KR20090019243A - Data transmission apparatus for computer and method for changing data channel thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

If the power source of the computer system is turned on, the data transmission apparatus for computer and the method for changing data transmission channel change automatically the channel connected to each device. Therefore it prevents the load from being concentrated on the special channel or controller. The data transmission apparatus for computer comprises the interface controller(40), and the connecting unit(50) and the control unit(60). The interface controller comprises a plurality of channels. The connecting unit assigns the channel to each device. The control unit controls the connecting unit to change the channel allocated to the device.

Description

Data transmission apparatus for computer and method for changing data channel

The present invention relates to a computer system, and more particularly to a computer system that can change the data transmission channel, and a channel changing method.

The current computer system has been developed at a high speed due to the high speed of the CPU and the introduction of high-speed buses such as PCI-Express, USB2.0, and 1394.

However, PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment), an interface that connects various devices connected to the system, has hindered the performance of computer systems due to the maximum data transfer rate of only 133MB / s.

In order to overcome such obstacles, a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) has recently been proposed. SATA operates at up to 1.5Gbps, and SATA-II can operate up to 3.0Gbps. In addition, since SATA (or SATA-II) communicates through a communication cable using four signal pins, it takes up less space on the mounted board.

As a result, chipset manufacturers in computer systems have recently released motherboard chipsets that include SATA controllers. Such a SATA controller is a SATA controller comprises one or more channels and one or more controllers. That is, the SATA controller provides a plurality of channels to connect a plurality of devices, each of which is connected to a controller equal to or less than the number of channels.

When connecting various SATA-supporting devices to a computer system equipped with such a chipset, as fewer SATA devices are connected than the number of channels, the remaining channels and controllers that are not connected to the SATA devices exist in the SATA controller.

According to such a prior art, there are the following problems.

That is, all of the channels and controllers provided in the SATA controller are not utilized.

In addition, since the channel or controller connected to the SATA device is not automatically changed, the load is concentrated on a specific channel or controller.

In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to overcome the error caused by the channel or controller because the channel or controller is not automatically changed even when an error related to the SATA device connection occurs.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a data transmission apparatus of a computer that can utilize all channels and controllers provided in the interface controller, and a data channel changing method. will be.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a data transmission apparatus of a computer and a data channel changing method capable of preventing load concentration on a specific channel or a controller by automatically changing a channel connected to each device whenever the computer system is powered on. It is.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a data transmission apparatus of a computer and a data channel changing method capable of easily overcoming an error caused by a channel by automatically changing a channel when an error occurs when connecting a device and a system.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, the present invention comprises an interface controller having a plurality of channels; A connection unit for allocating the channel to respective devices; And a control unit for controlling the connection unit to change a channel assigned to the device.

In this case, the control unit may control the connection unit to change the channel allocated to each device every time the computer is powered on.

The control unit may control the connection unit such that when an error occurs in the test step for each device in the booting process of the computer system, a channel allocated to the device in which the error occurs is changed.

The control unit may control the connection unit to change a channel assigned to the device, in which the transmission rate is detected to be less than the reference rate, when the transmission rate is detected to be less than the set reference rate during data transmission of the device. It may be.

The computer system may further include a storage unit in which a channel assignment history for the device of the interface controller is stored.

In this case, the control unit may control the connection unit by determining a channel to be allocated to the device with reference to the channel assignment history stored in the storage unit.

The data transmission device may further include a power on detection unit for detecting a power on operation of the computer and sending a signal to the control unit.

The data transmission device may further include an error detection unit that sends a signal to the control unit when an error occurs in the test step for the device.

At this time, the data transmission device, the transmission speed of the data transmission of the device is detected and compared with the reference speed, and if it is detected that the transmission speed is less than the reference speed is configured to further comprise an abnormality detection unit for sending a signal to the control unit May be

And the interface controller is a SATA controller; The device may be a SATA device.

On the other hand, the present invention provides a data transmission apparatus of a computer including a control unit for controlling channel allocation of an interface controller connected to each device, comprising: a step of receiving a channel change command; It may be performed including the step B of changing and setting the channel in each device.

