JPH07248990A - Inter-device data transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a device of the transmitter side from being influenced by the change of the address of a device of the receiver side used for transfer of data by providing such a constitution where the device of the transmitter side receives the address information stored in a storage medium from the device of the receiver side before transfer of data. CONSTITUTION:An MPU 5 of a processor 2 of the transmitter side starts a command transmission program and produces the communication information including an address aquiring command to send this information to an MPU 5 of a processor 2 of the receiver side via a driver/receiver control part 4 and a bus 1. Thus the processor 2 of the receiver side receives the communication information, and the MPU 5 identifies the contents of a command. If the received command is identified as an address acquiring command, the MPU 5 of the processor 2 of the receiver side reads a transfer address out of an address holding part 3F based on an answer return processing program 3E. Then the MPU 5 produces the answer communication information and sends it in reply to the processor 2 of the transmitter side. The processor 2 of the transmitter side identifies the received answer and stores a transfer address in the part 3F.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device-to-device data transfer method for transferring data between devices in a switching system or an information processing system, for example.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for transferring data between devices, the address of a data storage area of a register or a memory buffer of a receiving device is set as a transfer destination address between transmitting and receiving devices, and the transmitting device predetermines. A method of transferring data to a given address is known. In such a data transfer method, since the transfer address is fixed, the data capacity, that is, the capacity of the memory buffer and the transfer address cannot be easily changed due to the convenience of one device.

[0003]

If the transfer address is changed, for example, it is necessary to rewrite the transfer address information described in the communication programs of both the transmitting side and the receiving side. The fact that such restrictions occur on both the transmitting and receiving devices means that the address space used by each device cannot be changed, which impedes adding new functions to the device or adding data transfer amount. It was a requirement.

Therefore, in view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to provide an inter-device data transfer method in which at least the transmitting device of the transmitting and receiving devices is not affected by the change of the transfer address of the receiving device. It is in.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention of claim 1 uses a part of the address space of the receiving side device by the transmitting side device so that the transmitting side device can In an inter-device transfer method for transferring data to a device on the receiving side, address information indicating a part of the address space is held in a storage medium in the device on the receiving side, and before the data transfer, The device on the transmission side receives the address information held in the storage medium from the device on the reception side.

The invention of claim 2 is, in addition to the invention of claim 1, characterized in that the contents held in the storage medium can be changed by new writing.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the invention, even if the address of the receiving side device used for data transfer is changed, the address of the transmitting side device can be obtained each time, so that it is not affected by the change of the address.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the contents stored in the storage medium can be changed so that the device on the receiving side can change the address information without changing the hardware.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a plurality of processors (processors in this case) 2 are connected to a common bus 1.
The processor 2 transfers data with another processor 2. 2 shows the configuration when the processor 2 is the receiving side, and FIG. 3 shows the configuration when the processor 2 is the transmitting side.

The processor 2 has a driver / receiver control unit 4, a microprocessor (hereinafter abbreviated as MPU) 5, and a storage unit 3. The driver / receiver control unit 4 functions as a communication interface. The MPU 5 executes the command transmission processing program 3A, the command reception processing program 3D, the answer reception processing program 3B, and the answer return processing program 3E stored in the storage unit 3 to transfer data using another processor 2 and a transfer address. Run. Further, various information processing is executed by a program (not shown) stored in the storage unit 3. Storage unit 3
Is further provided with a transfer data storage area (not shown) for storing data to be transmitted to and received from another processor 2. The storage unit 3 further includes an address holding unit (a storage area for a transfer address to send a response) 3F and an answer holding unit (a storage area for a received transfer address) 3C.
Is provided.

The address holding unit 3F stores a transfer address that responds when an inquiry is made from another processor. This transfer address corresponds to the address of the transfer data storage area in the storage unit 3. The data stored in the address holding unit 3F can be changed by the writing process of the MPU 5, and the user can change the MPU 5 via an input device such as a keyboard.
To set the storage data of the address holding unit 3F, that is, the transfer address.

