JPH10187286A - Information equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To construct an information equipment capable of turning on a power supply only by one operation, turning off the power supply by automatic shut- down by one operation and connecting serial interface equipments more than the number of common(COM) ports without increasing exclusive ports on extended slots only for connecting serial interface equipments. SOLUTION: A power supply input/output(PSIO) control box 2 detects the state of a power switch 24, communicates with an equipment body 1 through a serial data transfer line 24 to start shut-down processing by the body 1, and after the end of shut-down processing, successively instructs a power supply device 23 to stop power supply to a serial I/O equipment 6 including the body 1. A PSIO control board 21 is connected to an ISA bus 17 in the body 1 and communicates with the PSIO control box 22 through the transfer line 24.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for easily adding serial interface devices and for turning on a system.
The present invention relates to an information device capable of realizing / OFF with one operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the advancement of semiconductor technology, the performance of microprocessors has been improved, and existing memory LSIs and peripheral control LSIs are appropriately combined, and relatively high performance personal computers or work-pieces are connected simply by connecting input / output devices. A relatively small computer system such as a station can be easily constructed.

On the other hand, media to be handled is not limited to text, but also covers a wide variety of graphics, images, sounds, etc., and the amount of data to be processed at a time is significantly increased. In this case, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is used.
A large number of input / output devices to be connected through the bus will be connected.

In the computer system described above,
It is necessary to operate a plurality of power switches provided for each device in order to turn on / off the power of all devices constituting the system. In particular, when turning off the power, the plurality of switches described above are turned off after shutting down the device body. It was very troublesome because it had to be done.

[0005] Of the above-mentioned computer systems, one or two COMs are usually used in a personal computer to connect a serial interface device.
(Common) ports are provided as standard. When connecting more serial interface devices than the number of COM ports, it is necessary to add a dedicated board to the expansion slot of the device body and connect the serial interface device to this board. Depending on the number of serial interface devices,
One or more expansion slots had to be occupied.

[0006]

In the above-mentioned conventional example,
A plurality of operations are required to turn on / off the power of an information device which is originally desired to be performed by one operation, which is very troublesome and has a problem in operability. In addition, a dedicated board is required for adding a serial interface device, and the expansion slot is occupied, and the expandability is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a first object of the present invention is to provide an information device capable of turning on the power by one operation, and automatically turning off the power by one operation. Aim. Also, it is possible to connect more serial ports than the number of COM ports without adding a dedicated board to the expansion slot only for the purpose of connecting the serial ports, and also to turn on / off the plurality of serial ports.
A second object is to provide an information device capable of realizing F control with one operation.

[0008]

According to the information apparatus of the present invention, an information apparatus main body having an application interface for performing a shutdown process is connected to one or more serial input / output devices including an information apparatus main body requiring a power supply. Under the control of the power supply control device, the power supply device for supplying and shutting off power to each of them, and each of the serial input / output devices is connected, and detects the state of the power switch provided only in the information device, It communicates with the information device itself via the serial data transfer path and starts shutdown processing by the information device body,
A power supply control device is provided for sequentially instructing the power supply device to stop supplying power to the serial input / output device including the information device main body after the completion of the shutdown processing.

The power supply device includes a semiconductor relay for each device or group that requires a power supply, and sequentially turns on and off the power supply via the semiconductor relay under the control of the power supply control device. The power supply control device is connected to a first control board connected to an input / output bus of the information device main body, and is connected to the first control board via a serial data transfer path. A second control board that performs a shutdown process by communicating with the information device main body via a path. Further, the second control board includes a microprocessor for executing a program using the data memory, a program memory for storing a program activated by the microprocessor detecting the state of the power switch by an interrupt, and a shutdown memory. At the time of processing, an initial value is set by the information device main body, a timer device that generates a timeout signal after a predetermined time is counted, and an input / output port to which a plurality of serial input / output devices are connected. Recording the status in the data memory, responding the status to the polling of the information device main unit, setting the value transmitted for the shutdown process from the information device main unit to the timer device, detecting the timeout signal from the timer device, and Shi Executing the program step of sequentially instructing interruption of power to the Al input-output device.

In the information apparatus of the present invention, the information apparatus main board and the information apparatus main board are connected via an input / output bus and a second input / output control board connected via a serial data transfer path. A first input / output control board for relaying data exchange with the input / output device and a plurality of input / output devices using a serial port of the information device are connected, and under the control of a built-in microprocessor, the information device via the serial transfer path. A second input / output control board for allocating an address space to a plurality of connected serial input / output devices by exchanging data with the main body is also provided.

As a result, the power supply can be cut off in one operation and the serial interface device can be easily added, so that the operability is improved and the system is expandable.