The channel change command of step A may be generated whenever the computer is turned on.

In addition, the channel change command of step A may be generated for the device in which an error is detected if an error is detected in a specific device during a sequential test of each device during a computer booting process.

In this case, the data transmission channel change method may include: step C of performing a test procedure for a device whose channel is changed in step B; If an error is detected again in step C, the method may further include step D in which the channel change command is generated again with respect to the device in which the error is detected.

In addition, the channel change command of the step A, by measuring the data transmission rate of each device, and compares the measured transmission rate with the reference rate, and if the transmission rate is detected to be less than the reference rate, the transmission rate is the It may also occur for the device that is detected to be below the reference speed.

Wherein the interface controller is a SATA controller; The device may be a SATA device.

As described above, the following effects can be expected in the data transmission apparatus and the data channel changing method of the computer according to the present invention.

That is, all channels and controllers provided in the interface controller can be utilized.

In addition, the data transmission apparatus of the computer and the data channel changing method according to the present invention can prevent the load from being concentrated on a specific channel or controller by automatically changing the channel connected to each device whenever the computer system is powered on. have.

In addition, the data transmission apparatus of the computer and the data channel changing method according to the present invention have an advantage in that an error caused by a channel can be easily overcome by automatically changing a channel when an error occurs when a device and a system are connected.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a specific embodiment of a data transmission apparatus of a computer according to the present invention as described above will be described in detail.

In this case, a specific embodiment of a data transmission apparatus of a computer according to the present invention may be applied to all cases in which one or more devices are connected to an interface controller provided with a plurality of channels. Hereinafter, a case of a SATA controller including a plurality of channels will be described. An example will be described.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a data transmission apparatus of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a hard disk drive (Serial) such as a hard disk drive (10; hereinafter referred to as 'HDD') or an optical disk drive (20; hereinafter referred to as 'ODD') Advanced Technology Attachment) device 30 is provided.

The HDD 10 is a representative auxiliary memory device of a computer system and is generally provided as a magnetic memory device.

The ODD 20 is also an auxiliary memory device generally used in a computer system. The ODD 20 includes a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), a compact disc-rewritable (CD-RW) disk, and a DVD-ROM. (Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory), DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disc-ReWritable), and the like.

In the present invention, both the HDD 10 and the ODD 20 are assumed to be capable of supporting a SATA interface, and each of the HDD 10 and the ODD 20 may be provided at least one. Alternatively, only one type of SATA device 30 of the HDD 10 and the ODD 20 may be provided.

In addition, other devices supporting SATA interfaces other than HDD and ODD may be provided.

Meanwhile, the SATA device 30 is connected to the SATA controller 40 to exchange data with the SATA device 30 such as the HDD 10 and the ODD 20.

The SATA controller 40 may be provided as a separate module in the computer system, but a SATA may be included in a south bridge or an I / O control hub (ICH), which is a chipset related to data input / output among recently released motherboard chipsets. It is common to have a controller.

Therefore, in the present invention, the SATA controller 40 may be provided as a separate module or embedded in the motherboard chipset. In addition, the SATA controller 40 is generally a controller provided as a PCI (or PCI-Express) device.

On the other hand, the SATA controller 40 is provided with a plurality of channels. The channel means a path through which the SATA device 30 is connected to and controlled by the SATA controller 40, respectively.

One SATA device 30 is connected to each channel.

The SATA controller 40 may also be configured to include a plurality of controllers, the controller is provided in a number corresponding to the number of channels, one SATA controller 30 is provided in one controller provided in the SATA controller 40 Can be connected one by one.

The SATA controller 40 receives data from the SATA device 30 or transmits data to the SATA device 30, and is responsible for signal processing for data transmission and reception.

The plurality of channels provided by the SATA controller 40 are connected to the SATA device 30 through a connection unit 50.

Here, the connection unit 50 is a circuit device that can selectively connect a plurality of interfaces, such as a switch, or a number of signals less than or equal to the number input from a plurality of input signals, such as a multiplexer (Multiplexer) It may be a circuit device for outputting.

