JPS6037937B2 - Initial program loading method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an initial program loading method in a microcomputer system.

Accordingly, in a microcomputer system, initial program loading, in which an executable program stored in a secondary storage medium is transferred to a storage area within the microcomputer system and executed, is performed as follows.

In other words, the identification code of the stored executable program and the execution start address of the executable program are not stored in the secondary storage medium, and after loading the executable program from the secondary storage medium, the execution start address must be manually set. The execution program was started by setting and manual instructions. However, in the conventional type, it is necessary to manually set the program execution start address, etc., and even if the program execution start address, etc. is changed due to a change in the execution program, etc., the program execution start address, etc. must be always known. Therefore, the initial program loading operation is troublesome and there is a lack of flexibility in changing the execution program. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems with the conventional system, an object of the present invention is to provide an execution program storage block that stores an execution program in a secondary storage medium and a method for identifying the execution program in an initial program loading method in a microcomputer system. Based on the concept of providing a label and a block for storing the program code and an address block for storing vector addresses including the execution start address of the executable program, it is possible to automatically load and start the executable program. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to simplify the loading operation of an executable program, and to enable loading and starting of an executable program without requiring any special operations even if the vector address is changed as the executable program is changed. .

According to the present invention, an execution program storage block that stores an execution program in a secondary storage medium, a label block that stores an identification code of the execution program, a transfer destination address of the execution program, and an execution start address of the execution program an address block for storing a vector address containing the vector address, an execution program storage RAM area for storing the execution program in the storage device of the microcomputer system, and a vector address storage RAM area for storing the vector address.
M area and R for storing the execution program from the secondary storage medium.
A ROM area constituting an initial program loader for loading the execution program is provided in the AM area, and the initial program loader loads the desired execution program using the identification code stored in the label block. identifies the secondary storage medium in which is stored, loads the execution program stored in the secondary storage medium into the program storage RAM area based on the transfer destination address stored in the address block; An initial program in a microcomputer system characterized in that after loading a vector address into a RAM area for storing the vector address, the execution program is started from the execution start address included in the vector address. A loading method is provided.

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

FIG. 1 schematically shows a microcomputer system for implementing the method of the present invention. The system shown in the figure is a multi-microcomputer system, which uses a common input/output device such as an operation section and a force setting table device, and uses a plurality of processing devices 3, . . . , 3.
n is provided. Each processing device 3,...
32 have the same configuration and are connected to each operating section 1 and input/output device 2 via control signal buses 4, . . . , 4n and input/output data bus 5, respectively. The operation unit 1 instructs the processing device to which data read from the input/output device 2 is to be transferred, and the data read from the input/output device 2 is transferred to the processing device. This is to give a coding start signal to the processing device. In addition, processing equipment such as 3. is the initial program loader section (
(hereinafter referred to as IPL) 6, an initial program load start address setting unit (hereinafter referred to as IPL start address setting unit) 7 that provides an initial program load start address to the mL 6, a microprocessor unit 8, a memory for executing programs, and R used as work area
It includes an AM (random access memory) section 9, an input/output interface section 10, and the like. Note that the IPL start address setting section 7 is constituted by, for example, a manually operable switch; It may be omitted if the program load start address can be a fixed value. In addition, IPL6 is a ROM (Read O
nlyMemo) is built-in. FIG. 2 shows a storage format of each piece of information on a magnetic tape as an example of a secondary storage medium used in the microcomputer system of FIG.

In the figure, a storage area delimited by tape marks 20 includes an execution program storage block 21 for storing an execution program or data, a label block 22 for storing an identification code of the execution program, and an address block 21 for storing an execution program or data. A block 23 is provided. The address block 23 contains a vector address including a transfer destination address of the execution program stored in the execution program storage block 21, an execution start address of the execution program, an interrupt processing start address at the time of various interrupts, and the execution program. The length of the program is memorized. Third
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the address space layout of a microprocessor to which an execution program is transferred in the system of FIG.

