JPH09231069A - Method and device for information processing - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize the address dependent parts requested by the firmware by adding a flexible memory management mechanism to the firmware, to reduce the packaging manhour of an OS(operating system), i.e., a client, and also to easily package more OSs. SOLUTION: The firmware and an OS loader are stored in a RAM. When a request is received to secure a memory area to the RAM while an OS is loaded by the OS loader, the firmware checks an idle memory (S401). If a memory area having a requested size is available, a memory area is secured in response to the corresponding request (S403). If it is impossible to secure the requested memory area, an error is outputted (S405). Then the firmware is moved as long as a memory area is secured as requested by the movement of the firmware (S404). Thus the requested memory area is secured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method, and more particularly to firmware suitable for personal computers, workstations and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in personal computers and workstations, the firmware is often designed in consideration of a specific operating system. Therefore, the firmware itself is designed to depend on a specific address, and the memory management mechanism provided by the firmware is extremely simple.

[0003]

In recent years, attempts have been made to execute various operating systems on the same platform, and for that purpose, standardization of firmware implemented by the platform and flexibility of the structure are required. There is. However, in most of the conventional firmware, the operation position on the memory is fixed, or the user needs to customize the operation in advance. Therefore, when implementing a newly developed or ported operating system, man-hours are required to adapt the operating system to the memory space defined by the formware and the address used by the firmware. When manipulating an operating system having a kernel or an OS loader depending on a specific firmware to a platform having another firmware, this man-hour is particularly remarkable.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and by providing a flexible memory management mechanism in the firmware, the address-dependent part required by the firmware is minimized, and the operating system of the client is An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing method and apparatus that can reduce the number of mounting steps and easily mount a larger number of operating systems.

[0005]

The information processing apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object has the following configuration.
That is, first loading means for loading the firmware corresponding to the hardware of the information processing device into the memory, and second loading means for utilizing the hardware resources via the firmware to load the operating system into the memory. And a securing means for securing a memory area of a size required by the second loading means and the operating system on the memory.

An information processing method of the present invention for achieving the above object has the following configuration. That is, the information processing method at the time of starting the information processing device,
A first loading step of loading firmware corresponding to the hardware of the information processing device into a memory; and a second loading step of loading an operating system into the memory by utilizing a hardware resource via the firmware, The second loading step and the securing step of securing a memory area of a size required by the operating system on the memory.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of the information processing apparatus according to this embodiment. In FIG.
Represents a central processing unit or CPU. Also, 1
02 is a ROM (Read Only Mem) storing firmware.
ory), 103 is a RAM (Random Access Memory), 104
Is a non-volatile memory, 105 is a magnetic disk device, 106
Is the system console.

Generally, in the case of the information processing apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the process from the system startup (when the power is turned on) to the loading of the operating system is as follows.

(1) R after hardware diagnosis and initialization
Jump control to specific address in OM, (2) RO
Deployment and activation of firmware program in M, (3)
Diagnosis and initialization of peripheral equipment by firmware, (4)
Reading of the OS loader from the magnetic disk device by firmware and expansion to RAM, (5) Kernel and resource loading by the OS loader. At this time, an I / O request or the like is issued from the OS loader to the firmware, and the firmware responds to this I / O request, and (6) transfers control to the OS that has completed loading.

Based on the above process, the process of loading the operating system at system startup in this embodiment will be described below. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control procedure at the time of system startup in this embodiment.

(1) The hardware is diagnosed and initialized, and a jump is made to a specific address (step S301). Regarding this processing, the processing of this embodiment performs generally known operations. Therefore, detailed description is omitted here.

(2) The firmware program in the ROM is expanded in the RAM and activated (step S302).

In this embodiment, the firmware program has a structure as shown in FIG.
In FIG. 2, 201 is a header, which indicates that the following data is a firmware program. 2
A firmware code area 02 stores the code of a firmware program including an initialization routine described later. Reference numeral 203 denotes a firmware data area, which is a data area used by the firmware program. The firmware program according to this embodiment is a relocatable execution module having no address dependency. Then, the conversion to an effective address (effective address) has a structure that is dynamically calculated in the program as necessary by the formula of (effective address) = (relative address in program) + (start address of program). .

When the above firmware program is transferred from the ROM 102 to the RAM 103 by the initialization routine in the firmware program, N
The memory management table shown in FIG. 3 is read from the VRAM 104. In FIG. 3, 301 indicates the number of entries in this memory management table. 302 is 303, 30
4 represents the attribute of the memory area specified by 4. The attributes are as follows.

