JPS5852756A - Correcting method for diagnostic data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the correction time of a diagnostic dictionary by using a fault dictionary as it is, and varying the number of scan-out clocks, a scan-out address, and a normal value directly without the intervention of fault simultation. CONSTITUTION:Existent diagnostic data for a block number (i) of an objective to be corrected and new diagnostic data after correction are each ccomposed of a test input A and a diagnostic dictionary B, which consists of the numbers (n) and (m) of scan-out clocks, scan-out addresses (a) and (b), normal values (x) and (y), and a fault dictionary alpha as a minimum unit. Solid-line arrows E show data used as new diagnostic data without modification, and broken-line arrows E' show data which should be corrected attending hardware changes. The correction is made without intervention of fault simulation, so the processing time is shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for easily modifying diagnostic data used when diagnosing a failure of an information processing apparatus using a functional diagnosis method.

In recent years, the use of information processing devices has expanded in all fields, and the social impact when such devices break down has become increasingly large. For this reason, failure diagnosis technology that quickly points out the location of a failure in a device using an R/C is becoming increasingly important.

One of the failure diagnosis methods for information processing devices is called functional diagnosis. This is a diagnostic method that monitors the input/output signal status of each part when there is a hardware failure or not, while operating the hardware functions in the same way as when running a normal program, and uses the results to determine the location of the failure. This has the advantage that the amount of diagnostic control hardware added to the device can be reduced.

This function diagnosis method requires input conditions for sufficiently testing the functions of the hardware, and a corresponding list of failure groups that can be detected based on the input conditions. In general, ■
is called test input, ■ is called a diagnostic dictionary, and the combination of ■ and ■ is called diagnostic data. In more detail, in order to perform a functional diagnosis, you need to: ■ set the status of the device to be diagnosed, ■ set the operation commands,
■Clock walking, ■Continuously checking the status of the device to be diagnosed (hereinafter referred to as scanout), ■If the read status is different from the normal (fault-free) status, indexing the fault dictionary;
A series of procedures are required, among which steps ① to ② are called test input, and the diagnostic designer generally specifies each condition. ① to ② are the diagnostic dictionary ②, which consists of the clock number at the time of scan-out, an address indicating the scan-out point, a logical value (normal value) in a normal state, and a fault dictionary. Using the procedures in the fault dictionary ■ to ■ as input, it is determined by hardware or software simulation.

By the way, the above-mentioned method for creating a diagnostic dictionary includes (a) a hardware simulation method in which a test input is given to a normal device to be diagnosed with a simulated fault inserted, and a diagnostic dictionary is created from the response state at that time; (→Software simulation that deploys the circuit information of the device to be diagnosed in a computer system, performs a fault simulation on the human test personnel, and creates a diagnostic dictionary by determining the group of failures detected by the human test personnel. There is a method of blasphemy,
For large-scale equipment, it is common to use the Shizu method.

Creating a diagnostic dictionary using this fP) method is a fault simulation tool.

Generally, creating a diagnostic dictionary based on fault simulation requires an enormous amount of computer processing time.

According to experience, the central processing unit of a super-large computer (CPU with about 150,000 gates) consists of about 100 circuit blocks (adders,
Multipliers, etc.) and creating a diagnostic dictionary for each circuit block by fault simulation requires approximately 5 hours of calculation time for each circuit block, or approximately 500 hours in total. Once a diagnostic dictionary has been created using this method,
When a hardware change occurs in an information processing device to be diagnosed, conventionally, the diagnostic dictionary for the circuit block (often a plurality of blocks) related to the change is re-compiled by fault simulation. However, if this is done, a large amount of man-hours will be required to correct the diagnostic data, which will delay the provision of the data to the user.During this time, there will be periods when the user does not have the diagnostic program17, resulting in a decrease in MTTR (Mean Time to Repair). The problem arises that

However, when the present inventors examined in detail the contents of hardware changes seen in past examples, it was found that although the diagnostic dictionary was changed due to the hardware change, the fault dictionary within the diagnostic dictionary remained unchanged. For example, if a circuit block is added and the number of clocks required to reach a certain circuit block Ic is changed, the additional circuit block may be an independent one. If so, only the number of scan-out clocks in the diagnostic dictionary for circuit block IK will be changed, and the contents in other diagnostic dictionaries will not be changed.More generalizing, if the number of scan-out clocks in the diagnostic dictionary for circuit block IK is changed, the contents in other diagnostic dictionaries will not be changed. There are cases where it is possible to modify the diagnostic dictionary by simply modifying one or more of the out-clock count, scan-out address, and normal value without performing fault simulation and modifying the fault dictionary. It is.

