JPH1011384A - Input/output standardization device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize smooth system shift in spite of the change of a hardware for controlling input/output with peripheral devices in a computer system by enabling an input/output operation with the different peripheral device through the use of an interface where an application programs is integrated. SOLUTION: Input/output standardization mechanism 10 to or from the peripheral devices is constituted of the three layers of an application interface layer 30, a logical channel ←→physical channel converting layer 40 and a device driver interface layer 50. Then, the application program 1 permits the input/ output to or from a peripheral device group to be possible without being conscious of difference in a communication board by a common communication function with a logical channel which is provided by the interface layer 30. Thus, when system configuration is changed, only the interface layer 50 is changed so that it corresponds to the change of system configuration without adding any program change to the application program 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an input / output standardization apparatus provided in a computer system that operates in input / output with one or more peripheral devices for standardizing input / output operations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a communication method between a conventional computer system and a peripheral device that inputs and outputs the computer system. In the figure, a device driver 3A or 3B issues a command to hardware 4A or 4B which is mounted in a computer system and performs input / output operations with peripheral devices.
In addition to directly controlling the operation, when an event is received from the hardware 4A or 4B, the control is taken over,
The application program 1 is notified directly without passing through the operating system 2.

As described above, since the device driver 3A or 3B is software that corresponds to the hardware 4A or 4B on a one-to-one basis, if the application program 1 and the device driver 3A or 3B take direct cooperation, the application program 1, the processing for cooperation with the device driver 3A or 3B is scattered, and the input / output hardware 4A or 4B with the peripheral device is changed or the device driver 3A
Or, when 3B is changed, it is necessary to remodel the application program 1 each time, and an enormous number of work steps are required.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a smooth system migration without changing existing application programs in a computer system even if there is a change in hardware for controlling input / output with peripheral devices in a computer system. The object of the present invention is to provide an input / output standardization device that can realize the above.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an input / output standardizing apparatus, comprising: a computer system which performs an input / output operation by communicating with one or more peripheral devices; A device provided between software for controlling hardware for operation and an application program, and configured to enable input / output operations with different peripheral devices using a unified interface of the application program.

[0006] The input / output standardization device according to claim 1 is configured as described above, and the application program of the computer system is a peripheral device that is different when performing input / output operation with one or more peripheral devices of the system. Can also perform input / output operations using a unified interface. Therefore,
A stable and highly flexible computer system can be obtained without having to make the interface different for different peripheral devices to be subjected to input / output operations, that is, without having to change programs.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an input / output standardizing apparatus, wherein the apparatus according to the first aspect provides a communication function using each logical channel of an application program for an input / output operation. Channel association means for associating each physical channel and each logical channel on the software side for input / output operations, and adjustment for input / output operations between software and the input / output standardization device via each physical channel And a coordinating interface having a coordinating means for performing the processing, wherein the unified interface is configured to be a communication function provided by the communication function providing means.

The input / output standardizing device according to claim 2 is configured as described above, and the input / output operation between the peripheral device and the application program is performed by the communication function providing means, the channel associating means, and the adjusting means of the input / output standardizing device. The application program can associate a logical channel for input / output with a desired physical channel only by using a provided communication function.
Therefore, the application program can perform an input / output operation transparently via the input / output standardization device without being aware of a difference between peripheral devices.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the input / output standardizing apparatus, the adjusting means of the second aspect enables use of a unified interface by an application program when software or hardware is changed. The adjustment process is performed as described above.

[0010] The input / output standardizing device according to claim 3 is configured as described above, and the adjusting means enables the use of the unified interface of the application program by the adjusting means even when the hardware or software is changed. Perform processing. Therefore, even if there is a change in the hardware or software of the application program, the system can be smoothly shifted without any change being required.

[0011]

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

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an internal structure of an input / output standardization mechanism with a peripheral device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram for explaining a communication method between the computer system according to the embodiment of the present invention and peripheral devices that input / output the system. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of a heating furnace control system to which the system configuration of FIG. 2 is applied.

The system configuration of FIG. 2 includes an application program 1, an operating system 2, device drivers 3A and 3B, and hardware 4A and 4B similarly to that of FIG. 5, and newly includes one or more peripheral devices. An output standardization mechanism 10 is included. As shown in the figure, the input / output standardization mechanism 10 for the peripheral device includes a device driver 3A or software as software for controlling hardware 4A or 4B that performs communication (input / output operation) corresponding to each of the different peripheral devices. 3B and the application program 1 or between the application program 1 and the operating system 2.

The system shown in FIG. 3 has a sequencer 13 having a function of collecting operation result data such as temperature, flow rate, and pressure transmitted from a control device 14 such as a sensor or an actuator installed on an operation line, and providing operation information. Operation information management system 16 with functions, synchronous serial communication 12
And an operation information management system 16 via an asynchronous serial communication 15.
And a heating furnace control system interconnected with the heating furnace control system.

Data transmitted from the control device 14 installed on the operation line is asynchronously received by the heating furnace control system via the sequencer 13. Further, a maximum of 350 bytes of data is periodically transmitted from the heating furnace control system to the sequencer 13, and thereafter, the sequencer 1
3 to the control device 14. The operation information management system 16 periodically transmits operation information including parameters for controlling the heating furnace to the heating furnace control system. A 2-channel communication path is provided between the heating furnace control system and the sequencer 13 for the synchronous serial communication 12, and an asynchronous serial communication 15 is provided between the heating furnace control system and the operation information management system 16. A communication channel of one channel is provided. To manage these three channels in total, an input / output standardization mechanism 10 for peripheral devices shown in FIG. 1 is applied.