Free area designated is free area; Firmware: designated area is firmware area; Handler: designated area is system area such as exception interrupt handler; Not accessible : The specified area does not need to be accessed.- Load address: The specified area is the loading area of the OS loader (bootstrap program) .- Client area: The specified area is the area of the client other than the OS loader. is there.

The start address 303 indicates the start address of the memory area classified by the above attributes, and the size 304 indicates the size of the area.

Now, the initialization routine checks the above-mentioned memory management table, and loads the firmware program from the "start address" of the entry having the attribute "Firmware". Management table is N
If not found in VRAM 104, the default value is adopted. The memory management table in the NVRAM 104 can be edited by the user with a utility provided by the firmware program.

RAM 103 of firmware program
Upon completion of loading into the program management routine, the initialization routine creates the program management table shown in FIG. FIG.
In the figure, 401 is a program start address, in which the start address of the current firmware program is stored. Reference numeral 402 denotes a data area start address, and the start of the data area of the firmware program is stored as an in-program relative address. Reference numeral 403 is a return address, and an address for restarting after the firmware program moving process described later is stored as an in-program relative address. 404 is a register save area,
This is an area for saving the register contents when moving a firmware program, which will be described later.

The initialization routine sets values in the program start address 401 and the data area start address 402 of the program management table, and passes control to the firmware program in the RAM.

(3) Diagnosis and initialization of peripheral devices are performed by the firmware (step S303). In the present embodiment, the diagnosis and initialization of the peripheral device by the firmware execute a general procedure, and the description thereof will be omitted here.

(4) Reading of the OS loader from the magnetic disk device by the firmware, expansion to the RAM, and activation (step S304) The firmware program is the magnetic disk device 105.
OS loader (bootstrap program) from RA
Deploy on M103. The loading address at this time is the above-mentioned Load add of the memory management table.
Obtained from an entry having a dress attribute. After the loading of the OS loader is completed, the control is transferred to the OS loader.

(5) When various resources are expanded by the OS loader (step S305), the OS loader responds to I / O requests or the like generated from the firmware.

The OS loader is a kernel of the OS.
l) and other resources are provided to the magnetic disk device 10
It is read out from the memory 5 and expanded on the RAM 103. However, for these I / O operations (including output to the console 106 etc.), the device driver of the OS itself is in the RAM 103.
Until it is deployed on top and the execution environment is set up, there is no choice but to rely on firmware. Therefore, until then, the client (OS loader or operating system) and the firmware must coexist on the memory. Therefore, in this embodiment, the firmware program
A memory request program interface is provided.

When the client develops various resources on the RAM 103, it makes a memory request to the firmware through this program interface to prevent mutual destruction of the memory between the firmware and the client. Eliminates the need for dependent memory usage.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the processing of firmware when a memory request is received. In the figure, step S401 is a free memory check process. Here, the free area of the RAM 103 is obtained by referring to the above-mentioned memory management table. If the specified free area is found, the memory management table is updated and the process returns.

In the firmware program according to the embodiment of the present invention, with respect to the memory request, there are implemented two kinds of designation methods: request by byte length, request by start address and byte length, and free memory check processing is performed. It corresponds to these designations.

For reference, the program interface of the free memory check process is shown as follows: int getFreeArea (IN: void * start_Address Start address requested (-1 if no start address is requested) IN: int request_Memory_size Requested memory size OUT: void * allocated_Address It becomes like the head address of the memory space allocated by the request).

The above-mentioned free memory check processing is performed in the following 3
Returns the return information of the type. That is, (1) success: the specified memory area is alloca
(2) fail: allocate of the specified memory area
(3) must move: The memory area specified by moving the firmware is allocated.

When success is returned, the client is returned with the returned address value. Also fail
If is returned, the firmware outputs an error message to the console and returns to the client with an error (depending on the client for subsequent processing)
(Steps S402 and S405). Further, when must move is returned, control is transferred to the 404 firmware moving process (steps S402, S403, S404). When transferring control to the firmware transfer processing,
The start address of the entry having the Firmware attribute in the memory management table shown by is updated so that the specified memory area can be allocated.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the firmware movement processing (step S404).
In step S501, the start address of the destination firmware program is stored in the program start address 401 of the program management table described above. As this address, the start address of the entry of the Firmware attribute of the memory management table updated by the free memory check process is adopted.

Next, in step S502, the return address of this processing is stored in the return address 403 of the program management table as an execution pointer. This address is the first address to be executed after the firmware program has been moved and after the reentry process described later has been performed. For example, if the address at the end position of step S404 in FIG. 6 (the end position of step S505 in FIG. 7) is set, the firmware finishes the process of FIG. 6 when the reentry process described later is completed. Then, the process will be shifted to the next process.

