JPH09244773A - Hot-line insertion and extraction device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the hot-line insertion and extraction device which allows nonstop high-line insertion and extraction without using any special interface IC. SOLUTION: Plural packages 1, 2, and 3 are installed by insertion on a back plane board or mother board provided with plural buses 8 and 9 and a power line 10, and when the package 1 is inserted or extracted, the buses and power line are brought into contact with the said package in different timing; and the timing points of contact with the buses and power line are detected, and transfer of one corresponding bus is stopped and reception is made ineffective according to the detection result. At this time, one of the buses 8 and 9 continues to send and receive signals, and consequently hot-line insertion and extraction can be performed without stopping the system on the whole.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hot-swap device for a non-stop computer system, and more particularly to a technique for preventing malfunction even when a package or hard disk drive is inserted / removed into / from a backplane board or motherboard during bus operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the prior art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-44931.
There is known a means for detecting the end of the insertion or withdrawal operation of the printed board by providing a plurality of wiring pattern lengths of the printed board plugging portion as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-115, and controlling the opening / closing gate opening on the backboard.

Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-267622, there is known one in which a buffer IC is mounted on the transmission path.

[0004]

Problems to be Solved by the Invention JP-A-59-4493
In the case of the publication No. 1, when signals are already exchanged on the bus, noise generated when the package is inserted or removed may cause other packages that are exchanging signals on the bus to malfunction. Further, since there is only one bus, there was a problem that the system had to be stopped when inserting or removing. In addition, no consideration is given to the signal that can be output by the failed package.

The technique using the buffer IC disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-267622 can be surely inserted / removed when the package to be inserted / removed is a receiver. There is a problem in that noise above the threshold is generated in the generated signal and an incorrect signal is output to the bus on the motherboard.

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for surely hot-plugging and unplugging a bidirectional bus package equipped with a driver without stopping the system.

[0007]

According to the present invention, a plurality of buses are provided, the corresponding buses are stopped at the time of insertion / removal, and noises generated during the insertion / removal are controlled to be ignored on the receiving side. By not stopping, the package can be inserted and removed without stopping the entire system. Further, by providing the bus switch, the failed package is electrically disconnected from the bus so that unnecessary signals are not output on the bus.

In order to achieve the above, the present invention detects the insertion / removal state of a bus using an insertion / removal detection circuit, sends a signal to that effect to the package on the bus that is to be inserted / removed, and receives the signal. Controls the exchange of signals on the corresponding bus, and controls a signal containing noise generated during that time to be an invalid signal.

A bus switch is provided on the package. If the package does not respond, the host system considers the package to be faulty and stops the corresponding bus. After that, a signal for turning off the bus switch is output to the faulty package to electrically disconnect the faulty package from the bus. After this, the exchange of signals on the bus is restarted.

In any case, at least one signal is exchanged on the bus, so that the entire system does not stop.

By adopting the above configuration,
The present invention has the following functions.

Since a plurality of buses are provided, signals are always exchanged by one or more buses. By considering the noise generated at the time of insertion / removal as invalid on the receiving side, malfunction can be prevented.

When the bus becomes unusable due to the faulty package, the faulty package is electrically disconnected by the bus switch. This prevents the abnormal signal from being output from the faulty package, and restarts signal exchange on the corresponding bus.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of a system configuration diagram of the present invention. Here, 1, 2 and 3 are packages, 8 and 9 are buses, 10 is a power supply line, 11 and 12 are insertion / removal control buses, 13a to 13g are package side connectors,
14a to 14g are connector pins on the backplane board side, 41 to 43 are functional logic circuits, 51 to 55 are bus drivers, and 61 to 63 are insertion / removal detection / bus control circuits.

The package 1 is a package to be inserted, and the packages 2 and 3 are transmitting signals using the buses 8 and 9. The packages 1, 2, and 3 all have the same configuration.

The operation at the time of insertion will be described. In the process of inserting the package 1, first, the connector 13a
, Vcc10, connector 13f and insertion / extraction control bus 11, and connector 13g and insertion / extraction control bus 12 contact. At this time, the insertion / removal detection / bus control circuit 61 causes the connectors 13a, 1
3f, 13g contact is detected and the insertion / extraction control bus 11 is set to Lo.
drive to w. This signal is received by the insertion / removal detection / bus control circuits 62, 63, and the bus driver 53,
55 stops the transmission of signals on the bus 8 so that all signals on the bus 8 are recognized as invalid.

Secondly, the connector 13b and the bus 8 come into contact with each other, but at this time, the bus 8 has already stopped and the noise generated at the time of insertion is recognized to be invalid. Therefore, the packages 2 and 3 malfunction through this bus. There is nothing to do.

