JPH1188352A - Power source control system and interface - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a power source control system and an interface capable of automatically controlling the power source ON/OFF control of a LAN interface without making a user perform an operation. SOLUTION: A link pulse detection part 15 detects link pulse signals transmitted from a connection opposite device. A power source control part 16 detects the ON of the power source of a terminal equipment, then judges that the connection opposite device is connected and turns ON the power source of the LAN interface 10 when link pulses are detected by the link pulse detection part 15 and judges that the connection opposite device is not connected and turns OFF the power source of the LAN interface 10 at the time of detecting that the link pulses are not inputted. Thus, based on the presence/absence of the connection opposite device, the ON/OFF control of the power source of the LAN interface 10 is automatically performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a power control method and an interface, and more particularly to a power control method and an interface having a power control function of a local area network interface.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, twisted pair wires without shield (hereinafter, referred to as "wireless")
UTP cable) as a transmission medium, standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3.
2. Description of the Related Art In a local area network (LAN) of 0BASE-T and 100BASE-T (hereinafter, collectively referred to as a star LAN), a power control method of a LAN interface for connecting a terminal device to the LAN is known.

Here, the LAN interface in the terminal device generally operates by power supply from the terminal device. Therefore, in order to turn on / off the power of the LAN interface, the user needs to turn on / off the power of the terminal device. It is performed by an operation or by removing the LAN interface when the LAN interface is completely unnecessary from the beginning.

Conventionally, terminal devices are used depending on whether they are used on a LAN or stand-alone, or whether I / O device devices are shared or locally dedicated on a LAN. Detects link pulse signals to confirm connection between segments and generates a signal indicating the connection status with the network, so that the environment can be set or switched automatically without operator intervention. Means for checking the link pulse signal at start-up to determine the presence or absence of connection to the network. If the determination result indicates that there is a connection, the use environment on the LAN is determined. There is known a LAN terminal device including an automatic environment setting means for setting a stand-alone use environment (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. -260,066 JP). This LA
According to the N terminal device, by connecting an OA device equipped with a link pulse signal transmission / reception unit and detecting a link pulse from the OA device, the ON / OFF control of the power of the OA device can be controlled by a network. You can do it from the terminal above.

[0005]

In the above-mentioned conventional LAN interface, the user operates the terminal device by turning on / off the power supply of the terminal device. Although the terminal device has been removed, the terminal device tends to be downsized year by year (for example, a notebook personal computer, etc.). May be used as

When used as a stand-alone, L
An AN interface is not required at all, which increases unnecessary terminal device power consumption. Therefore, conventionally, in order to reduce power consumption, the LAN interface is removed when no LAN interface is required at all. However, removing the LAN interface every time the terminal device is used as a stand-alone device is very troublesome. In addition, there is a problem that it is more troublesome in a type that is incorporated in the main body of the terminal device and cannot be easily removed.

In the terminal device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-260066, it is possible to automatically set the use environment of the terminal device by detecting a link pulse signal. Even if the environment is set, there is a problem that the power of the LAN interface cannot be controlled.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above points,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a power control method and an interface capable of automatically controlling power on / off control of a LAN interface without user operation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a power supply control method and an interface capable of preventing unnecessary power consumption.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a power supply control system according to the present invention comprises an interface I / O
In a network system that transmits and receives a link pulse to confirm a mutual connection between a terminal device connected to a bus and a connection partner device connected to a cable via an interface connection port, the power of the terminal device is turned on. After the detection, the presence / absence of a link pulse input from the connection partner device via the connection port unit is detected, and when it is detected that the link pulse is input, the power supply of the interface is turned on, and the link pulse is not input. Is detected, the interface power is turned off.

In order to achieve the above object, an interface of the present invention comprises a connection port section connected to a connection partner device via a cable, and an I / O port connected to a terminal device.
An O bus, an analog circuit unit for performing analog processing of a signal transmitted / received to / from a connection partner device via the connection port unit, processing of a signal input / output to / from the analog circuit unit, and a terminal device via the I / O bus A controller unit for inputting / outputting data to / from a terminal, a link pulse detection unit for detecting a link pulse signal input from a connection partner device via a connection port unit for confirming connection, and a terminal connected to the I / O bus When the power of the device is turned on, the monitoring of whether or not a link pulse detection signal is input from the link pulse detection unit is started, and when the link pulse detection signal is input, the power to be sent out to each internal unit is turned on. And a power supply control unit for controlling the power supply to be turned off when a link pulse detection signal is not input.

According to the power supply control method and the interface of the present invention, when it is detected that a link pulse has been input from the connection partner device after detecting the power-on of the terminal device, it is determined that the connection partner device is connected. When the interface power is turned on and it is detected that no link pulse is input, it is determined that the connection partner device is not connected and the interface power is turned off. On / off control of the power supply of the interface can be automatically performed based on the data.

[0013]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an interface according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a LAN interface 10 according to this embodiment includes an I / O bus 11, a LAN controller unit 12, an analog circuit unit 13, and a connection partner device (FIG. 2) via a UTP cable.
20), a link port detecting unit 15 and a power control unit 16.

