JPH11331215A - Information processing unit and its method, and served medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To combine a LINK-IC and a PHY-IC at an optional transmission rate. SOLUTION: A LINK-IC 21 converts a digital signal received from an information processing unit 11 into a packet. The LINK-IC 21 also converts a packet supplied from a PHY-IC 22 into a digital signal stream and outputs it. The PHY-IC 22 receives a packet from an IEEE1394 serial bus 31 and gives the packet to the LINK-IC 21. A speed signaling signal generating circuit 51 selects any of predetermined transmission rates, generates a speed signaling signal corresponding to the transmission rate that is used for a maximum transmission rate of a transmitter-receiver 12 and outputs the signal to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31. A control section 24 controls the speed signaling signal generating circuit 51 to output a proper speed signaling signal to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a providing medium.
94 In an interface corresponding to a Hight Performance Serial Bus (hereinafter, referred to as an IEEE1394 serial bus), a LINK-IC and a PHY-IC can process a signal without being limited by a difference in a corresponding transmission rate. Information processing apparatus and method, and a providing medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 shows a computer or VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) connected to an IEEE1394 serial bus 31.
3 shows an example of the configuration of the information processing apparatus 11 such as der). The information processing device 11 has a transmitting / receiving device 12 as an interface with the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.
The LINK-IC 21 converts main data (for example, a digital video signal or a digital audio signal) input from the information processing apparatus 11 into an isochronous packet, or converts a similarly input command digital signal into an asynchronous packet. Then, the data is supplied to the PHY-IC 22. At this time, the LINK-IC 21 sets the transmission rate of the isochronous packet and the asynchronous packet to a predetermined transmission rate.

The LINK-IC 21 is also a PHY-IC
The isochronous packet and the asynchronous packet supplied from 22 (hereinafter, unless otherwise required, both are simply referred to as a packet) are converted into a digital signal stream.

The PHY-IC 22 controls communication with the IEEE 1394 serial bus 31 in accordance with the protocol of the IEEE 1394 standard, and transmits a packet supplied from the LINK-IC 21 to the IEEE 1394 serial bus 31,
94 The packet supplied via the serial bus 31 is
Supply it to INK-IC21.

[0005] Speed signaling signal generating circuit 23
Transmits a speed signaling signal built in the PHY-IC 22 and corresponding to the maximum transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22.
It outputs to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31 and notifies other devices (not shown) connected to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31 as the maximum transmission rate of the transmitting / receiving device 12.

[0006] When the IEEE1394 serial bus 31 is reset, the speed signaling signal generation circuit 23 executes a speed signaling process of outputting a speed signaling signal to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

The control unit 24 controls the LINK-IC 21 to set an appropriate transmission rate for the packet.

The information processing device 11 is connected to the IEEE1394 serial bus 3 via the transmitting / receiving device 12 configured as described above.
1 can communicate with other devices.

[0009]

By the way, PHY-I
C22 is a predetermined transmission rate (hereinafter, PHY-IC22)
, For example, 400Mbps, 200Mb
The processing is executed in accordance with either ps or 100 Mbps (the type of transmission rate defined in the IEEE1394 standard). PHY-IC
22 can transmit and receive packets at a transmission rate equal to or lower than the transmission rate supported by the PHY-IC 22. That is, the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22 is
This is the maximum transmission rate of the transmitting / receiving device 12. The speed signaling signal generation circuit 23 sets the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22 in the speed signaling process.
The maximum transmission rate of the transmission / reception device 12 is set, and a speed signaling signal corresponding to the transmission rate is output.

On the other hand, the LINK-IC 21 also has a predetermined transmission rate (hereinafter, referred to as a transmission rate corresponding to the LINK-IC 21), for example, 400 Mbps, 200 Mbps, or 10 Mbps.
The processing is executed corresponding to any one of 0 Mbps. For example, when the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21 is 400 Mbps,
When converting the digital signal from the information processing device 11 into a packet, the transmission rate of the packet is set to 400 Mbps and 200 Mbps.
Set to either s or 100Mbps.