Third, the connector 13c and Vcc10 contact each other. At this time, the insertion / extraction detection / bus control circuit 61 detects the contact of the connector 13c, and the insertion / extraction control bus 11 is set to Hi.
Then, the insertion / extraction control bus 12 is driven to LOW. This signal is received by the insertion / extraction detection / bus control circuits 62 and 63, whereby the bus drivers 53 and 55 restart the signal transmission on the bus 8, and the bus drivers 54 and 56 transmit the signal on the bus 9. Stop and recognize all signals on bus 9 as invalid.

Fourth, the connector 13d and the bus 9 come into contact with each other, but at this time, the bus 9 has already stopped, and it is recognized that the noise generated at the time of insertion is also invalid.
Therefore, the packages 2 and 3 do not malfunction.

Finally, the connector 13e contacts the Vcc10. At this time, the insertion / removal detection / bus control circuit 61 detects the contact of the connector 13e, and the insertion / removal control bus 12 is set to High.
Drive to h. This signal is received by the insertion / removal detection / bus control circuits 62 and 63, and the bus driver 54,
56 resumes transmission of signals on bus 9.

In FIG. 1, the relationship between the lengths of the connector pins is as follows.

14a = 14f = 14g 14a>14b>14c>14d> 14e FIG. 2 is a second embodiment of the system configuration diagram in the case of two buses according to the present invention. In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, noise generated when the package is inserted and removed is sent to two buses, but the buses are controlled so that signals on the buses are recognized as invalid. Therefore, also for that purpose, the two buses are required to be always operable except when the package is inserted or removed. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid sending the noise generated due to the failure of other packages to the bus in operation, and the device for avoiding this is the second embodiment.

Here, 15 is a bus arbiter, 1
Reference numerals 6 and 17 are bus switch signal lines, 51 and 52 are bus drives, 61 is an insertion / extraction detection / bus control circuit, and 71 and 72 are bus switches.

It is now assumed that the bus driver 51 has failed.
The bus arbiter 15 considers that the package 1 has failed when the package 1 does not respond through the bus 8. When detecting a failure, the bus arbiter 15 stops the bus 8. Then, the point-to-point bus switch signal line 16 is driven low, and the faulty package and the bus are electrically separated by turning off the bus switch 71. Then, signal exchange on the bus 8 is restarted. As a result, other packages can exchange signals using both buses 8 and 9. Therefore, even if the bus on one side is stopped, the signals can be exchanged using the other bus. Stop operation becomes possible.

The operation and stop sequences of the buses 8 and 9 during the insertion and removal of the package are as shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a third embodiment of the system configuration diagram in the case of three buses according to the present invention. in this case,
Even if one bus is stopped due to a failure, signals can be exchanged using the remaining two buses, so that the bus switch for restarting the failed bus as described in the second embodiment is unnecessary. The package insertion / extraction sequence is as shown in FIG. The relationship between the lengths of the connector pins in FIG. 4 is as follows.

14b>14d> 14i FIG. 6 is a fourth embodiment of a system configuration diagram in the case of four buses according to the present invention. There are four buses, and the connector pin lengths are 14b = 14d> 14i = 14j. In other words, there are a total of two sets, one set for buses 8 and 9, and one set for 18 and 19. In this case, even if one of the buses in the set is stopped, the other bus may be operated. Therefore, the bus switch as in the second embodiment is not always necessary. Therefore, the package insertion / extraction sequence becomes smaller than that in the third embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a first embodiment of a detection circuit for detecting the contact state of the connector. Transistor 20
Numerals 1, 204 are used in place of the diode which performs the rectifying function, and prevent the current from flowing to the power supply side when the connector 13f is inserted earlier than the connector 13a and the connector 13g is inserted earlier than the connector 13c, thereby preventing an erroneous detection signal. It has a function to prevent output. That is, in FIG.
Assuming that the transistor 201 is not present, High appears due to the package already inserted in 14f, and if 13f and 14f make contact before 13a makes contact, capacitors and LS not shown in 13a are shown.
I is connected, so 13f to 13
The current flows backward to the side a.

Taking the case of insertion as an example, first, the connector 13a
And Vcc10, the connector 13f and the insertion / removal control bus 11 come into contact with each other. At this time, the transistors 201, 202, 20
4 is turned on, connector 13f is low, connector 13
High appears in g. Next, the connector 13c and Vc
c10, the connector 13g, and the insertion / removal control bus 12 come into contact with each other. At this time, the transistor 205 is turned on and the transistor 203 is turned off, so that High appears in the connector 13f and Low appears in the connector 13g. Finally, the connector 13e and Vcc10 contact each other and the transistor 206 is turned off.
High appears in both g.

