JPS5987550A - Data processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use in common an area for a variable, which is used between programs used in common, by storing not only a program executing instruction but also an information required for coupling a program to others in a read only memory. CONSTITUTION:A module group is stored in a read only memory chip 17, and simultaneously, an information for coupling these modules is also stored. This chip 17 is installed to a socket 18. When an electric power source is turned on, a read only memory 12A is checked, a coupling information is found out, and this information secures a part of a read/write memory 12B as a couplling table of a program group and is stored in this table. It will do that this coupling processing is executed only once, and when the electric power source is turned on, a coupling instruction is executed by applying an interrupting signal to an operation processing device by a power-on resetting circuit 14. Also, it is executed by executing a coupling program stored in the read only memory. When this coupling processing is ended, a computer system can be used.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a data processing method, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a data processing method, and more specifically, to sharing a program stored in a read-only memory, and to improving variables used between the shared programs. The present invention relates to a data processing method in which storage areas are also shared.

[Prior art]

A computer program is composed of one or more program parts (called "modules" or "subroutines", hereinafter referred to as "modules"). Each module is usually converted into a relocatable program by a conversion program called an assembler or compiler. Next, the plurality of modules converted into the relocatable format are converted into a single machine language program that can be interpreted and executed by a machine by a combination editing program called a linkage editor. This converted program is stored in a read-only memory or the like and can be executed sequentially.

Within a module, transfer of control is self-relative and can be performed by setting the module to any address in memory. Furthermore, an area for internal variables used within the module is dynamically allocated and used on the stack in the readable/writable memory. That is,
The variable area of the stack LK used within the module is secured at the beginning of the module during execution, and is released when the execution of the module ends. This variable is referenced based on its relative position and form from the top of the allocated variable area on the stack. The start address of the module variable area in the stack is set in a register when it is allocated, and the value of this register and
The address used for variable reference can be found based on the above-mentioned relative position.

With this format, there is no need to change the variable reference instruction in the program, no matter how far the stack chain acid is secured at f'f in the memory. Therefore, the transfer of control within one module and the reference of variables within a module do not depend on the address in memory where the module is set, and can be implemented and executed at any location.

However, when transferring control between different modules or referencing a shared variable, the destination address is not determined during conversion by the above-mentioned conversion program called an assembler or compiler. A relative address or a relative address from the beginning of a shared variable chain cannot be determined. Linkage editor #)
The respective addresses are determined by combining multiple modules, and the relative address can be found, so
It can be implemented and executed at any address in the entire program with the combination awn.

In order to store a program in a read-only memory so that it can be used in any system, one of the requirements is that the program can be installed and executed at any address. However, in conventional computer programs, as mentioned above, although the entire combined program can be implemented and executed at any address, it is not possible to implement and execute each module at any address. Ta.

This point will be explained in detail below using the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a method for linking programs stored in memory in a conventional computer and a format of a linking instruction. The program call (C
all) in the operand 3 of the instruction to do the above, or store it in the read-only memory MEM'2 with the address constant 4 as L, and read the read-only memory IJ MEM'2.
The starting address PG2 in 1 is taken out to a register, and the program is called with the value (REG) 5 of the register by combining rows 9 and the like.

However, with these methods, when the start address of a shared program changes, the program
It becomes necessary to change the value of the operand 3h or the address constant 4 of the called instruction, and it becomes necessary to change the program or data stored in the read-only memory lJMEM'2. Another problem is that it is necessary to store the execution start address of one or more shared programs stored in the read-only memory MEMI.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, when the variable area 8 is shared between programs stored in read-only memory, the program that defines the variable and the program that references the variable To refer to the memory of , the address VAR1 of the variable area 8 is stored in the operand of the reference instruction, or the address constant 9 is stored as V in the read-only memory MEM'7, and the address constant 9 is stored as V in the read-only memory MEM'7.
Variable area address VAR, 2 in MEM6
A method has been adopted in which the value (R, EG) of the register is taken out and the variable area VAR2 is referenced by the value (R, EG) of the register.

However, in these methods, when the address of the variable area changes, it is necessary to change the operand of the variable reference instruction and the value of the address constant 9, and the readout memory M
There were problems such as the need to update the programs or data stored in EM'7.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the above-mentioned problems in conventional data processing methods and to share programs stored in the readout vehicle memory on a module-by-module basis. Another object of the present invention is to provide a data processing method in which a variable area used between shared programs is also shared.

[Summary of the invention]

The gist of the present invention is to share a program stored in a plurality of read-only memories and to share a variable area used among the shared programs. In addition to instructions for executing the functions of the program, the dedicated memory also stores information necessary to combine the program with other programs, and when performing the combination, the readout is performed on a readable memory. The point is that area allocation and reference can be made using a connection table prepared for each dedicated memory, and in a similar manner for variables shared between the programs.