For example, when the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21 is 200 Mbps,
Sets the packet transmission rate to either 200 Mbps or 100 Mbps. That is, the LINK-IC 21
Sets the transmission rate of the packet to a transmission rate lower than the upper limit of the corresponding transmission rate.

As a result, the LINK-IC 21 and P
The corresponding transmission rate of the HY-IC 22 is different.
If the corresponding transmission rate of INK-IC21 is 400Mbps, PH
When the corresponding transmission rate of the Y-IC 22 is 200 Mbps, the LI
When the NK-IC 21 sets the transmission rate of 200 Mbps to the packet, the PHY-IC 22
A packet from the IC 21 can be received. Also, for example, if the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21 is 20
At 0 Mbps, the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22 is 400 Mbps
At this time, the PHY-IC 22 can receive a packet having a transmission rate equal to or lower than the corresponding transmission rate.
A packet with a transmission rate of 200 Mbps supplied from the NK-IC 21 can be received. LINK-IC2
The PHY-IC 22 receiving the supply of the packet from 1 transmits the packet to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

As described above, the LINK-IC 21 and the PHY
-Even if the corresponding transmission rates of the IC 22 are different, the transmission / reception device 12 converts the digital signal supplied from the information processing device 11 into a packet, and
It can be transmitted to the 1394 serial bus 31.

However, the IEEE1394 serial bus 31
In some cases, the LINK-IC 21 cannot process a packet supplied via the LINK-IC 21. For example, when the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21 is 200 Mbps,
Receives a packet at a transmission rate of 200 Mbps or 100 Mbps from the PHY-IC 22,
It can process, but cannot receive and process a packet at a transmission rate of 400 Mbps if supplied.

For example, when the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21 is 100 Mbps,
Can receive and process a packet at a transmission rate of 100 Mbps from the PHY-IC 22, but receive a packet at a transmission rate of 200 Mbps or 400 Mbps, Cannot be processed.

Since the speed signaling signal output by the speed signaling process is fixed so as to correspond to the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22,
The HY-IC 22 (transmitter / receiver 12) is, for example, 100 Mbps.
From s, a packet having a transmission rate between the corresponding transmission rate (maximum transmission rate) of the PHY-IC 22 is received. Therefore, for example, if the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22 is 400M
bps, the corresponding transmission rate of LINK-IC21 is 200Mbps
, The PHY-IC 22 receives a packet having a transmission rate of 400 Mbps from the IEEE1394 serial bus 31,
LINK-IC21. At this time,
The LINK-IC 21 cannot receive and process the packet supplied from the PHY-IC 22.

As described above, since the speed signaling signal is fixed so as to correspond to the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22, when the corresponding transmission rate of the PHY-IC 22 is larger than the corresponding transmission rate of the LINK-IC 21, the transmission / reception is not performed. The device 12 cannot process packets received from the IEEE1394 serial bus 31. As a result, it is necessary to use the LINK-IC and the PHY-IC having the same corresponding transmission rates, and there is a problem that an efficient design cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and is intended to process a signal without being limited by a difference in a corresponding transmission rate between a LINK-IC and a PHY-IC. It is.

[0019]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising: a first transmission / reception unit for transmitting / receiving data to / from a bus at a speed lower than a first inherent transmission speed; A second transmission / reception means for transmitting / receiving data to / from the first transmission / reception means at a speed equal to or lower than the specific transmission speed of the first transmission / reception means, and a signal corresponding to the maximum transmission speed of data transmitted / received via the bus; Control means for comparing the first specific transmission rate with the second specific transmission rate, setting the smaller one as the maximum transmission rate, and controlling the output means to output a signal corresponding thereto. Means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing method comprising: a first transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving data to / from a bus at a speed lower than a first specific transmission speed; A second transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving the data transmitted / received in the first transmission / reception step at a speed of: and an output step of generating a signal corresponding to the maximum transmission speed of the data transmitted / received via the bus and outputting the signal to the bus. Comparing the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate, setting the smaller one as the maximum transmission rate, and controlling the output step to output a signal corresponding thereto. Features.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the providing medium, wherein a first transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving data to / from the bus at a speed lower than the first specific transmission speed, and a second transmission speed lower than the second specific transmission speed. A second transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving data transmitted / received in the first transmission / reception step at a speed, an output step of generating a signal corresponding to a maximum transmission rate of data transmitted / received via the bus, and outputting the signal to the bus; The first intrinsic transmission rate and the second
And a control step of controlling the output step so as to output a signal corresponding to the smaller one as the maximum transmission rate. It is characterized by the following.