With the package completely inserted, the upper and lower control buses 11 and 12 are High. At the time of insertion / removal, Low is driven from the package to be inserted / removed, but since this circuit uses an open collector,
Signals do not collide on the insertion / removal control buses 11 and 12. A noise filter is inserted between the connectors 13f and 13g and the insertion / extraction detection circuit. This is a filter for removing noise generated at the time of contact, and a filter for removing noise of about several hundred ns is used. Since the effective signal (Low) on the insertion / removal control bus is a unit of several ms, adding this filter has no effect.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment in which a detection circuit for detecting the contact state of the connector is realized by a logic circuit. In this circuit, it is necessary to supply power to the package side before contacting the connector. The operation is the same as the circuit of FIG. In order to prevent malfunction due to the timing shift when the package and the connector pin are in contact, a wired logic method is used in which the detection output is pulled up by a diode and a resistor.

FIG. 9 is a fifth embodiment of a system configuration diagram when the present invention is applied to a hard disk drive (HDD). An adapter board 24 is attached to the HDD 25 for hot plugging and unplugging. Switch 21
A switch 5 is attached to the adapter board 24 and is operated by the operator. Two buses 8 and 9 are SCS
Normally, only one of the I buses is used for transfer.

When the HDD 25 fails, the switch 21
5 is operated to electrically disconnect the adapter board 24 from the bus. The subsequent sequence is the same as the case where there are two buses in FIG. Here, the timing of switching the bus is shown in FIG. Bus-free signal is when all signals on the SCSI bus become High (bus-free state)
Becomes High. The first bus free state after the bus 8 insertion / removal signal becomes Low (13a and 14a in FIG. 1 contact) is detected, and the used bus is switched from 8 to 9. That is, the HDD with the adapter board starts to be inserted, and then the HDD is connected to the bus 8 (13 in FIG. 1).
(b and 14b are in contact with each other), the bus 8 is not used and the bus 9 is used in a state where noise may occur at that time.

Thereafter, the bus 8 insertion / removal signal becomes High (see FIG. 1).
(13c and 14c in FIG. 6) come into contact with each other), the first bus-free state after the bus 9 control signal becomes Low is detected, and the bus used is switched from 9 to 8 again. A bus control circuit for realizing this operation is shown in FIG. When switching in the bus-free state, all signals on the SCSI bus are High in this state, and no operation is performed on the bus. This is because it has no effect.

Since there must be a bus-free state at least once between the time when the bus insertion / removal signal becomes Low and the time when the bus contacts the connector (at the time of "bus 8 contact" in FIG. 10). The pin length is set so that the time (Ta) of the difference in the insertion / removal timing due to the pin length is longer than the longest bus busy time (Tb). Otherwise, Figure 1
The bus to be used cannot be switched by the time of "bus 8 contact" in 0.

FIG. 12 is an embodiment of an adapter board using a bus bridge instead of the switches 213 and 214 in the embodiment of FIG. When sending a signal from the bus 30 side, the signal is sent to both buses 28 and 29. On the contrary, when receiving, either one of the buses 28 and 29 is selected and sent to the bus 30. The timing of switching the bus is performed when the bus insertion / removal signal becomes Low. This system can also support 2-port SCSI.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of an HDD in which an adapter board 24 is attached to a standard HDD 25 and hot-plugging is possible. By fixing the adapter board 24 and the chassis 39 with screws 371 to 374, the SCS can be inserted and removed.
No force is applied to the I connector 36 and the power connector 35, and the adapter board 24 and the HDD 25 are prevented from coming off. The handle 33 is used for insertion and removal. The dampers 341 to 343 are for protecting the HDD 25 from an external impact. The connectors 38 on the insertion / removal side are integrated into one. This is because if one connector is used, the contact sequence at the time of insertion / removal is easier to protect than in the case of two connectors. With such a method, the standard HDD 25 can be hot-plugged and unplugged (the package can be plugged and unplugged without stopping the system) simply by mounting the adapter board 24.

FIG. 14 shows data transfer when the number of buses is two and the bus is degenerated. Normally, data transfer is performed using both buses A and B. When the insertion / removal signal A is detected, the transfer on the bus A is stopped. Therefore, normally, the data sent by the bus A is sent by the bus B. Conversely, data is sent through bus A when bus B is stopped. After the insertion and removal are completely completed, the normal operation of transferring data on both buses is resumed.

As is clear from the above description, the present invention is conceivable to have the following specific constitution.