[Embodiments of the invention]

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

FIG. 3 shows a small computer system used for control, office processing, technical calculations, etc. to which the present invention is applied, and is composed of an arithmetic processing unit 11, a memory device 12, an input/output control device 13, etc. There is. The memory device 12 consists of a read-only memory 12A and a readable memo I712B.The former is used to store program instructions and constant data, and the latter is used to store constant data during program execution. used.

The functions of the computer system mentioned above are read-only memo 1J.
It depends on the function of the program stored in 12A,
By converting the read-only memory 12A, it is possible to create a computer system with different functions.

The memory board 16 on which the read-only memory 12A is mounted, as shown in FIG.
A plurality of sockets 18 are provided for setting chips 17, and the program can be changed by replacing the read-only memory chips 17 on the sockets 18.

The gist of the present invention is to store a group of modules in the read-only memory chip, and at the same time to store information for combining these modules, thereby making it possible to perform a program by replacing the read-only memory chip as described above. The point is that even if changes are made, the changed programs can be freely combined and executed.

A read-only memory chip 17 storing the contents as described above is attached to the socket 18.

Before starting execution of the computer system, for example when turning on the power switch, the read-only memo 1J12A
, and find the combination information.

This information is stored in a part of the readable memo IJ12B, which is secured as a table for connecting the program group. This connection process only needs to be performed once; for example, when the power switch is turned on as described above,
The arithmetic processing unit 1 is reset by the reset circuit 14 (see FIG. 3).
This is done by giving an interrupt signal to the CPU 1 and executing a linking instruction, or by executing a linking program stored in a read-only memory. When this connection process is completed, it becomes possible to use the computer system by passing control to the execution start address of the program.

This will be explained in detail below.

(1) Structure of shared module FIG. 5 shows the program structure of procedure P as an example of a module. As shown in FIG. 5, the movement of control within a module is performed by the self-relative attrition method calculated from the relative address from the movement instruction to the movement destination instruction and the address where the movement instruction is located. Further, constants used within the module are stored in the read-only memory 17 separately from the instruction string of the module. Constants are referenced using a self-relative addressing method calculated from the address of the reference instruction and the relative address to the constant storage area.

(1) @Instruction ■CMOVE t, (At), ]) +) Explanation procedure This is an instruction to set data at a distance of relative value t from the beginning of the internal variable of @P to the data register D].

Al indicates an address register in which the start address of an internal variable area secured on the stack of procedure P, which will be described later, is set. A1 (At) H This means that the value obtained by adding the value of register Ai (the starting address of the internal variable area of procedure P) and tl is the reference memory address of the instruction.

(11) Instruction ■CJump 4 (P C) ) (D
Description A relative value from the memory address where this instruction exists
This shows that the program branches to memory address No. 2. A2
(pc) iq indicates that the memory address where this instruction exists, that is, the first shift with A2 incremented to the program input address, is to be used as the reference address for the instruction (self-relative addressing).

Branch using the sing method.

This indicates that the value of the memory address of A3 is to be set in the data register DJ as a relative value from the source. Constants are referenced using self-relative addressing.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of the stack having the internal variable area of the procedure P. Is the internal variable area used within the module readable and writable as shown in Figure 6? rU memo 1712
It is dynamically allocated and used on the stack in B'. That is, at the time of execution, an internal area is secured prior to execution of the module, and is released when the module is extracted and exited.

References to internal variables are made in the form of relative positions from the top of the allocated stack area, and the top address of the variable area is set in a register when the variable area is allocated. The variable area is referenced using this register and the relative value from the beginning of the variable area of the module.

The trick is to return the combination between external modules by setting the return address after reference in the stack or register and using it.

(2) Combination method of modules stored in read-only memory chips FIG. 7 shows three read-only memory chips 17□17,
and 17. This shows the modules stored in , and their reference relationships. 19 is a read/write memo'J 12
This is a module combination table provided on B.

Read-only memory chip (hereinafter referred to as "0M chip")17. In this example, module C is defined in C:, and module )'vA and module B defined in other ROM chips are referenced in this module. Similarly, the ROM chip 172 defines module B and module D as B: and D:, respectively, indicating that module C and module A defined in different ROM chips are referred to. Also, ROM chip 17. defines module 8 and references module C, module D, and module B defined in other ROM chips.

The three ROM chips 1'l, , 17□ and 17 mentioned above
To combine module definitions and references in each RO
Prepare a join table for each M chip. R
OM chip 171 references module A and module B, so it creates a join table 191 with two entries, and ROM chip 172 creates a join table 19 with two entries for module C and module A.
．． The i,n,0M chip 173 has a combination table 19. with three entries for module C, module D, and module B. Prepare. Each of the above-mentioned coupling tables 198, 192, and 198 is secured on a readable and writable memory, and the execution start address of the definition side of the module is set before starting execution of the program. The module reference instruction refers to the corresponding en l-1,1 of the connection table and connects it to the definition side. Entries in the binding table are associated with module names in the order in which the reference module names appear. Since the ROM chip 7'17m is referenced in the order of module A and module B, the ROM chip 17,
Join table for 19. The first entry is associated with module A, and the second entry is associated with module B.

