JPH06266663A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need of a prescribed operation for a program executed on a terminal computer-side by providing a means preserving a present operation, a means transmitting a preserved content to the other information processor and a means indicating to receive the transmitted content to the other information processor. CONSTITUTION:An information processor consists of CPU 21, a bus 22, RAM 23, BIOS.ROM 26 storing a control program, an input device 23, an external storage device 24, peripheral equipments 28, a data transfer device 29 and the like. Then the means preserving a present operation state, the means transmitting the preserved content to the other information processor connected by a communication line and the means indicating to receive the transmitted content to the other information processor are provided. A means 21a including the operation state preservation means, the operation state transmission means and the operation state reception means is controlled by CPU 21. Thus, a situation during an operation is transferred to the other information processor as it is, and it is set to be the totally same operation situation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer or the like, and in particular, a CA in which a plurality of people use the same program.
I (Computer Assisted Instr)
function) information processing apparatus such as an operation system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art The prior art of the kind closest to the present invention is L
It is considered to be an AN (local area network) system. Although there are various types of LANs having various configurations, the system closest to the present invention is a system in which a parent computer called a host and a plurality of child computers called terminals are connected. The overall structure is shown in FIG. 7, and the internal structures of the host and terminal are shown in FIG. 81 is a central processing unit (CP
U), 82 is a bus, and 85 is a RAM (Random Access Memory) for storing text / graphic data.
y), 86 is a BIOS / RO that stores the control program
M (Basic Input Output System)
m Read Only Memory), 83 is an input device such as a keyboard and an input pen, 84 is an external storage device such as an FD (floppy disk), and 87 is a CRT, LC
A display device such as D, 88 is a peripheral device such as an IC card interface, and 89 is a LAN device. In the overall configuration diagram, one host and three terminals are shown, but this is a number selected for convenience of description, and the number of terminals is actually selected freely. It

In this prior art arrangement, the three terminal computers 72 are each LAs as shown in FIG.
N devices are connected and connected to the host via this LAN device. LAN device is also connected to the host side,
The terminal computer 72 is connected via this. It should be noted that in FIG. 8, except for the LAN device, the configuration is a very general personal computer. The system of FIG. 7 operates as follows.

1) Host computer side The host computer is started up, the host side program for the LAN system is started up, and a state is awaited for access from the terminal side.

2) Terminal computer side i The terminal side computer is started up, the terminal side program for the LAN system is started up, and access to the host side is made possible.

Ii Next, the host computer is accessed, the program / data stored in the external storage device of the host computer is transferred to the terminal side through the LAN, and data processing is executed using these.

In this system, in order to run a certain software program on a plurality of machines and bring the plurality of computers into the same program operating state,
After transferring the program to all the terminals, it is necessary to start the program, and then all the terminal computers must be operated by the operator of the terminal computer in the same procedure. That is, the operators of the plurality of computers are required to have exactly the same operating procedure for the computers.

[0008]

As described above, conventionally, it is possible to transfer a computer program stored in an external storage device or the like, but it is already loaded in the memory, activated, and operating. Computer programs cannot be transferred. Therefore, in the prior art, the following procedure is required to shift a certain computer program to a certain operating state.

First, the computer program is loaded on the memory from the host computer.

Next, control is transferred to the computer program. That is, the program is started.

Next, the computer operator executes a predetermined operation on the program.

After the above steps, the program finally reaches the desired state. Of course, if the procedure is wrong, the desired result cannot be obtained.
To summarize the reason why the procedure of, is necessary, the following 2
Can be summarized in points.

Although there is a technique for transferring a computer program in the related art, it does not have the ability to transfer an activation and a predetermined operation to the program.

Ii Even if the above-mentioned capability can be added to the prior art, it is not possible to transfer a computer program that has already been started and has been subjected to a predetermined operation, that is, a running program.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is necessary to transfer the program to all the terminals, start the program, and then perform the operation of the program for all the terminal computers by the operator of the terminal computer in the same procedure. Among the points, it is made to improve the necessity of starting the program and the operation by the operator.