[0012]

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

FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing an embodiment of the present invention. As an information device of the present invention, a PC-based multimedia information terminal is exemplified, and FIG. 1 shows a mounting structure of a substrate and FIG. 2 shows a connection configuration. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a multimedia information device main body substrate (hereinafter, simply referred to as a device main body 1). PS /
Input devices such as a keyboard 3 and a mouse via two ports
A 17-inch CRT 9 with a touch panel and a terminal adapter (ISDN line) 7 are connected via the COM ports 1 and 2, respectively. Also, L through the parallel port
BP is implemented. The device main body 1 is equipped with a main storage device 12 composed of a RAM, and has a C
A D-ROM device 13, a large-capacity hard disk device 14, and a floppy disk device 15 are mounted.

2 is a PSIO controller added according to the present invention. What is PSIO?
It is an abbreviation of Input / Output, and has been noted for convenience as simply expressing the present invention. The PSIO controller 2 includes a PSIO control board mounted on the ISA bus for controlling an interface with the multimedia information device main body, and a PSIO control box 22 and A, which are mounted on the multimedia information device main unit 1 as units.
It is composed of a C box 23. The PSIO control board 21 and the PSIO control box 22 are connected via a serial transfer path 24. In the PSIO control box 22, various serial input / output devices other than the IC card reader 6 are optionally mounted. The power switch 24 and the human shadow sensor 5 which are provided only in the system are connected. The human shadow sensor 5 is provided as a trigger for performing display switching to a screen saver or the like in order to save energy or prevent CRT burning.

A 100-volt commercial power supply is supplied to the AC box 23, and a power supply terminal of the information device main body 1 and other input / output devices 6,
The power supply terminals 7, 8, and 9 are connected, and the input / output devices 6, 7, 8, and 9 including the apparatus main body 1 are supplied with necessary power through the AC box 23.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the multimedia information terminal shown in FIG.

In the figure, blocks with the same numbers as the blocks shown in FIG. 1 are the same as those in FIG.

The CPU 11 is connected to the main memory 12 via the CPU local bus 10 and to the PCI bus via the bridge 18, and has a SCSI device 30 (CDROM, CDROM,
Graphic exchange). Main memory 12
, An auto-shutdown utility (hatched block in the figure) is loaded from external storage when necessary,
By executing this program, execution of the job is continued for a predetermined time without interrupting the processing even if a power-off request is issued. The ISA bus 17 is further connected via the bridge 19. The PSIO controller 2 described above is connected to the ISA bus 17.

The details of the PSIO controller 2 are shown in FIG. The PSIO control box 22 has a built-in microprocessor 221 as a control center, and stores a program in a ROM memory 222 and a RAM data memory 2.
23, and a timer circuit 224 are commonly connected via a processor bus 229. The data memory 223 is also used as a work area, and in a characteristic place, a power flag (PF) indicating the ON / OFF state of the power switch 24 provided solely in the system is assigned. The microprocessor 221 controls the power supply, which will be described later, and also controls the allocation of the address space. That is, SIO2 described later
It recognizes the used address space and the like of the serial interface device mounted in the slots # 0 and # 1 of the slots 27 and 228 and notifies the device body of the information. In order to allow these pieces of information to be referred to the device main body, input / output registers are assigned to the data memory 223 and set therein. The input / output register also holds status information of itself or the serial interface device.

A large number of peripheral devices are connected to the processor bus 229 via parallel I / Os 229 or serial I / Os 225 to 228. Serial I / O2
Reference numeral 25 is connected to the device main body 1 via the serial transfer path 24. The serial I / Os 227 and 228 have respective ports (#
0, # 1), an optional serial interface device such as an IC card reader 6 is connected. Parallel I /
The power switch 24 and the AC box 23 provided solely in the system are connected to O226, and the state of the power switch 24 is detected to communicate with the device body 1, and under the control of the shutdown utility of the device body 1, the AC box Control 23. A
The C box 23 supplies AC power to input / output devices used in the multimedia information terminal, and includes semiconductor relays (SSR) 231 to 233. SSR2
The main body 31 (supply of DC power to the PSIO control box 22), the printer system, the IC card reader, and other optional input / output devices are grouped and connected to 31 to 233, respectively. Under the above, control for supplying and shutting off power to each of the above devices is performed.

Hereinafter, the operation of the information equipment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the PSIO control box 22
The built-in microprocessor 221 detects the ON / OFF state of the power switch by interruption, and activates a program (ROM firmware) stored in the program memory 222. Further, the fact that it is in the ON state is stored in the data memory 223 as a power flag. Then, the SS in the AC box 23 is built in via the PIO 226.
R231 to 233 are controlled. That is, SSR2
By sequentially supplying control signals to 31 to 233, power is sequentially supplied to the input / output devices 6, 7, 8, and 9 including the device main body 1.

On the other hand, when the power switch 24 is
, The power flag is turned off, and the microprocessor 221 transmits the status transition of the power flag to the device body 1 as a status response to polling. At this time, data exchange between the device body 1 and the PSIO control box 22 is performed by the serial data transfer path 2.
4 is performed. The CPU 11 sets the power flag to O.
When N is turned off, the automatic shutdown utility is started. When a Windows machine is assumed, when the PSIO control board recognizes the power switch OFF via the PSIO control box, the automatic shutdown utility operates, and the “Send Shut Down” of the WIN32 API is performed.
n Message is used to shut down the device body.