(Associating the 33ROM chip with the connection table As described above, a connection table is prepared for each ROM chip to refer to modules defined in other R and OM chips.The connection table can be read and written from memory It is necessary to obtain information on where the ROM is prepared.Any ROM
If the start address of the chip connection table is known, the module reference instruction can refer to the connection table since the relative position from the start of the connection table is known.

Therefore, an address table is prepared in which the leading address of the combination table prepared for each ROM chip is set. FIG. 8(B) shows an example of the above address table. In this example, three ROM chips 17t
, 17? ! An address table 20 having three entries is prepared for 17° and 17°, and the start address of each coupling table is set at the start of program execution. The first address of this address table 20 is set in a register or the like and can be referenced as the nth address.

The ROM chips 171, 172, and 17° are associated with the entries in the address table 20, for example, by associating them with the addresses at which the ROM chips are mounted, as shown in FIG. In other words, if the size of the ROM chip is determined in a certain unit, for example, a power of 2 unit, then the memory addresses are divided according to the size, and the first block of memory is the next block of 1% memory of the address table entry. is associated with entry 2 in the address table. In the example of FIG. 9, the memory space (A) is divided into blocks of 21 bytes each having the size of a ROM chip, and the first memory block is associated with the first entry in the address table. The ROM chip mounted there is associated with an entry on the address table corresponding to the block number. According to this method, multiple ROM chips can be combined into one
One block may be associated with one address table, or conversely, one ROM chip may be divided into a plurality of blocks and one entry of the address table may be associated with each block.

(4) How to refer to addresses and connection tables The method of combining module references and definitions must be performed using a connection table prepared for each ROM chip and an address table that stores the start address of the connection table. said. The first step is to refer to this join table and join.
Shown in Figure 0. While any ROM chip is running other ROM
When an instruction to refer to a module defined in a chip is issued, first, the mounting address of the ROM chip is obtained from the program input address indicating the location address of the instruction.

This allows for association with entries in the address pool.

For example, if the size of a ROM chip is the number of bytes represented by 2 to the power of i, it is possible to shift the program kakunta to the right by i and find the start address of the corresponding combination table from the entry and the start address of the address table. can. Then, the definition address of the module to be referenced can be obtained from the start address of the connection table and the counting number of the connection table determined from the module reference order in the ROM chip.

Of the reference steps in FIG. 10, steps (1) to (4) can be implemented in hardware.

When a module reference instruction is issued, the instruction is realized in hardware so as to obtain the address of the connection table and indirectly reference that address.

(Information for module combination 1'In order to combine the modules stored in the tOM chip, it is necessary to use the combination table for each R, 0M chip and the address table that stores the start address of the combination table. The information required to create this table is as follows.

(a) Module name defined in the ROM chip and execution start address of the module (bJ Information regarding references to modules defined in other ROM chips) Specifically, when using the module name as information for combining these explain.

FIG. 11 shows an example of information indicating module definitions stored in the ROM. It starts with the binary value of the pattern 11111111 that indicates the module definition, followed immediately by a number that indicates the number of characters in the module name (in this case "4")
and a string indicating the entire module name (in this case “PRGI”)
continues. Immediately after the string is the module execution start address.

FIG. 12 shows an example of module reference information stored in the same ROM. 2 indicated by pattern 11111110 indicating the beginning of information for module reference
The string starts with the hexadecimal value tb, the number of characters of the module name is 2, and the name string follows in reference order. If the same name is referenced multiple times, it is provided only once, the first time it appears. The end of the information is identified because the number of characters in the name is 0. This information 1l-t is prepared in one place for each ROM chip. For example, a method such as securing an area from the rear of the ROM chip for storage is used.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a constant storage area.

Pattern 11111100 indicating the start of constant storage area
and a numerical value (m in this case) indicating the area size is provided at the beginning of the constant area.

(6) Creation of a table from module combination information The address table 20 and the combination table 19 are created as follows. Read/write memo'J 12
On B, as shown in FIG. 14, the address table 20
, and the area of the join table 19 are determined. ROM
The chip is examined from the beginning, and the necessary area is secured in the connection table 19 from the module reference information. Then, the start address of the combination table 19 is set in the address table 20. When this is completed, the next ROM chip is checked and the same process is performed, and the fourth process is performed for all the 111th ROM chips. This means that the address table 20 and the join table 19 have been secured and their connections have been completed. These processes are performed prior to the start of program execution.

