JPH1083369A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an office-computer function and a personal-computer function by providing a switching means, which enables an input device and a display device to be shared exclusively between a 1st and a 2nd controller, in a 2nd controller. SOLUTION: A keyboard I/F signal C110 includes a keyboard I/F signal A112 for the 1st controller, a keyboard I/F signal B114 for the 2nd controller 102, and a switching signal 117. The needed electric power of a keyboard 103 is supplied from a switching control part 105 in the 2nd controller 102. Then the keyboard 103 has an intelligent function which performs control for making the keyboard I/F signal A112 and keyboard I/F signal B114 effective in turn once detecting key operation exerting influence on neither the 1st controller 102 nor the application of the 2nd controller 102. Thus, two computers exclusively share one set of the input device and image display device.

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 (for example, an office computer) used in the field of business processing such as accounting work.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An office computer or a personal computer comprises a control device main body, an input device, and input / output devices such as a display device and a printer. For example, a keyboard is used as the input device, and a CRT display device is used as the display device. While input / output devices of personal computers are standardized and prices are reduced by mass production, it is difficult to standardize office computer input / output devices. The reason is that, in order to efficiently execute advanced business processing, the dedicated specifications must be used, and of course, the dedicated specifications must be maintained because it is necessary to inherit and use a huge storage application while maintaining the same operability. Because.

On the other hand, in recent business processing environments, personal computers have become widespread and are often used in conjunction with office computers. In this case, separate input / output devices have been prepared for the office computer and the personal computer, or the office computer and the personal computer are connected by a network, and the function of the office computer input / output device has been replaced by the personal computer.

[0004]

However, if the input / output device is separately prepared for the office computer and the personal computer, twice as much physical space is required and the operation method itself is different, so that the environment where the installation space is not sufficient is required. This is the reason why the use of office computers and personal computers has not progressed.

On the other hand, in an environment where the operator does not use the office computer and the personal computer at the same time, resources are wasted. Although the use of the dedicated input / output device for the office computer has a certain necessity as described above, it is expensive due to the dedicated specification, and there are many problems in long-term supply.

In a method in which the input / output device function of an office computer is replaced with a personal computer using a network, the personal computer is dedicated to the input / output device of the office computer, and cannot execute an application which is a function originally possessed. In addition, the input / output device functions are not sufficiently compatible due to the intervening network, and the processing speed is limited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems by providing an information processing apparatus having a plurality of computers which are functionally independent from each other and an input / output device commonly used by the computers and having both an office computer function and a personal computer function. The aim is to solve the points.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising a first control device, an input device, a display device, and a second control device. An input device and a display device, the first control device and the second control device;
Switching means for exclusively sharing use with the second control device is provided inside the second control device.

Since it is not necessary to provide an input device and a display device for each control device, it is possible to reduce the installation area.

[0010]

Embodiments of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

When the number of operators is small in an environment where a plurality of different types of computers are installed, such as an office computer and a personal computer, since a plurality of computers are often used alternately rather than simultaneously, a set of input devices and Even if the image display device is exclusively used by two computers, there is little problem. The present invention has been made by paying attention to this.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention. An information processing apparatus 100 comprises a first control apparatus 101 and a second control apparatus 102 which is physically and systemically independent of the first control apparatus.
And the keyboard 103 and the display device 10 as input devices
4 Here, for example, the first control device 101
May be an office computer, the second control device 102 may be a personal computer, and the display device 104 may be a display device for a general-purpose personal computer. In the second control device 102, a switching control unit 105 is built in a general-purpose expansion option board storage unit.

The switching control unit 105 includes a keyboard I from the keyboard control unit 106 of the first control device 101.
/ F signal A112 and a keyboard I / F signal B114 from the keyboard control unit 108 of the second control device 102
And a display I / F signal A113 from the display control unit A107 of the first control device 101 and a display I / F signal B115 from the display control unit B109 of the second control device 102 are input. Indicates a keyboard I / F signal C110 and a display I / F signal C111 to the keyboard 103.
Is output. Display I / F signal A113, display I / F
The F signal B115 and the display I / F signal C111 include a video signal (R, G, B), a horizontal synchronization signal, and a vertical synchronization signal, respectively.

The keyboard I / F signal C110 for the first control device 101 is a keyboard I / F signal A112.
And a keyboard I / F signal B114 and a switching signal 117 for the second controller 102. Keyboard 10
The required power of No. 3 is supplied from the switching control unit 105 although not shown in the figure. The keyboard 103 is a predetermined key operation that does not affect the applications of the first control device 101 and the second control device 102 (for example, pressing the shift key and the job switching key simultaneously).
Is recognized, the keyboard I / F
It has the intelligence of performing control to alternately enable one of the signal A112 and the keyboard I / F signal B114. The switching signal 117 is provided to indicate to the switching control unit 105 which keyboard I / F signal is currently valid. By separately preparing the signal lines for the two keyboard I / Fs in this way, the I / F format for each control device of the keyboard I / F signal A112 or the keyboard I / F signal B114 is hard and software. It does not have to be the same,
The F format can be inherited as it is. That is, the keyboard I / F signal A112 is an office computer and has a conventional dedicated specification, and the keyboard I / F signal B114 has a specification standardized for a personal computer.