A data transfer process executed in such a system configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. Note that FIG. 4 shows the contents of the communication-related program stored in the storage unit 3. FIG. 5 shows the contents of the communication procedure (protocol) performed between the transmitting and receiving processors.

The processor 2 for transmitting data is set to the transmitting side,
The processor 2 that receives the data is abbreviated as the receiving side. The MPU 5 on the transmission side activates the command transmission program to create communication information including the address acquisition command (S100 in FIG. 4, P10 in FIG. 5). The address acquisition command is a command for instructing the receiving side to transmit the transfer address. As the format of this communication information, a well-known one can be used according to the form of the communication path between the processors.

The created communication information is transmitted to the MPU 5 on the receiving side via the driver / receiver control section 4 and the bus 1 (S110 in FIG. 4). On the receiving side, when this communication information is received by the command receiving program, the MPU 5 identifies the content of the command (S200 → S210 in FIG. 4,
P100 in FIG. 5). As a result of this identification, when the received command is identified as the address acquisition command, the MPU 5 on the receiving side reads the transfer address held in the address holding unit 3F based on the answer return processing program 3E and transfers the transfer address. An answer including "," that is, communication information for response is created, and the response is transmitted to the sender (Fig. 4).
S220 → S230 → S240, P110 of FIG. 5).

When the MPU 5 on the transmitting side receives the answer by the answer receiving program 3B, it identifies that the content of the answer is the answer regarding the address acquisition command (S120 → S130 in FIG. 4, P20 in FIG. 5). After that, the MPU 5 stores the transfer address included in the received answer in the answer holding unit 3C (S140 in FIG. 4,
P30 of FIG. 5). Thereafter, the MPU 5 on the transmission side uses the transfer address held in the answer holding unit 3C to perform the same data transfer as in the conventional case (S150 in FIG. 4, P40 in FIG. 5).

In addition to this embodiment, the following example can be implemented.

1) The present invention can be applied to any system that employs a data communication method in which a device on the transmission side specifies an address of a device on the reception side. For example, a part of the address space on the receiving device side such as a system in which a device on the transmitting side (MPU) performs address designation and a read / write instruction to directly access the transfer data in the memory on the receiving side. The present invention is suitable for the system used for.

2) In this embodiment, the address holding unit 3F holding the transfer address (address information of the present invention) has RA.
Although the storage area of M is allocated, any storage medium such as a latch circuit or a floppy disk whose storage content can be changed by new writing of the MPU 5 can be used.

3) When it is desired to make the transfer address held on the receiving side unchangeable, the address holding unit 3F
For this purpose, a read-only memory such as a ROM may be used.
In this case, when changing the transfer address, the ROM is replaced on the receiving side, but no system change is required on the transmitting side.

[0021]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is not necessary to change the hardware configuration of the transmitting side device even if the address is changed.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the address information can be changed even in the device on the receiving side without changing the hardware. As a result, the restriction of addresses is eliminated, and the address space in the device can be freely changed, and the effect that the device can be freely designed and manufactured can be obtained. Furthermore, even when data is transferred between a newly developed device and an old device before development, it is possible to transfer data by giving address information from an external device such as a keyboard.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a processor 2 on a receiving side.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a processor 2 on a transmission side.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a data communication procedure according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a data communication procedure according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 common bus 2 processor 3 storage unit 4 microprocessor (MPU)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inter-device transfer method in which a device on the transmission side uses a part of the address space of a device on the reception side to transfer data from a device on the transmission side to a device on the reception side. Is stored in a storage medium in the device on the receiving side, and the device on the transmitting side transfers the address information stored in the storage medium from the device on the receiving side prior to the transfer of the data. An inter-device data transfer method characterized by receiving. 2. The inter-device data transfer method according to claim 1, wherein the stored contents of the storage medium can be changed by new writing.