The operation information management system 16 shown in FIG. 3 is used for the operating system 2 and the application program 1 shown in FIG. 2, the heating furnace control system is used for the device driver 3A or 3B, and the sequencer and the control device 1 are used.
4 corresponds to the hardware 4A or 4B, respectively.

In FIG. 1, the input / output standardization mechanism 10 for a peripheral device comprises three layers: an application interface layer 30, a logical channel .fwdarw. Physical channel conversion layer 40, and a device driver interface layer 50.

Application interface layer 30
Is a layer for directly managing transmission / reception requests from the application program 1, and provides transmission / reception functions as shown in the following table for the application program 1 having each logical channel in the logical channel group 20 as a parameter.

[0019]

[Table 1]

Device driver interface layer 50
Performs input / output with respect to the synchronous serial communication device drivers 70 and 110 using each of the physical channels in the physical channel group 60. Here, each channel of the physical channel group 60 corresponds to the synchronous serial communication board 8.
0 and 1: 1 correspond to the synchronous serial communication ports 90 and 95 of the asynchronous serial communication board 120 and the asynchronous serial communication port 130, respectively. In this case, the physical channel corresponds to each of the ports 90 and 95 of the communication board 80, and the physical channel corresponds to the communication port 130 of the asynchronous serial communication board 120.

Logical channel ← → physical channel conversion layer 40
Is used to connect each logical channel in the logical channel group 20 and each physical channel in the physical channel group 60 to the input / output standardization mechanism 1.
0 is related by data on a table managed internally. In detail, a table of the following format is defined for each logical channel, and a physical channel is related.

Struct logical channel table ｛The number of the corresponding physical channels; the connection identifier unique to the communication board corresponding to each physical channel;｝; is a basic table structure. struct logical channel table 1 ｛number of corresponding physical channels = 1; connection identifier unique to the communication board corresponding to the physical channel;｝; 2; connection identifier unique to the communication board corresponding to the physical channel; connection identifier unique to the communication board corresponding to the physical channel;

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a logical channel is associated with a communication port on a one-to-one basis, a plurality of communication ports on one communication board, a communication port on a different communication board is used. Can be correlated.

That is, the application program 1 can perform input / output with the peripheral device group without being conscious of the difference between the communication boards, by the communication function common to the logical channel provided by the application interface layer 30.

When there is a change in the system configuration such that the communication board and the device driver are changed, it is possible to change only the device driver interface layer 50 without changing the external specification of the communication function. Thus, it is possible to cope with a change in the system configuration without making any program change to the application program 1. That is, the hardware 4A or 4B (the synchronous serial communication board 80 or the asynchronous serial communication board 12) is not changed without changing the external specification of the device driver interface layer 50 for the application program 1.
0) Device driver 3A or 3B that directly controls
(Synchronous serial communication device driver 70 or 1
By hiding the logic specific to the hardware in 10) in the device driver interface layer 50, it becomes possible to cope with the above-mentioned change in the system configuration. This will be described below.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flowcharts of transmission processing before and after the change of the communication board of FIG.
The processing according to these flowcharts is executed by the communication device driver 70 or 110. 4A is a flowchart of the transmission process of the communication board before the change in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4B is a flowchart of the transmission process of the communication board after the change in FIG.

FIG. 4A shows the transmission data edited by the communication device driver 70 or 110 in an address space where the CPU of the computer executing the application program 1 and the communication board 80 or 120 can refer to each other. After the setting (S1 to S3), C is set via the I / O port (matching the transmission destination logical channel number) of the computer executing the application program 1.
Since a transmission request command is issued from the PU to the communication board (S4), a transmission processing flow for transmitting data in response to the command is shown. FIG. 4B shows that the communication device driver 70 or 110 transmits transmission data and a transmission request to the communication board 80 or 120 to the above-described I / O.
A transmission processing flow performed via a port is shown.

Even if the communication board 80 or 120 having the transmission processing specifications shown in FIG. 4A is replaced with a board having the transmission processing specifications shown in FIG. The different transmission processing shown in these flowcharts can be defined as the same externally used communication function provided by the application interface layer 30 only by adjusting the logic so as to absorb the change in logic due to the specification change. The transmission process can be continued in the same procedure (without changing the program contents) without being aware of the difference between the communication boards before and after the change.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an internal structure of an input / output standardization mechanism with a peripheral device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram illustrating a communication method between a computer system and a peripheral device that inputs and outputs the computer system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of a heating furnace control system to which the system configuration of FIG. 2 is applied.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are flowcharts of transmission processing before and after the change of the communication board in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining a communication method between a conventional computer system and a peripheral device that inputs and outputs the computer system.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Application program 3A and 3B Device driver 4A and 4B Hardware 10 I / O standardization mechanism with peripheral devices 20 Logical channel group 30 Application interface layer 40 Logical channel ← → physical channel conversion layer 50 Device driver interface layer 70 and 110 Synchronous serial Communication device driver 80 Synchronous serial communication board 120 Asynchronous serial communication board In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A computer system that performs input / output operations by communicating with one or more peripheral devices, and software for controlling hardware for the input / output operations performed by the peripheral devices and the application programs. And an input / output standardization device provided between the device and the peripheral device, wherein the input / output operation with the different peripheral device using the unified interface of the application program is enabled. 2. The input / output standardization device, comprising: a communication function providing unit for providing a communication function using each logical channel of the application program for the input / output operation; and the software for the input / output operation. Channel associating means for associating each physical channel on the side with each of the logical channels; and performing adjustment processing for the input / output operation between the software and the input / output standardization device via the physical channels. 2. The input / output standardization device according to claim 1, wherein the unified interface is the communication function provided by the communication function providing unit. 3. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting unit performs the adjusting process so as to enable the application program to use the unified interface when the software or the hardware is changed. The input / output standardization device according to claim 2.