(1) A plurality of packages are inserted and installed on a backplane board or a mother board provided with a plurality of buses and power supply lines, and each bus and power supply line comes into contact with the packages at different timings when the packages are inserted and removed. In the hot-swap device, which is configured to detect the contact timing to each bus and power supply line, and controls to stop the transfer and invalidate the reception of the corresponding one bus according to the detection result, The bus is 3
In case of more than one, each bus is 3
It should be configured to contact the package at different timings as described above.

(2) When the number of buses is four or more, the buses are composed of a plurality of groups of two or more, and each group contacts the package at different timings when the package is inserted or removed, Control to stop the transfer and invalidate the reception of the corresponding set according to the detection result of each contact timing.

(3) A plurality of packages are inserted and installed on a backplane board or a mother board provided with a plurality of buses and power supply lines, and each bus and power supply line contacts the packages at different timings when the packages are inserted and removed. In the hot-swap device, which is configured to detect the contact timing to each bus and power supply line, and controls to stop the transfer and invalidate the reception of the corresponding one bus according to the detection result, Each bus contacts the package at different timings when the package is inserted / removed to detect the insertion / extraction state, and in order to prevent malfunction due to the timing deviation at the time of contact, the detection output is wired-up with a diode and a resistor. Insertion / extraction detection means to be transmitted to the package.

(4) Attaching an adapter board to a standard HDD to form a package, connecting the adapter board with a backplane board or a mother board with one connector, and connecting the HDD and the adapter board in such a way that the HDD and the adapter board do not come off during insertion and removal. A hard disk drive device compatible with hot-swap.

[0045]

According to the above invention, nonstop hot-plugging can be performed at low cost without using a special interface IC.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram of a second embodiment when there are two buses according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an insertion / removal sequence in the system configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram of a third embodiment when the number of buses of the present invention is three.

FIG. 5 is an insertion / removal sequence in the system configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram of a fourth embodiment when there are four buses according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an insertion / extraction detection circuit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of an embodiment in which the insertion / extraction detection circuit of the present invention is realized by a logic circuit.

FIG. 9 is a system configuration diagram of a fifth embodiment when the present invention is applied to a hard disk drive (HDD).

FIG. 10 is a bus switching timing chart in the system configuration of the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an embodiment of a bus control circuit.

FIG. 12 is an adapter board diagram in which a switch is replaced with a bus bridge in the system configuration diagram of the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an embodiment of an HDD that is hot-swappable.

FIG. 14 is an example of data transfer when the bus is degenerated.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Insertion / extraction package 2,3 Transmission / reception package 41-43 Functional logic circuit 51-59 Bus driver 61-63 Insertion / extraction detection / bus control circuit 71,72 Bus switch 8,9,18,19,28-30 Bus line 10 Power supply line 11 , 12 Insertion / extraction control signal bus 13a to 13j Package side connector 14a to 14j Backplane board side connector pin 15 Bus arbiter 16, 17 Bus switch signal line 201 to 206 Transistor 211 to 215 switch 221, 222 SCSI controller 23 Inrush current prevention circuit 24 Adapter Board 25 HDD 26 SCSI Bridge 271-273 SCSI Driver / Receiver 311 to 313 D Flip Flop 32 4 Input Selector 33 Handle 341 to 343 Damper 35 Power Connector 6 SCSI connector 371 to 374 screws 38 connector 39 chassis 401 and 402 guide pin

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of packages are inserted and installed on a backplane board or a mother board provided with a plurality of buses and power supply lines, and each bus and power supply line contacts the packages at different timings when the packages are inserted and removed. And detecting the contact timing to each bus and power supply line, and controlling to stop the transfer and invalidate the reception of the corresponding one bus according to the detection result. Insertion / extraction device. 2. A plurality of packages are installed by being installed in a backplane board or a motherboard provided with two buses and power lines, and each bus and power line contact the package at different timings when the packages are inserted and removed. And detecting the contact timing to each bus and power supply line, and controlling to stop the transfer and invalidate the reception of the corresponding one bus according to the detection result. Switch means for electrically disconnecting the bus from the package is provided, and the switch means is operated by detecting the failure of the package to disconnect the corresponding bus from the package so that noise due to the package failure is not output to the corresponding bus. A hot-line insertion / extraction device characterized by: 3. A plurality of packages are inserted and installed on a backplane board or a motherboard provided with a plurality of buses and power lines, and each bus and power line contacts the packages at different timings when the packages are inserted and removed. When the package is inserted, at least once during the contact time from the point of contact between the nth pin of the power line and the package to the point of contact between the pin of the nth bus and the package. A time difference in which a plurality of buses contact each other is set so that a bus-free state exists, and based on the detection of the bus-free state and the detection of the contact time, stop of transfer of one corresponding bus and invalidation of reception. Hot-swap device characterized by controlling so as to perform.