JPS60201461A - System configuration recognizing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prepare automatically correct information of system configuration by giving address to the position of an adapter connecting plural peripheral equipments, and sending attribute information of the adapter for recognition responding to selective designation of a CPU. CONSTITUTION:An adapter mounted on a printed substrate 30 is connected to an I/O bus 18 by inserting it into a connector 31. A part of terminals of plural connectors conneted in parallel to the I/O bus 18 are used as terminals for address setting, and wiring proper to each of them is made. The CPU sends out attribute transfer command to a controlling bus 34 of the I/O bus 18 and print plate mounting position address to an address bus 33 to recognize configuration. The adapter that detected coincidence of a mounting position address signal 37 and an address bus signal by an address judging circuit 38 makes the signal line on to control a gate 41, and sends out attribute code from an attribute code storing circuit 42 to a data bus 32.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a configuration control method for a computer system, and more particularly to a method for automatically recognizing the mounting state of peripheral devices, etc. of the system.

(Background of BL technology) Due to the remarkable improvement in the performance/price ratio of computer systems, low-cost and highly practical systems have been provided, and these systems have come to be used in large quantities in many so-called offices.

These systems generally have a wide variety of peripheral devices that can be used, and it is desirable for system installers to be able to select the type and quantity of peripheral devices that they need, that is, to have a variety of system configurations. . In order for a management program or the like of such a system to appropriately control peripheral devices, etc., information regarding the system configuration of each installed system is required.

101 Prior Art and Problems FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of such a computer system. The main body 1 of the system is a central processing unit (CP).
U) io, main storage device 12, main storage management device 14, and various adapters 16-O116-1 to 16-N, C
PU101 main memory management device 14 and various adapters 16-
0.16-1 to 16-N are connected to the IO bus 8.

10 bus 18 includes CPU I O and adapters 16-0.
16-1 etc. are connected to the main memory device 12 via the main memory management device 14.
It is used for accessing and transferring data, and for communication between the CPU 10 and the adapter 16-0.16-1, etc.

The adapters 16-0.
Connect peripheral devices such as 4 and control them. Therefore, the adapter 16-0, 16-1, etc. usually differs depending on the type of peripheral device to be connected.

When performing data input/output with peripheral devices, it is necessary to provide command information to the required peripheral devices and their adapters. To this end, each adapter is preset with a device address, and the CPU 10 sends the required device address on the 10 bus 18 to designate one of the adapters 16-0 to 16-N, and then commands that adapter. Send information.

The adapters 16-0 to 16-N interpret the command information and
It controls the connected peripheral devices and relays data transfer between the peripheral devices and the main storage device 12 or the CPU I/O.

In order for the program executed on CPU10 to appropriately perform such control, a predetermined device address must be set for the adapter, and the program must be able to configure the adapter ( and compatible peripheral devices) are installed, and if so, information such as the model must be informed.

Conventionally, such system configuration information is created in advance by a system administrator or the like for each installed system, stored in an appropriate storage device together with a management program, etc., and loaded into the main memory bag W12 during a so-called initial program load. This makes it available for related programs.

However, since even such configuration information often contains errors in its creation, it is necessary to run the system, test it, and make corrections, which is one factor that delays the start of use of the system. Furthermore, as mentioned above, a large number of systems
When computers are often used directly by users who are not experts in offices, etc., it becomes difficult for both users and providers to create and test configuration information for each system as described above, and improvements are required. It was wanted.

For this purpose, for example, providers may create fixed configuration information for a small number of selectable system configuration types, but this has the disadvantage of limiting the user's selectability, so it is not appropriate to There was no countermeasure.

(d) Purpose of the Invention The purpose of the present invention is to provide a system configuration recognition method that eliminates the need to manually create/test system configuration information for each installed system, while eliminating the above-mentioned problems in the conventional system. be.

(e1 Structure of the Invention) According to the present invention, in a configuration control method for a computer system that has one or more adapter mounting positions and connects peripheral devices etc. to the adapter, each adapter mounting position has a unique means for assigning an address to the adapter, means for selectively specifying the adapter mounted at the corresponding adapter mounting position by the address, means provided in the adapter for transmitting information specific to the adapter in response to the designation; It has means for recognizing the attributes of the adapter based on the information, and in particular, each adapter is mounted on a printed board and a printed board for the adapter is mounted at each printed board mounting position.By this, the above address can be automatically set. This is achieved through a system configuration recognition method.

In other words, the address determined by the mounting position is common to all systems, and by accessing the adapter using this address, if the adapter is installed, information indicating its type etc. can be obtained, and the attributes of the adapter can be recognized from this. be able to.

In addition, if there is no response from the adapter, it can be known that the specified mounting position is not implemented, so it is easy to automatically create error-free system configuration information based on this information, and this process There is no need for manual processing.

(f) Embodiment of the Invention The system example shown in FIG. 1 is similarly applicable to the system according to the present invention. However, in the present invention, adapter 1
Some new circuits have been added to 6-1 to 16-N, and it is necessary to add a management program to utilize them.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an adapter circuit related to the present invention. In this example, the adapter is connected to the printed board 30.
By inserting it into the connector 31, connection to the IO bus 8 shown in FIG. 1 can be made. The 10 buses include a data bus 32, an address bus 33, a control bus 34, and the like.