[0016]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and in an information processing apparatus comprising an input means, a display means and a storage means, the current operating state is saved. Means for transmitting the stored contents to another information processing device connected by a communication line, and means for instructing the other information processing device to receive the transmitted contents. An information processing device characterized by having.

[0017]

With the above construction, the predetermined operation for the program executed on the terminal computer side can be dispensed with, and as a result, the operability of the computer can be improved and simplified, and erroneous operation can be prevented. The specific action is as follows.

When the same program is operated on a large number of computers, any operating state of the program can be reproduced quickly, reliably and simultaneously on a large number of computers.

When the same program is operated on a large number of computers, the operation of the operator on the large number of computers is reduced in order to reproduce some operating condition of the program.

When operating the same program on a large number of computers, the presence of an operator may be unnecessary depending on the system configuration when reproducing some operating conditions of the program.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details will be described below based on the embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to these examples.

The overall structure of the present invention is shown in FIG. In this configuration example, the operating state of the transfer source computer 1 is transferred to the transfer destination computer 2 through the communication line 3. The internal structure of the present invention is shown in FIG. In the example of the present invention, a hard disk, which is an external storage device, is used to store the operating state of the computer. A schematic diagram of the use of the hard disk is shown in FIG. The schematic diagram of FIG. 3 shows that a part of the hard disk is used for storing computer operation information (computer operation information storage area 32) and the rest is used for normal use, that is, for storing data and programs ( Normal data / program area 31). The numbers used in the following description are those in FIG. 2 unless otherwise specified.

Reference numeral 21 is a central processing unit (CPU) for executing a program, 22 is a bus, and 25 is a RAM (Random Access Mem) for storing text / graphic data.
ory), 26 is a BIOS that stores the control program.
ROM (Basic Input Output Sy)
Stem Read Only Memory), 23
Is an input device such as a keyboard and an input pen, 24 is an external storage device such as an FD (floppy disk), 27 is a CRT,
Reference numeral 28 is a display device such as LCD, 28 is a peripheral device such as an IC card interface, and 29 is a data transfer device. 21a is an operation state storage means, an operation state transmission means,
It includes an operating state receiving means and the like and is controlled by the CPU 21. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6 are flowcharts showing the operation of the present invention. The operation of this configuration example is constituted by the following three processes. Details are given below. 1) Saving the operating status of the source computer Start the source computer.

41 The application software is activated by a normal operation.

42 Operate the computer until the application software is in the desired state. 43 The operator operates the operation state saving instruction means 21a to instruct the computer to save the operation state.

44 When the central processing unit 21 detects that the operation state saving instruction means 21a is excited, the central processing unit 21 suspends the execution of the application software, and then the BIOS.
-Launch the operating state saving program stored in the ROM 26.

45 The operating state saving program prohibits all computer interrupts.

46. The operation state saving program copies all the memory of the computer, that is, the RAM 25 to the computer operation information storage area 32 of FIG.

The operating state storage program 47 includes an input device 23, a display device 27, and various peripheral devices 28 of the computer.
The information of the operation status of is stored in the computer operation information storage area 32 of FIG. 48. The operating state saving program restarts all computer interrupts and ends the processing.

49 When the central processing unit 21 detects the end of the operating state saving program, it restarts the execution of the application software temporarily suspended at 44.

The above operation is shown in the flowchart of FIG. The operations of 41 to 49 are configured by considering the following matters.

The reason why interrupt processing is prohibited at 45 is to cut out the operating state of the computer at a certain point. In 44, even if the execution of the application software is interrupted, the various interrupt processes are continuously executed independently of them, so that the operation of the computer continues as a result.
Regarding the internal state of the computer taken out at ~ 47, there is a time difference between the interrupted state of the application software and the interrupt processing state. Interrupts are stopped to avoid this. In 46 to 47, the operation state of the computer is not directly transmitted to the transfer destination, but the information is temporarily stored in the hard disk for the following three reasons.

Since the i-communication processing is inferior in processing speed to the hard disk, it is not suitable for ending a special situation such as interrupt interruption as soon as possible.

Ii It is technically difficult to perform communication processing in a state where interrupts are stopped. Usually, the communication process is mainly performed by the interrupt process.

