JPH0689133A - Inputting and outputting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inform the inside state of the inputting and outputting device to a user by using an outputting means provided at the electronic equipment by encoding a signal indicating the inside state, and transmitting it independently of a voice signal on a signal line for a voice data transmission. CONSTITUTION:An inside state detecting circuit 13 detects the inside state based on a state input, converts each state data into serial data, encodes the serial data, and outputs the inside state data through a voice signal line 12 provided at an interface with the electronic equipment main body to the main body. The normal encoding method is used for the encoding, and the inside state detecting circuit 13 is used as both the detecting means and the outputting means. At that time, the electronic equipment main body interprets the serial data indicating the inside state received from the signal line for a voice data communication, and communicate the inside state to the user by outputting the inside state as a voice from a speaker, or outputting the inside state by using a character or graphic on a screen, according to the setting of the user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an input / output device such as a modem or a network interface which has an interface with a main body electronic device and has a function of notifying the internal state of the device, and in particular has a special signal line for notifying the internal state. Not related to I / O devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional input / output device such as a modem or a network interface, when knowing the internal state of the device,
It has been a general practice to provide a display device such as an LED for displaying each internal state in the device, and the user can check the operation of the device by looking at these displays.

For example, in the conventional method, as shown in FIG. 2, there is a method in which a display circuit using an LED or the like is built in and the user is notified of the internal state or the like using the display circuit. In FIG. 2, 1 is an input / output device, 2 is a system bus of the main electronic device, 3
Is a system interface with the main body electronic equipment, 4 is an interface circuit with the main body electronic equipment, 5 is an address / data signal line, 6 is a control signal line, 7 is an input / output connector on the input / output device side, and 8 is an input on the cable side. An output connector, an input / output cable 9 and an internal state display circuit 10 are provided with LEDs for notifying the internal state.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 3, there is also one which notifies the main body of the internal state by using a signal line 11 for transmitting each internal state which is specially provided in an interface with the main body.

However, if the signal line for processing each internal state is not provided in the interface with the main body or the display circuit is not provided due to the limitation of physical space or power consumption, the internal state notification function is omitted. Was. Such a device is shown in FIG.

[0006]

As described above, when it is not possible to provide a display device such as an LED due to the physical space, power consumption, or the like, or a special signal line for notifying an internal state is provided. If not, the user could not know the internal state of the I / O device at all. An object of the present invention is to provide an input / output device that overcomes such problems.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, an input / output device of the present invention is an input / output device connected between a transmission line including an audio signal line and an electronic device. It has a detection means for detecting a state and an output means for outputting a detection result of the detection means, and the output means notifies the detection result to the electronic device through an audio signal line. There is.

[0008]

In such an input / output device, an audio signal line for transmitting audio data is usually provided at the interface between the electronic equipment main body and the input / output device. The signal line for transmitting the voice data is a serial line. The present invention utilizes this audio signal line to transmit a signal indicating the internal state to the main body electronic device, in addition to the audio information signal, to notify it. Based on the internal state signal, the main body electronic device notifies the user of the internal state by using an output means such as screen display or audio output that the electronic device has.

That is, the detection means in the input / output device detects the internal state, and then the output means encodes the detection result by a predetermined encoding method which is a normal technique and transmits it to the main electronic equipment via the audio signal line. Output. The main body electronic device notifies the user of the internal state of the input / output device by inputting this signal and outputting it as a voice from a speaker or outputting it as a character or graphic on the screen. .

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is an input / output device, 2 is a system bus of the main body electronic device, 3 is a system interface with the main body electronic device, 4 is an interface circuit with the main body electronic device, 5 is an address / data signal line, 6
Is a control signal line, 7 is an input / output connector on the input / output device side, and 8
Is an input / output connector on the cable side, and 9 is an input / output cable. Further, 12 is an audio signal line for audio data transmission, 1
Reference numeral 3 is an internal state detection circuit.

In FIG. 1, data indicating the internal state (states 1 to 4 in the figure) are input to the internal state detection circuit 13, and the internal state detection circuit 13 detects the internal state based on the state input. Then, each state data is converted into serial data, encoded, and the internal state data is output to the electronic device main body through the audio signal line 12 provided in the interface with the main body. A normal encoding method is used for encoding. Further, in the present embodiment, the internal state detection circuit 13 serves both as a detection means and an output means.

At this time, the electronic equipment body interprets the serial data indicating the internal state received from the voice data notification signal line, and outputs it as a voice from a speaker or a character on the screen according to the setting of the user. This is notified to the user by outputting the internal state by using the or graphic.

Further, the processing on the electronic equipment main body side can be changed according to the notified internal state. For example,
When an abnormal state of the device is detected based on the internal state, the electronic device side can be applied such as starting an exception processing program. This is completely impossible with the conventional display method using an LED or the like, but the technique of the present invention enables such flexible processing.

Further, since the signal line for voice data notification is used, it has a feature that the hardware can directly process the voice data as long as the voice data is output from the speaker. This is an important feature in that the internal state can be notified without imposing a load on the CPU on the electronic device side.

[0015]

As described above, in the input / output device according to the present invention, if it is a modem or a network interface, a signal line for transmitting voice data originally provided is encoded with a signal indicating the internal state of the input / output device. Since the audio signal is transmitted separately from the audio signal, even if the internal status display function is not provided in the input / output device itself due to restrictions on power consumption and physical space, the audio of the connected main electronic device It is possible to notify the user of the internal state by using the output and screen display functions.

Particularly, since it is not necessary to provide a special signal line for notifying the internal state for notifying each state on the interface, an input / output device for notifying the internal state is realized without complicating the device. In addition, the processing in the main body electronic device can be changed based on the notification of the internal state, and the audio signal can be output to the speaker, so that the degree of freedom in design is increased and a flexible device configuration can be taken. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an input / output device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an input / output device having a conventional internal state display circuit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an input / output device in which a conventional main body interface is provided with an internal state notification signal line.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an input / output device in which a conventional internal state detection function is omitted.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 input / output device 2 system bus 3 system interface 4 interface circuit 5 address / data signal line 6 control signal line 7 input / output connector (input / output device side) 8 input / output connector (cable side) 9 input / output cable 10 internal status display circuit 11 Internal status notification signal line 12 Audio data transmission audio signal line 13 Internal status detection circuit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Nakajima 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input / output device connected between a transmission line including an audio signal line and an electronic device, detecting means for detecting an internal state of the input / output device, and an output for outputting a detection result of the detecting means. An input / output device, wherein the output means notifies the electronic device of the detection result through an audio signal line.