An information processing apparatus according to claim 1 and claim 2.
In the information processing method described in the above, and the providing medium described in the claim 3, data is exchanged with the bus at a speed equal to or less than the first inherent transmission speed, and the data is transmitted / received to / from the bus, and At the rate, data is transmitted and received, a signal corresponding to the maximum transmission rate of data transmitted and received via the bus is generated and output to the bus, and the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate are compared. The smaller one is set to the maximum transmission rate, and is controlled to output a signal corresponding thereto.

[0023]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In order to clarify the correspondence between each means of the invention described in the claims and the following embodiments, each means is described. When the features of the present invention are described by adding the corresponding embodiment (however, an example) in parentheses after the parentheses, the result is as follows. However, of course, this description does not mean that each means is limited to those described.

The information processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention provides a first transmission / reception means (for example, PHY-IC2 of FIG. 1) for transmitting / receiving data to / from a bus at a speed lower than a first inherent transmission speed.
2) and second transmission / reception means (for example, LINK-IC 21 in FIG. 1) for transmitting / receiving data to / from the first transmission / reception means at a speed equal to or lower than the second inherent transmission speed. Generating a signal corresponding to the maximum transmission rate of the data
An output means for outputting to the bus (for example, the speed signaling signal generating circuit 51 in FIG. 1) is compared with the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate, and the smaller one is set as the maximum transmission rate. Control means for controlling the output means so as to output a corresponding signal (for example, the control unit 2 in FIG. 1)
4).

FIG. 1 shows an information processing apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied.
1 shows a configuration example. In this configuration example, a speed signaling signal generation circuit 51 is provided instead of the speed signaling signal generation circuit 23 of the transmission / reception device 12 in FIG.
The control unit 24 controls this, and other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

Speed signaling signal generation circuit 51
Selects one of speed signaling signals corresponding to a plurality of predetermined transmission rates,
The maximum transmission rate of the transmission / reception device 12 is output to the IEEE EE1394 serial bus 31. Thus, for example, the maximum transmission rate of packets that can be received by the transmission / reception device 12 is notified to another information processing device connected to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

The control unit 24 controls the LINK-IC 21 to set an appropriate transmission rate for a packet to be transmitted. The control unit 24 also controls the speed signaling signal generation circuit 51 to output an appropriate speed signaling signal to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the speed signaling signal generation circuit 51. The speed signaling signal generator 51 includes a 100 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 61, a 200 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 62, a 400 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 63,
And a switch 64. Switch 64
Has terminals 65-1 to 65-4.

The 100 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 61 outputs a speed signaling signal corresponding to a transmission rate of 100 Mbps to a terminal 65-1, and the 200 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 62 outputs a speed signaling signal corresponding to a transmission rate of 200 Mbps. To terminal 65-2
, And the 400 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 63 outputs a speed signaling signal corresponding to the transmission rate of 400 Mbps to the terminal 65-3.

The switch 64 has terminals 65-1 to 6
By connecting any one of the terminals 5-3 to the terminal 65-4, a speed signaling signal from the 100 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 61 to the 400 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 63 is selectively output.

Next, a processing procedure for executing the speed signaling processing will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG.

For example, when the IEEE1394 serial bus 31 is reset, speed signaling processing is started,
First, in step S1, the control unit 24 sets the LI
The corresponding transmission rate of the NK-IC 21 is detected. Next, in step S2, the control unit 24 sets the PHY-IC 22
Detects the corresponding transmission rate.