There are a plurality of connectors to which the adapter can be attached, for example, they are arranged in parallel with the connector 31, and their 10 bus connection terminals are all connected in parallel, and the attachment position is not limited by the type of adapter. However, since some terminals of each connector are used as address setting terminals 35, different wiring is provided for each connector.

For example, if this system has 32 adapter connectors, 5 terminals of each connector are used as address setting terminals, corresponding to the 5 bits required for address display.
As illustrated as the terminal 35, for example, earth is connected only to the terminal corresponding to the bit whose address display bit should be set to "0".

This wiring is fixed in such a way that all 32 connectors have different addresses.

The circuit 36 on the printed board side that connects to the address setting terminal 35 of the connector is
” signal, and these 5-bit signal lines 37 serve as inputs to an address determination circuit 38.

In order to recognize the configuration, the CPU 10 sends an attribute transfer command control signal to the control bus 34 of the IO bus 8 and a printed board mounting position address (5 bits in the example) to the address bus 33. The signals on the control bus 34 are decoded by the decoding circuits 39 of all the mounted adapters and printed boards, and a signal for controlling the address determination circuit 38 is output. In response to this signal, the address determination circuit 38 compares the mounting position address signal 37 with the signal on the address bus 33.

As a result, only the address determination circuit 38 of one printed board detects a match between the two, and its signal line 40 is turned on. A gate 41 is controlled by a signal line 40, and an attribute code is transferred from an attribute code storage circuit 42 to a data bus 3.
2 is sent out. By reading the signal on the data bus 32, the CPU 10 can learn the attribute code of the adapter mounted at the specified mounting position.

The attribute code is used to specify the type of adapter (for example, it corresponds to the type of peripheral device to be controlled), the version number of the installed circuit, the version number of the program when a microprocessor is installed, and other information. This is a code assigned to the printed board, and is set in the memory circuit 42, for example, at the time of manufacturing the adapter.

When the CPU 10 learns the type of peripheral device from the attribute code, it selects one of the device addresses that can be assigned to that type, and enters the required attribute information in the corresponding item of the device control table on the main memory 12. Fill out. The device control table, as is generally used, is a table that holds system configuration information for a management program or the like to search by, for example, a device address and execute predetermined control based on device attributes.

In order to send the currently selected device address to the adapter, the CPU 10 sends a device address reception command to the control bus 34 and a mounting position address to the address bus 33.
Sends the device address onto data bus 32.

Adapter decoder 39 decodes this command and controls gate 44 to store the device address of data bus 32 in register 45. Device of register 45
The address becomes an input to the address determination circuit 38, and is used to determine the selection of the adapter in subsequent input/output processing.

In the above operation of the attribute transfer command, if a printed circuit board is not mounted at the mounting position address specified by the CPU 10 on the address bus 33, the CPU 10 will naturally not obtain the attribute code from the data bus 32. For example, by detecting that there is no response within a certain period of time after sending the command, CPU10 determines that the mounting position is not mounted.

In this way, by sequentially inquiring about the mounting positions of all the adapters in the system, identification of mounted/unmounted adapters and acquisition of the attribute code of the mounted adapter are completed.

After this process, any devices that were not assigned to the adapter
Regarding the address, indicate that it is not implemented in the corresponding item in the device control table to complete the system configuration information.

From the above description of the embodiments, it is clear that according to the present invention, by adding some circuits to the adapter printed board, attributes of the mounted adapter are automatically recognized and system configuration information is created. Probably.

Effects of the fg1 invention As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically recognize the system configuration, and accurate configuration information is automatically created, so that a variety of systems can be provided quickly and in large quantities. This makes it possible to expect significant industrial effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the computer system, and FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the adapter. In the figure, 1 is the main body of the system, IO is the CPU, 1
2 is a main storage device, 16-0.16-1.16-N is an adapter, 18 is a 10 bus, 20 is a magnetic disk device, 22
is a display device, 24 is a printer, 30 is an adapter/printed board, 31 is a connector, 32 is a data bus,
33 is an address bus, 34 is a control bus, 35 is an address setting terminal, 38 is an address determination circuit, 39 is a command decoder, 42 is an attribute code storage circuit, and 45 is a register. Representative Patent Attorney Koji Matsuoka f4S 2 Tea 1 Enclosure 2 Things 2 En

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a configuration control method for a computer system that has one or more adapter mounting positions and connects peripheral devices, etc. to the adapter, a means for assigning a unique address to each adapter mounting position, and a means for assigning a unique address to each adapter mounting position; means for selectively specifying the adapter attached to the adapter mounting position; means provided in the adapter for sending out information specific to the adapter in response to the specification; and means for recognizing the attributes of the adapter based on the information. A system configuration recognition method characterized by having the following. (2) Each of the above adapters is mounted on a printed board, each of the adapter mounting positions is a respective printed board mounting position, and means for automatically setting the above address by mounting the printed board at the printed board mounting position. A system configuration recognition method according to claim (1), characterized in that it has the following.