(7) Setting the module definition address in the binding table In principle, check the ROfx chip, search for module definition information, find the definition address, and then search again from the beginning for the ROM chip that references that definition module. Just store it in the join table entry. However, from 1, this method requires searching for the ROM chip from the beginning (actually, ``number of defined module names + 1'' times), which is inefficient.

Therefore, when creating the combination table 19 and address file 20 described in (6), references to the same module are connected by a chain on the combination table 19, and when a module definition appears, the to set the definition address. When a module definition appears on a ROM chip, it is also possible to perform the above processing and create a new table from which definition addresses can be found for the same name in the future, thereby reducing the number of searches. This process is performed prior to the start of program execution, similar to the process of (6J) above.

(8) Reference method R for variables shared between modules,
The universal expression of variables shared between modules referenced between OM chips will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 15 shows an example in which the shared variable X is referenced by the ROM chip 17, the module A and the module B stored in the memory 17□.

An axis area for variables is secured in the shared number area 21 on the read/write OT function memory, and the corresponding area (19,'
, 19? , ' ) and refer to it, which is similar to the module binding method.The difference is that the contents of the binding table 19' are used instead of the definition address of the module, and the length of the common variable area is set to the address. is set.

(9) Information for allocating the shared variable area Information for allocating the shared variable area is prepared on the ROM chip side in which the module that defines the variable is stored. The format is shown in Figure 16, where the shared variable area allocation is a pattern 111111100 indicating the beginning of information.
After the binary value representation, the number of characters for the variable name, the character string for the variable name, and the allocation continue as many times as the memory size requires. This example shows that a memory size of 1゛0 has been allocated to the variable name tt As is clear, the shared variable reference information has the same format as the module reference information and is prepared in the same location.Therefore, the entries in the join table should be determined by including the shared variable references and module references. become.

(10) The allocation of the shared variable area and the allocation to the binding table are as described in (6) regarding the address set and the securing and relationship between the address table and the binding table.

Allocation of common variable area 1-1: Examine the ROM chip, and if allocation information is found, allocate the necessary memory size to the common variable area. Next, the variable reference information is searched for in the ROM step J:, and the allocated variable area is set in the entry of the corresponding join table.

By using the connection table and address table configured as described above, it becomes possible to mutually refer to modules using module names and to refer to shared variables between modules.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in a data processing method in which a program stored in a plurality of read-only memories is shared and a variable area used among the shared programs is shared, the program is stored. In addition to the instructions that execute the program's functions, the read-only memory stored therein also stores the information necessary to combine the program with other programs. By using a join table prepared for each read-only memory, and by using the same method for variables shared between the programs, the area can be allocated and referenced. It becomes possible to use the program as a component, so to speak. In addition, it has become easier to build a system by combining these programs, and even when modifying a part of it, the memory that stores the corresponding program can be saved.
This has extremely practical effects, as all you need to do is replace the chip.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 and 2 are diagrams showing conventional data processing methods, and Figure 3 is a diagram showing the conventional data processing method.
The figure shows a small computer system to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 4 shows its memory board, Fig. 5 shows a program module, and Fig. 6 shows a stack to which internal variables of the program module are allocated. Figure 7 showing
The figure shows the relationship between the combination table used in the program combination method, which is an embodiment of the present invention, and the corresponding R and 0M chips. Figure 8 shows the relationship between the combination table prepared for each ROM chip and the chip. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a method for associating address tables and chips; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a processing procedure for linking a module reference instruction and a module;
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing module definition information in ROM, FIG. 12 is a diagram showing module reference information in ROM,
Figure 3 shows the definition area in the ROM, Figure 14 shows the format for securing the join table and address table area in the readable/writable memory, and Figure 15 shows the definition area in the ROM.
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a method for referencing variables shared between modules stored in a chip. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing information on shared variable allocation on a ROM chip. 11... Arithmetic processing device, 12... Memory device, 12
Person: ROM, 12B: Readable/writable memory, 1
3... Input/output device, 14... Power-on reset circuit, 17.171... ROM chip, 18... Socket, 19... Connection table, 20... Address table, 1st field Figure 2 Nest Figure 8” ) (
T3) re
)Y9 Figure IA) (B)
Top/θ Ward No. 11 Fig. IZ Fig.'A I3 Area χ 14 Fig. e? a

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a data processing method in which programs stored in a plurality of memories dedicated to bladder evacuation are shared, and a variable area used among the shared programs is shared, a readable/writable memory width is used for combining the shared programs. A table that refers to a table and a shared variable area is provided for each of the plurality of read-only memories, and the execution start address of the valley program in the plurality of read-only memories is set in the program combination table, and the program combining the referenced program and the referenced instruction using a combination table, and setting a destination L/s for each variable in the read-only memory in the table that refers to the shared variable area; A data processing method characterized in that variables are shared between programs using the variable area reference table.