The present invention is based on the above-mentioned findings, and is characterized by the fact that diagnostic data consisting of a diagnostic dictionary and test inputs previously created by failure simulation, which is used when diagnosing an information processing device using a functional diagnosis method, is In the method for modifying the information processing device in accordance with hardware changes, the fault dictionary among the elements constituting the corpse diagnosis data is used as is, and other scanout clock numbers, scanout addresses, and normal values are used for fault simulation. The point is that it can be changed directly without going through the process. This will be explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the method of the present invention, in which the left side shows existing diagnostic data for block number 1 (corresponding to circuit block 1) K to be corrected, and the right side shows new diagnostic data after the correction. As mentioned above, the diagnostic data consists of the test human power ■ and the diagnostic dictionary ■, and the diagnostic dictionary ■ has the number of scan-out clocks n.

m...-..., scanout address a,
b'-------1 Normal value XI7...
, and the fault dictionary α...song, is constructed as the minimum unit. Note that the number of clocks m1 scan address b1 normal value y1 . . . is used when fault diagnosis is performed under two or more conditions. The present invention is applied to the case where it is not necessary to change the fault dictionary α of the diagnostic dictionary (2). The solid arrows in the figure indicate data that can be used as-is as new diagnostic data without requiring any changes. In contrast, the dashed arrow indicates
- This is data that must be corrected due to software changes, but this is the number of scan-out clocks n, m, -
..., scanout address a, b...1.1
, normal value X+7... n', E! in new diagnostic data l' = -'... is the number of scan-out clocks after modification m/, b/... is the scan-out address after modification, ! '*7'...
・ indicates the corrected normal value. These corrections are for failure stains 2
Since the processing can be performed without going through a range cycle, the processing time is only about a few minutes per circuit block.

FIG. 2 is a processing flow showing one embodiment of the present invention, (1)
is an overall view, and (b) is a detailed view of the change processing program. Figure 2 (gourd) reads existing diagnostic data with a specified block number from an existing diagnostic data file, runs it through a change processing program K according to various changes, and then writes the modified new diagnostic data into a new diagnostic data file. This shows how it is stored. FIG. 6(b) shows the flow of processing for changing diagnostic data while determining whether the specified change is the number of clocks, a scan-out address, or a normal value.

When an error is discovered at one point (scanout point) in circuit block i, the fault dictionary α shows all the systems that may cause an error at that point as a group of conductor numbers, which is described above. It is created in advance through failure simulation. Of course, depending on the details of the hardware change, it may be necessary to change this fault dictionary through fault simulation, but the present invention is limited to hardware changes that do not require this.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is an advantage that the correction of the diagnostic dictionary, which conventionally required several hours through failure simulation, can be shortened to about a few minutes, and the practical effect is enormous.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, Noke test input, ■ is a diagnostic dictionary, α is a fault dictionary,
mF'i is the scan-out clock number, & is the scan-out address, and X is the normal value. Applicant Fujitsu Ltd. Representative Patent Attorney Minoru Aoyagi Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a method for modifying diagnostic data consisting of a diagnostic dictionary and test inputs created in advance by a failure simulation method, which is used when diagnosing an information processing device using a function diagnosis method, in accordance with a hardware change of the information processing device,
Diagnostic data characterized in that among the elements constituting the diagnostic data, the fault dictionary is used as is, and other scan-out clock numbers, scan-out addresses, and normal values are directly changed without going through the fault series &2 range. How to fix.