The address space extends, for example, from address 0 to address FFFF, and is composed of hardware areas such as RAM, ROM, and resist. R for storing execution programs
The AM area 31 is an area on the RAM where an execution program is loaded from a secondary storage medium, and the ROM area 32 is an area where the program constituting the initial program loader is stored.
The AM area 33 is an area on the RAM that stores the aforementioned vector address and is used as a work area when the initial program loader loads an execution program. Also, hard address area 3
4 is a storage area composed of hardware such as various registers. FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining the functions of the initial program loader.

The loading and starting operations of an execution program in the microcomputer system of FIG. 1 will be explained using FIG. 4. Specify the processing device, for example 3, to which the program data of the input/output device 2 is to be transferred from the operation unit 1,
And an initial program load start signal is given to the IPL 6 of the processing device 3. As a result, the IPL 6 is activated, and the initial program load process is executed from the address indicated by the IPL start address setting section (the start address of the initial program load process program stored in the ROM in the IPL 6). first,
The label section 22 (FIG. 2) is read into the IPL 6 from the input/output device 2 via the input/output interface section 10, and the storage medium is confirmed. If the storage medium does not store the required execution program data, an error message is displayed and the initial program loading process ends. If it is confirmed that the storage medium stores the desired execution program, then the address block 23 (FIG. 2) is read to obtain the destination address of the execution program and the length of the execution program. , loads the execution program. That is, execution program storage block 2
1, the execution program is transferred to the transfer destination address by using the vector address storage RNM area 33 (FIG. 3) as a buffer. When the transfer of the execution program is completed, judging from the length of the execution program,
The vector address information read from the address block 23 is stored in the vector address storage RAM area 33, and the execution program is started from the execution start address of the execution program included in the vector address information. Note that after the vector address information is stored in the vector address storage RAM area 33, the execution program can be re-executed simply by providing a start command signal to the microprocessor unit 8. Although a microcomputer system has been described above, it is clear that the present invention can also be used in a microcomputer system having a single processing unit.

As described above, according to the present invention, the execution program is stored in the secondary storage medium that stores the execution program. By storing the program transfer destination address, vector address, etc., it is possible to automatically load and start an execution program, and also to automatically load and start an execution program. . Even if the vector address is changed due to a change in the program, the changed vector address is used as the address of the secondary storage medium. By just storing it in a flock, it becomes possible to load and start the execution program without any special operations, and it is highly flexible for changing the execution program.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, each microcomputer, especially in a multi-microcomputer system,
Execute programs for each system or processing layer. When loading, it is possible to automatically load and start an execution program for the processing device instructed by the operation unit, so that execution management of each processing device can be performed efficiently.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing an example of a multi-microcomputer system for implementing a method according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a secondary memory used in the system of FIG. FIG. 3 is an information layout diagram showing the storage format of the medium, and FIG. 4 is a layout diagram for explaining the address space of the storage device in the system of FIG.
2 is a flowchart for explaining a loading operation in the system of FIG. 1. FIG. 1: Operation unit, 2: Input/output device, 3,,...,3
n: processing device, 4,..., 4n: control signal bus,
5: Input/output data bus, 6: Initial program loader section, 7: Initial program. program load start address setting section, 8: microprocessor section, 9: random access memory section, 10: input/output interface section, 20: tape mark, 21:
Execution program storage block, 22: Label block, 23: Address block, 31: RAM area for storing execution program, 32: ROM area, 33: Vector block.
RAM area for address storage, 34: Hard address area. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 An execution program storage block that stores an execution program in a secondary storage medium, a label block that stores an identification code of the execution program, and a vector that includes the transfer destination address of the execution program and the execution start address of the execution program. An address block for storing addresses is provided, and an execution program storage RAM area for storing the execution program in the storage device of the microcomputer system, a vector address storage RAM area for storing the vector address, and the secondary A ROM area constituting an initial program loader for loading the execution program from a storage medium into a RAM area for storing the execution program is provided, and the identification code stored in the label flock is used by the initial program loader. identifies the secondary storage medium in which the desired execution program is stored, and transfers the execution program stored in the secondary storage medium to the program storage RAM area based on the transfer destination address stored in the address block. In a microcomputer system, the execution program is started from the execution start address included in the vector address after loading the vector address into the vector address storage RAM area. Initial program loading method.