Iii If information is stored in the hard disk, the information can be used any number of times.

2) Transmission of the operating state of the transfer source computer This processing is performed simultaneously with the operation described in 3) below.

After all the processing in 1) above is completed, the application software is terminated.

51 The computer operating status transmission program stored in the external storage device 24 is activated.

52 A certain fixed amount of information is read from the computer operation information storage area 32 of FIG.

53 The read contents are transmitted to the transfer destination computer through the communication line 3 in FIG.

54 Computer Operation Information Area 3 of FIG.
The processes of 52 to 53 are repeated until the transmission of all the computer operating conditions stored in 2 is completed.

A flow chart of the above operation is shown in FIG.

3) Reception of the operating state of the transfer destination computer and restoration of the state This processing is performed simultaneously with the operation described in 2) above. Start the destination computer. The operator instructs the central processing unit 21 to receive the operating state by means of the operating state reception instructing means 21a.

61 When the central processing unit 21 detects the instruction from the operating state reception instructing means 21a, it abandons the processing at that time and activates the operating state receiving program stored in the BIOS / ROM 26.

62 The operating state reception program receives the operating state data.

63 The operating state reception program stores the received data in the RAM 25 or other peripheral device 2
The operating state is restored by writing or setting in 3, 27 and 28.

64 to 62 to 6 until all states are restored
Repeat 3.

65. When all the information is restored, the state of the transfer source computer is reproduced by restarting the processing from the state of the transfer destination computer.

The above flow chart is shown in FIG. The operating state reception program is stored in the BIOS / ROM 26 because the RAM 25 stores the memory state of the transfer source computer and cannot be used as a program area.

Note) In the above example, the received data is directly sent to the RAM 2
5 Although the method of expanding to other is explained, the computer operation information storage area 32 is provided in the hard disk of the transfer destination computer side, the received data is temporarily stored in the storage area, and then the storage area is operated to the RAM 25 or the like. There is also a way to restore the state. This method occupies a portion of the hard disk for the present invention, instead of
This is effective when the communication program cannot be stored in the BIOS / ROM 26 (normally the communication program requires a large memory capacity), or when the same problem as described in 1) occurs due to the interrupt processing.

In the above embodiments, an example using a communication line has been described. However, instead of the communication line 3, any device that can transfer information between computers can be used.
Anything can be used. For example, a floppy disk which is a removable external storage medium can also be used. In the case of using a floppy disk, it can be easily understood by paraphrasing in the above description that the part to be transmitted through the communication line is written to the floppy disk and the part to be received is read from the floppy disk. The same applies when other information transfer means is used.

Besides, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be appropriately modified and implemented within the scope not departing from the gist.

[0053]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned configuration makes it possible to eliminate a predetermined operation for a program executed on the terminal computer side, and as a result, the operability of the computer is improved / simplified, and erroneous operation is prevented. It can be prevented. The specific effects are as follows.

When the same program is operated on a large number of computers, any operating condition of the program can be reproduced quickly, reliably and simultaneously on a large number of computers.

When the same program is operated on a large number of computers, the operation of the operator on the large number of computers is reduced, that is, the burden on the operator is reduced, when the operating conditions of the program are reproduced.

When operating the same program on a large number of computers, it is not necessary to have an operator depending on the system configuration when reproducing some operating conditions of the program.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an internal configuration diagram of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a conventional device.

FIG. 8 is an internal configuration diagram of a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Transfer Source Computer 2 Transfer Destination Computer 3 Communication Line 21 CPU (Central Processing Unit) 21a Operating State Saving / Receiving Instruction / Sending Means 22 Bus 23 Input Device 24 External Storage Device 25 RAM (Random Access Memo)
RY) 26 BIOS ROM (BIOS Read Onl)
y Memory) 27 Display device 28 Various peripheral devices 29 Data transfer device 71 Host computer 72 Terminal side computer 73 LAN line

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus comprising an input means, a display means, and a storage means, which saves a current operating state, and another information processing apparatus which connects the saved contents with a communication line. An information processing apparatus, comprising: a means for transmitting to the other information processing means; and a means for instructing the other information processing apparatus to receive the transmitted content.