When a general-purpose multi-scan monitor that supports a wide range of display specifications is used as the display device 104, for example, the resolution, horizontal,
The office computer screen with the vertical synchronization frequency can be displayed without changing the specifications.

FIG. 3 shows the switching control unit 105, which includes an electronic switch circuit 201 and a video amplifier 202. Video amplifier 202 is not required.
The switching of the display I / F signal is performed between the output 113 of the display control unit 107 of the first control device 101 and the output 115 of the display control unit 109 of the second control device 102. Has been simplified.

The electronic switch circuit 201 includes an analog switch element for switching an analog video signal and a digital logic gate for switching a horizontal / vertical synchronization signal. Switching is controlled according to the state of the switching signal 117. For example, when the keyboard I / F signal A112 is valid, the output of the display control unit A107 is output to the display device 10
4 is output.

With the above configuration, when the power of the first control device 101 and the second control device 102 is turned on, the keyboard 103 is set to the keyboard I by default.
The / F signal B114 is made valid. At the same time, the switching control unit 105 connects the output of the display control unit B109 to the display device 104, so that the second control device 102
3 and the display device 104 is occupied, and the second control device 102 can execute the application.

If the user desires to execute another application by the first control device 101, the user causes the keyboard 103 to switch I / F by performing a predetermined key operation, and The occupation state of the keyboard 103 and the display device 104 by the control device 102 can be switched to the first control device 101 for execution. In this case, it is not always necessary to end the application performed by the second control device 102 before starting the application by the first control device 101.

The switching of the occupation state of the keyboard 103 and the display device 104 and the application execution mode described above are the same as when the application of the second control device 102 is executed while the application of the first control device 101 is being executed. It is. If any one of the applications is in a non-interactive stage in which the keyboard 103 and the display device 104 are not required (for example, after starting printing), the first control device 101 and the second control device 10
2 Each application can be executed simultaneously.

The switching control unit 105 and the keyboard 1
The keyboard I / F signal A 112, the keyboard I / F signal B 114, and the switching signal 117 for connecting the first control device 101 and the second control device 102 connect the first control device 101 and the second control device 102.
The / F signal A112 and the display I / F signal A113 may be combined into one connection cable 116.

FIG. 2 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. An information processing apparatus 100 includes a first control apparatus 101 and a second control apparatus 102 which is independent of the first control apparatus 101 in terms of physical and functional systems.
, A keyboard 103 and a display device 104. Here, for example, the first control device 101 may be an office computer, the second control device 102 may be a personal computer, and the display device 104 may be a display device for a general-purpose personal computer. The switching control unit 105 is the first control device 1
The functions and operations are the same as those of the first embodiment except that the functions and operations are included in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. An information processing apparatus 500 includes a first controller 501 and a plurality of, for example, three sets of systems 502 (502-1 to 502-1).
-3). The system 502 includes a second control device 503 that is independent from the first control device 501 in terms of physical and functional systems, a keyboard 504, a display device 506, and a switching control unit 505.

Here, for example, the first control device 501 may be an office computer, the second control device 503 may be a personal computer, and the display device 506 may be a display device for a general-purpose personal computer. The first controller 501 has the same number of keyboard / display controllers 5 as the number of the systems 502.
03 (503-1 to 503-3). The keyboard / display control device 503 includes the display control unit A107 and the keyboard control unit A in the first and second embodiments.
In this embodiment, a function for individually controlling the identification from the first control device main body 501 is added in consideration of the fact that the first and second control units 106 are integrated. This configuration corresponds to the multi-job operation environment of the first control device 101, and each job of the first control device 101 independently communicates with the application of the second control device 503 corresponding to the keyboard and the application. The display device can be exclusively shared. The second job corresponding to each job of the first control device 101
For the method of sharing the application of the control device 503 with the keyboard and the display device, see the first or second
This is equivalent to the embodiment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an information processing apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a switching control unit 105;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an information processing apparatus according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 information processing device 101 first control device 102 second control device 103 keyboard 104 display device 105 switching control unit 106 keyboard control unit A 107 display control unit A 108 keyboard control unit B 109 display control unit B 201 electronic switch circuit 202 Video amplifier 500 Information processing device 501 First control device 503 Keyboard / display control device 504 Keyboard 505 Switching control unit 506 Display device 507 Second control device

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Aoi ▲ Willow 3-3-5-3 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation

Claims (3)

[Claims] A first control device, an input device, a display device, and a second control device, wherein the input device and the display device are connected to the first control device and the second control device. An information processing apparatus comprising a switching unit for exclusive use between the second control apparatus and the second control apparatus. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: a plurality of second control devices; and the same number of input devices and display devices as the second control devices. . 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input device has an interface with the first control device and an interface with the second control device, and is determined in advance. An information processing apparatus having a function of independently switching only one of the interfaces by an input operation.