As a result, the CPU 11 sets a timer value for shutdown processing in the timer circuit 224 via the microprocessor 221. The timer circuit 224 repeats the time measurement, and issues a timeout interrupt after a predetermined time has elapsed. The microprocessor 221 having received this controls the SSRs 231 to 233 built in the AC box 23 via the PIO 226. That is, S
By sequentially supplying control signals to the SRs 231 to 233, power supply to the input / output devices 6, 7, 8, and 9 including the device main body 1 is sequentially cut off in a predetermined sequence.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the ISA bus 17
The PSI controller 2 is mounted on the ISA bus 17, but is not limited to the ISA bus 17.
There is no limitation on the type of EISA and other bus specifications. Also,
Although the PSIO control board 22 and the AC box 23 have been described as being mounted as separate units independently of the device main body, the function corresponding to the PSIO control box 22 may be separated from the unit, and the PSIO control board 21 may be provided. good. Further, the power switch 24 has been described as being solely provided in the system. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The power switch 24 may be a key switch or a specific key input of the keyboard 3 may be used as the power switch ON / OFF. It does not matter.

[0026]

As described above, the PSIO control box 2 added according to the present invention controls the connection and control of the input / output device 6 using the serial port as an option of the multimedia information terminal, and This is for instructing the supply / stop of power to the AC box by turning on / off the power switch 24. The PSIO control board 21 is connected to the ISA bus 17 of the device main body, and communicates with the PSIO control box 22 through a serial interface. Further, the AC box 23 supplies AC power to equipment used in the multimedia information terminal, and stops the supply of AC power according to an instruction from the PSIO control board 21 and supplies DC power to the PSIO control box 22. .

Thus, according to the present invention, the power supply of the system can be turned on / off by one operation, respectively, and the operability is improved. In addition, since automatic shutdown can be realized at the same time, timer operation of the system or use of an uninterruptible power supply can be performed. Furthermore, CO
When connecting a serial interface device having M ports or more, it is not necessary to add a dedicated board to the expansion slot only for the purpose of the serial interface connection, and it is possible to save the use of the expansion slot.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment (mounting structure) of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment (connection configuration) of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the PSIO controller shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Multimedia information terminal, 2 ... PSIO controller, 6 ... IC card reader, 17 ... ISA bus, 11 ...
CPU, 12: Main memory (automatic shutdown utility), 21: PSIO control board, 22: P
SIO control box, 23 ... AC box, 2
4. Power switch, 221 Microprocessor, 2
22: Program memory, 223: Data memory (power flag), 224: Timer circuit, 225, 227, 2
28: SIO, 226: PIO, 231, 232, 23
3 ... Semiconductor relay (SSR)

Claims (5)

[Claims] An information device main body having an application interface for performing a shutdown process is connected to one or more serial input / output devices including an information device main body requiring power, and under the control of a power control device, A power supply device for supplying and shutting off power to each of them, and each of the above serial input / output devices are connected, perform a state detection of a power switch provided only in the information device, and communicate with the information device main body via a serial data transfer path. A communication is performed to start a shutdown process by the information device main body, and after the shutdown process is completed, a power control device that sequentially instructs the power supply device to stop supplying power to the serial input / output device including the information device main body is communicated. An information device, comprising: 2. The power supply device includes a semiconductor relay for each device or group that requires a power supply, and sequentially turns on and off power via the semiconductor relay under the control of a power supply control device. Claim 1
Information equipment described. 3. The power supply control device according to claim 1, wherein the first control board is connected to an input / output bus of the information device main body, and the first control board is connected via a serial data transfer path and has a built-in microprocessor. 2. The information device according to claim 1, further comprising a second control board that performs a shutdown process by communicating with the information device main body via the serial data transfer path. 4. A power supply control device, comprising: a microprocessor for executing a program using a data memory; and a program memory for storing a program started when the microprocessor detects a state of a power switch by an interrupt. In the shutdown process, an initial value is set by the information device main body, a timer device that generates a timeout signal after a predetermined time has been counted, and an input / output port to which a plurality of serial input / output devices are connected. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the information device comprises: a) the step of registering the status transition of the power switch in the data memory, b) the step of responding to the status of the polling of the information device body, c) the setting of the value sent from the information device body for shutdown processing to the timer device. Detecting a time-out signal from the timer device and sequentially instructing a stop of power supply to each serial input / output device; 5. The information device main board and the information device main board are connected via an input / output bus, and relay data exchange with a second input / output control board connected via a serial data transfer path. A plurality of first input / output control boards and a plurality of input / output devices that use a serial port of the information device are connected, and perform data exchange with the information device body via the serial transfer path under control of a built-in microprocessor; An information device, comprising: a second input / output control board for allocating an address space to a plurality of serial input / output devices to be connected.