In step S503, the current register value is stored in the register save area 40 of the program management table.
Store in 4. Then, in step S504,
Transfer the firmware program to the destination. In step S505, a jump is performed for re-entry processing of the firmware program at the move destination. The address of the reentry process is obtained from the sum of the program relative entry address of the reentry process and the destination address.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation of the reentry processing in this embodiment. In step S601, the memory management table created by the above-described free memory check process is stored in the nonvolatile memory (NVRAM1
04). This is to refer to this at the time of the next boot and place the firmware in an appropriate address in advance to reduce the overhead associated with the firmware moving process.

Next, in step S602, the register value stored by the above-described firmware moving process is restored. Then, in step S603, the return address 40 is returned by the firmware movement processing described above.
An in-program relative jump is performed on the entry point stored as 3, and the firmware program is restarted.

As described above, the firmware is moved, and the memory area required by the OS loader can be properly secured. Then, when the resource loading by the OS loader is completed, control is transferred to the operating system (step S306).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by providing the firmware with the program interface for requesting the memory area from the client, the OS loader (bootstrap program) which is the client can be flexibly changed. Design becomes possible.

Further, according to the above embodiment, it becomes easy to implement a client having a strong memory dependency.

Further, according to the above embodiment, the firmware itself dynamically relocates in the memory as needed, so that the memory can be effectively used. Further, according to the above embodiment, the pointer is managed as a program relative address, and the start address of the program is held. Therefore, when the physical position of the program in the memory is changed, it becomes easy to adapt various pointers with the program counter to a new address when continuously operating. That is, it becomes easy to restart the program after moving it.

Further, according to the above-described embodiment, since the memory layout required for the previous boot is stored in the nonvolatile memory, the memory layout suitable for the boot process of the previous client is performed in the subsequent boots. Boot time can be shortened.

Furthermore, after the system is started up, the NV
Since the memory arrangement can be customized by editing the memory management table of the RAM 104, more flexible memory management becomes possible.

In the above embodiment, the firmware program is a continuous program module including the data area managed by the firmware program, but it may be divided into appropriate fragments and managed on the memory. Good. In this case, for example, when the firmware program is moved, it is possible to partially move the firmware program, which allows more flexible and high-speed memory management and firmware rearrangement.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the operation of the general operating system at the time of loading is described by referring to the firmware in the information processing device which is premised on the execution of the operating system. It is not limited. For example, the firmware can be installed in a home-use game-dedicated machine that can be exchanged by the client. Here, the client is a client that receives a service from the firmware, is loaded on the memory, and is executed. In a normal computer, it means an OS or its loader, and if it is a dedicated game machine, it means the game program itself. In addition, the exchangeable client means a state in which the client is changed for each game like a game program in a game-dedicated machine.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, host computer, interface device, reader, printer, etc.), a device composed of one device (for example, copying machine, facsimile) Device).

Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also an OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided on a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the above-mentioned storage medium, the storage medium stores the program code corresponding to the above-mentioned flowchart. Briefly, the memory map example of FIG. 9 is used. Each module shown will be stored in the storage medium.

That is, at least the program code of each of the "first load processing module", "second load processing module" and "securing processing module" may be stored in the storage medium.

Here, the first loading process is a process of loading the firmware corresponding to the hardware of the information processing device into the memory. The second loading process is a process of using the hardware resource via firmware to load the operating system into the memory. The securing process is a process of securing a memory area of the size required by the second loading process and the operating system on the memory.

[0053]

As described above, according to the present invention, the firmware is provided with the flexible memory management mechanism, and the address-dependent part required by the firmware is minimized.
It is possible to reduce the number of man-hours for mounting the operating system which is the client and easily mount more operating systems.

In addition, flexible memory management can be performed between the operating system and the firmware, and the operating system is not tied to a specific memory area during mounting.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to secure a memory area of a size designated by the operating system and a means for loading the same from a designated address, and it is possible to support various operating systems.

Further, according to the present invention, since a table showing the usage status of the memory space is provided and the requested memory area is secured by referring to the table, it is easy to grasp and manage the usage status of the memory space. Become.

Further, according to the present invention, the above table is automatically updated based on the reserved state of the memory area by the operating system and so on. The allocation is retained and the processing speed at startup is improved. That is, the overhead due to memory rearrangement or the like can be minimized.

Further, according to the present invention, since the above table can be edited, more flexible memory management can be performed.

Further, according to the present invention, since it is possible to move the firmware storage area when securing the above memory area, it is possible to flexibly move data and programs in the memory. Become. Therefore, it is possible to further reduce the memory dependency required by the firmware, and it is possible to support various operating systems.