The LAN controller unit 12 processes signals transmitted to and received from a connection partner device via the connection port unit 14 and receives data from a terminal device (not shown) via the I / O bus 11. Perform output processing. The analog circuit unit 13 performs an analog process on a signal transmitted / received to / from the connection partner device via the connection port unit 14. The link pulse detection unit 15 detects a link pulse signal transmitted from the connection partner device. The power supply control unit 16 performs on / off control of the power supply of the LAN interface 10 based on the detection result of the link pulse signal by the link pulse detection unit 15.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a link pulse signal transmitted / received between the LAN interface 10 shown in FIG. 1 and the connection partner device 20 connected to the LAN interface 10, and FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of power on / off control in the LAN interface 10.

The LAN interface 10 is a star type LA
As shown in FIG. 2, a link pulse signal (normal link pulse) defined by the IEEE 802.3 standard is transmitted and received between the connection partner device 20 and the connection partner device 20 through the N interface as shown in FIG. I have. LAN
In the interface 10, the link pulse signal transmitted from the connection partner device 20 is detected, so that the LAN interface 10
By detecting the link pulse signal transmitted from, the physical connection with each other is confirmed.

First, the operation when the power of the connection partner device 20 is on is described. Connection port 14
In a state where the terminal device physically connected via the I / O bus 11 is turned on in a state where the terminal device is physically connected to the connection partner device 20 via the UTP cable in step S1 in FIG. ), The LAN interface 10 starts monitoring the link pulse signal transmitted from the connection partner device 20 connected to the UTP cable in the RX of the connection port unit 14 in the link pulse detection unit 15 (step S2 in FIG. 3). .

Since the power supply of the partner connection device 20 is on and is physically connected by the UTP cable,
The link pulse signal is detected by the link pulse detector 15. When detecting that a link pulse signal has been input, the link pulse detection unit 15 supplies a detection signal to the power control unit 16 to turn on the power of the LAN interface 10 (step S3 in FIG. 3).

Next, the operation when the power of the connection partner apparatus 20 is off will be described. Connection port 14
When the terminal device physically connected via the I / O bus 11 is turned on from the power-off state while the terminal device physically connected to the connection partner device 20 via the UTP cable in FIG. Steps S5 and S1), the link pulse detection unit 15 starts monitoring the link pulse signal transmitted from the connection partner device 20 connected to the UTP cable in the RX of the connection port unit 14 (step S2 in FIG. 3). ).

However, at this time, the partner connection device 2
0 is off, so that the link pulse signal is not detected by the link pulse detection unit 15 even if the connection port unit 14 is physically connected via the UTP cable. When detecting that the link pulse signal is not input, the link pulse detection unit 15 supplies the non-detection information of the partner device to the power control unit 16 to turn off the power of the LAN interface 10 (step S in FIG. 3).
4).

As described above, in this embodiment, the above series of operations are performed when the power of the terminal device physically connected via the I / O bus 11 is turned on. On / off control of the power of the LAN interface 10 is performed based on the detection of the presence or absence of the link pulse signal. Thus, in this embodiment, the power supply of the LAN interface 10 can be automatically controlled in accordance with the presence / absence of a LAN connection partner device without removing the LAN interface each time the terminal device is used as a stand-alone device. Unnecessary power consumption can be prevented.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
After detecting that the terminal device is powered on, if it detects that a link pulse has been input from the connection partner device, it determines that the connection partner device is connected, turns on the interface, and turns on the link pulse. When it is detected that no connection is made, it is determined that the connection partner device is not connected, and the power of the interface is turned off, thereby automatically turning on / off the power of the interface based on the presence or absence of the connection partner device. The user does not need to be particularly aware of the power control of the interface.
The power can be automatically turned off without removing the LAN interface each time the terminal device is used as a stand-alone device, thereby preventing unnecessary power consumption by the LAN interface.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing transmission and reception of a link pulse signal between the LAN interface of FIG. 1 and a connection partner device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 LAN interface 11 I / O bus 12 LAN controller unit 13 Analog circuit unit 14 Connection port unit 15 Link pulse detection unit 16 Power supply control unit 20 Connection partner device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A link pulse is transmitted and received between a terminal device connected to an I / O bus of an interface and a connection partner device cable-connected to a connection port of the interface to confirm mutual connection. In the network system, after detecting the power-on of the terminal device, detecting the presence or absence of a link pulse input from the connection partner device via the connection port unit, and detecting that the link pulse is input The power supply control method is characterized in that the power supply of the interface is turned on when the link pulse is not input, and the power supply of the interface is turned off when it is detected that the link pulse is not input. 2. The network system according to claim 1, wherein a 10BASE-T or 100BASE-T local base station of IEEE 802.3 standard using a twisted pair cable as a transmission medium.
2. An area network, comprising:
The power control method described. 3. A connection port unit connected to a connection partner device via a cable, an I / O bus connected to a terminal device, and a signal transmission / reception to / from the connection partner device via the connection port unit. An analog circuit unit that performs analog processing; a processing unit that processes signals input to and output from the analog circuit unit; and a controller unit that inputs and outputs data to and from the terminal device via the I / O bus. A link pulse detection unit that detects a link pulse signal input via the connection port unit for connection confirmation; and a power-on of the terminal device connected to the I / O bus, from the link pulse detection unit. It starts monitoring whether or not the link pulse detection signal is input, and when the link pulse detection signal is input, turns on the power supply to be sent to each internal unit, and Interface when the detection signal of the link pulse is input, characterized in that it comprises a power control unit for controlling turning off the power.