In step S3, the control unit 24 sets L
INK-IC21 compatible transmission rate and PHY-IC22
And the corresponding transmission rate having a smaller value is determined as the maximum transmission rate of the transmitting / receiving device 12.

In step S4, the control unit 24 controls the switch 64 of the speed signaling signal generation circuit 51, and the 100 Mbps speed signaling signal generation unit 61
A speed signaling signal corresponding to the maximum transmission rate determined in step S3 among the 400 Mbps speed signaling signal generator 63 is output to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

Thus, the speed signaling signal is
The signal is output to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31, and the speed signaling process ends. From this, the information processing apparatus 1
The maximum transmission rate of 1 is notified to other information processing devices connected to the IEEE1394 serial bus 31.

As described above, the speed signaling signal can be switched.
The maximum transmission rate of the transmitting / receiving device 12 can be determined according to the transmission rates corresponding to the NK-IC 21 and the PHY-IC 22. As a result, any combination of the LINK-IC 21 and the PHY-IC 22 having different corresponding transmission rates can be adopted as necessary.

A LIN with a corresponding transmission rate of 400 Mbps
When the K-IC and the PHY-IC are used, a signal generated at the time of speed signaling is appropriately switched, so that 100 Mbps through the IEEE1394 serial bus 31 is used.
It is possible to measure (test) transmission and reception of data at s, 200 Mbps, and 400 Mbps transmission rates.

[0038] Note that as a providing medium for providing a user with a computer program for performing the above processing,
In addition to recording media such as magnetic disks, CD-ROMs, and solid-state memories, communication media such as networks and satellites can be used.

[0039]

According to the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the information processing method according to the second aspect, and the providing medium according to the third aspect, the maximum transmission rate is freely determined. , The first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate can be used in any combination.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an information processing apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a speed signaling signal generation circuit 51 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a speed signaling process.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional information processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 information processing device, 12 transmitting / receiving device, 21 L
INK-IC, 22 PHY-IC, 23 speed signaling signal generation circuit, 24 control unit, 31
IEEE1394 serial bus, 51 speed signaling signal generator, 61 100 Mbps speed signaling signal generator, 62 200 Mbps speed signaling signal generator, 63 400 Mbps speed signaling signal generator, 64 switch, 65 terminals

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus connected to another information processing apparatus via a bus, wherein first transmission / reception means for transmitting / receiving data to / from the bus at a speed equal to or lower than a first inherent transmission speed. And second transmission / reception means for transmitting / receiving the data to / from the first transmission / reception means at a speed equal to or lower than a second inherent transmission speed, and corresponding to a maximum transmission speed of data transmitted / received via the bus. Output means for generating a signal to be output to the bus, and comparing the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate, and setting a smaller one as the maximum transmission rate, Control means for controlling the output means so as to output a signal. 2. An information processing method for an information processing apparatus connected to another information processing apparatus via a bus, the method comprising: transmitting and receiving data to and from the bus at a speed equal to or lower than a first inherent transmission speed. 1), a second transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving the data transmitted / received in the first transmission / reception step at a speed equal to or lower than a second inherent transmission rate, and a maximum of data transmitted / received via the bus. An output step of generating a signal corresponding to a transmission rate and outputting the signal to the bus, comparing the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate, and setting a smaller one as the maximum transmission rate; A control step of controlling the output step so as to output the signal corresponding thereto. 3. A first transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving data to / from an information processing device connected to another information processing device via a bus at a speed equal to or lower than a first inherent transmission speed. A second transmission / reception step of transmitting / receiving the data transmitted / received in the first transmission / reception step at a speed equal to or lower than a second inherent transmission speed, and a maximum transmission speed of data transmitted / received via the bus. And outputting the signal to the bus, and comparing the first specific transmission rate and the second specific transmission rate, and setting the smaller one as the maximum transmission rate, A providing medium for providing a computer-readable program for executing a process including a control step of controlling the output step so as to output a signal.