Further, according to the present invention, the movement of the firmware is realized as one of the functions of the firmware.

Further, according to the present invention, the table is updated based on the result of the movement of the firmware, so that the firmware is loaded to an appropriate position at the subsequent start-up, and the system is updated. Unless is changed, the firmware does not move and the processing efficiency at startup is improved.

[0062]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information processing apparatus according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of a firmware program in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data configuration of a memory management table in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a program management table in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control procedure at system startup in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing firmware processing when a memory request is received.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of firmware movement processing.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of reentry processing in the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing structural characteristics of a program according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 CPU 102 ROM 103 RAM 104 Nonvolatile Memory (NVRAM) 105 Magnetic Disk Unit 106 System Console

Claims (23)

[Claims] 1. A first loading means for loading firmware corresponding to hardware of an information processing apparatus into a memory, and a second loading means for utilizing an hardware system through the firmware to load an operating system into the memory. An information processing apparatus comprising: a loading unit; and a securing unit that secures a memory area of a size required by the second loading unit and the operating system in the memory. 2. The information according to claim 1, wherein the securing unit secures a memory area of a size designated by the second loading unit and the operating system from a designated address of the memory. Processing equipment. 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a table indicating a usage state of a memory space in the memory, wherein the securing unit secures a requested memory area by referring to the table. The information processing device described. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the table is stored in a non-volatile memory. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising an updating unit that updates the table based on a secured state of the memory area by the securing unit. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising editing means for editing the table. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising moving means for moving the storage area of the firmware as needed when the memory area is secured by the securing means. 8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the moving unit is one of the functions of the firmware. 9. The apparatus further comprises a table indicating a usage state of a memory space in the memory, the securing means secures a requested memory area by referring to the table, and the moving means refers to the table. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the migration destination of the firmware is determined according to the above information. 10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising an updating unit that updates the table based on a change in the memory usage state by the securing unit and the moving unit. 11. A program management table for registering a start address indicating at least a program start storage position for the firmware, a return address after the firmware is moved by the moving means by a relative address in the firmware, Continuing means for changing the program start address of the program management table to a destination address based on the movement result of the firmware by the moving means, and continuing execution of the firmware from the position indicated by the return address. 8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:
An information processing apparatus according to claim 1. 12. An information processing method at startup of an information processing apparatus, comprising: a first loading step of loading firmware corresponding to hardware of the information processing apparatus into a memory; and a hardware via the firmware. A second loading step of loading an operating system into the memory by using a software resource; and a securing step of securing a memory area of a size required by the second loading step and the operating system on the memory. An information processing method characterized by: 13. The information according to claim 12, wherein the securing step secures a memory area of a size designated by the second loading step and the operating system from a designated address of the memory. Processing method. 14. The method according to claim 12, further comprising a table showing a usage state of a memory space in the memory, wherein the securing step secures a requested memory area by referring to the table.
3. The information processing method according to 3. 15. The information processing method according to claim 14, wherein the table is stored in a non-volatile memory. 16. The information processing method according to claim 14, further comprising an updating step of updating the table based on a secured state of a memory area in the securing step. 17. The information processing method according to claim 14, further comprising an editing step of editing the table. 18. The information processing method according to claim 12, further comprising a moving step of moving the storage area of the firmware as needed when the memory area is secured by the securing step. 19. The moving step is one of the functions of the firmware.
An information processing method according to claim 1. 20. Further comprising a table showing a usage state of a memory space in the memory, the securing step secures a requested memory area by referring to the table, and the moving step refers to the table. The destination to which the firmware is to be moved is determined according to the above method.
An information processing method according to claim 1. 21. The information processing method according to claim 20, further comprising an updating step of updating the table based on a change in a memory usage state by the securing step and the moving step. 22. A program management table for registering, with a relative address in the firmware, a start address indicating at least a start storage position of a program for the firmware, and a return address after the move of the firmware in the moving step. A continuation step of changing the program start address of the program management table to a destination address based on the movement result of the firmware by the movement step, and continuing execution of the firmware from a position indicated by the return address 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
9. The information processing method according to item 8. 23. A computer-readable memory that stores a program code of an information processing method when the information processing apparatus is started up, and a first load that loads firmware corresponding to the hardware of the information processing apparatus into the memory. A code of a step, a code of a second loading step for loading an operating system into the memory by using a hardware resource through the firmware, and a memory of a size required by the second loading step and the operating system A computer-readable memory, comprising: a code of a securing process for securing an area on the memory.