control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for explaining the configuration of a terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 10a, 10b Communication device 20 Storage device 21 Instruction data storage device 26 Communication protocol data storage device 30 Program (instruction data reception function) 40 Program (instruction data transmission function) 50 Program (response data reception function) 60 Program (response data) Transmission function) 70 programs (communication protocol data transmission function) X Terminal control device

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] September 18, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 1]

[Fig. 2]

[Figure 3]

[Figure 4]

[Figure 5]

[Figure 6]

[Figure 7]

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A communication device capable of communicating with at least one host machine and a plurality of terminals, an instruction data storage device for storing instruction data by the terminal, and managing communication between the host machine and the terminal. A terminal control device comprising a communication protocol data storage device for storing communication protocol data for performing, a central processing unit, and an input / output device, wherein the instruction data is received from the terminal device in the instruction data storage device. An instruction data receiving function for storing, an instruction data transmitting function for reading the instruction data from the instruction data storage device and transmitting the instruction data to the host machine, and a response data for receiving response data for the instruction data from the host machine A reception function, a response data transmission function for transmitting the response data to a terminal device that is the sender of the instruction data, and the terminal device Terminal control apparatus and a communication protocol data transmission function for transmitting to the terminal reads the communication protocol data from the communication protocol data storage device upon receiving the al communication request. 2. The terminal control device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of receiving the communication protocol data from the host machine or the terminal device and storing the data in the communication protocol data storage device. 3. The terminal control device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of storing information indicating whether or not the communication protocol data is transmitted to the terminal in the communication protocol data storage device. 4. The terminal according to claim 3, further comprising a function of stopping transmission of the communication protocol data when a transmission stop command is received from the terminal while transmitting the communication protocol data to the terminal. Control device. 5. A terminal having a function of receiving communication protocol data and a function of changing the communication function based on the received communication protocol data.