The connection unit 50 serves to allocate the channel to each of the SATA devices 30. For example, the first channel is allocated to the HDD 10, the second channel is allocated to the ODD 10, and the like.

In this case, the connection unit 50 allocates a channel according to the command of the control unit 60. The control unit 60 is provided with ordinary control means, and controls the connection unit 50 to change or adjust a channel connected to each of the SATA devices 30.

Here, one or more signals may be input to the control unit 60. The signals input to the control unit 50 are information that the control unit 60 can refer to to control the connection unit 50.

First, a power on signal of the computer system may be input to the control unit 60. In this case, the control unit 60 may sense the power-on of the system and instruct the connection unit 50 to designate or change a channel allocated to each of the SATA devices 30.

That is, by changing the channel connected to the SATA device 30 every time the system is powered on, the load is concentrated on only one channel to prevent the phenomenon. Alternatively, when the number of controllers corresponding to the number of channels is provided in the SATA controller 40, the load concentration on the controller is also prevented.

For this purpose, a storage unit (not shown) may be provided in the computer system, and the channel allocation history information of the control unit 60 may be stored in the storage unit.

That is, to store in the storage unit at least one time which channel is connected to each of the SATA devices 30 before powering off the computer system, and to determine the channel to be allocated to the SATA device 30 based on this. It is for.

Alternatively, a channel may be randomly allocated to each of the SATA devices 30 whenever power is turned on without determining a channel to be allocated with reference to the history information.

In such a case, the power-on signal of the computer system can be received from the power control means of the computer.

In addition, an error generation signal may be input to the control unit 60. This is a signal for notifying the control unit 60 when an error occurs in the testing of each SATA device 30 in the system booting process after the system power-on signal is input.

When the error generation signal is received, the control unit 60 determines which device among the plurality of SATA devices 30 causes an error and determines a channel allocated to the SATA device 30 determined to have an error. Instruct the connection unit 50 to change.

The changed channel is a channel to which no SATA device 30 is assigned.

By changing the channel when an error occurs as described above, an error caused by a channel of the SATA controller 40 or an error caused by any one of a plurality of controllers provided in the SATA controller 40 can be overcome.

After changing the channel as described above, the test step for the SATA device 30 whose channel is changed is performed again. If an error occurs again, the channel may be changed repeatedly.

On the other hand, if there are no more channels to change even if there is an error again, it is difficult to see a channel error or a controller error, so that the user may know that an error has occurred in the test process of the SATA device 30 may be displayed on the monitor. Or a warning sound may be generated.

In the above case, the error generation signal may be generated by the BIOS.

Meanwhile, after the system booting is completed, an abnormality detection signal may be input to the control unit 60. The abnormality detection signal, if the abnormality occurs when the data is received by accessing the SATA device 30 such as the HDD 10 or the ODD 20 during system operation, the central processing unit or the SATA controller 40, etc. This is a signal that is detected and generated.

That is, when it is detected that the speed of receiving data from the SATA device 30 is less than or equal to the reference speed set for each of the SATA devices 30, it is determined that an abnormality has occurred and generates the abnormality detection signal.

In this case, the reference speed may be expected in normal system operation in consideration of the average speed due to the characteristics of the SATA device 30 and the characteristics of the channel, and a speed decrease due to a speed delay factor that may occur. It is the value that set the minimum transmission speed.

The control unit 60 may receive the abnormal detection signal as described above, and control the connection unit 50 to change the channel of the SATA device 30 in which the abnormality is detected to an empty channel.

If the transmission speed is less than the reference speed, the SATA device 30 may be an error, but may be an error of the controller connected to the channel among the plurality of controllers in the channel or the SATA controller 40, It is intended to overcome the error by changing the channel or causing the controller to be changed by changing the channel.

Meanwhile, when the SATA controller 40 is provided in the chipset, the connection unit 50 and the control unit 60 may be provided in the chipset together with the SATA controller 40 or may be provided outside the chipset. It may be.

When included in the chipset, the chip is connected to the outside using a general purpose input / output (GPIO) pin.

Hereinafter, a method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention and another embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of a method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to another embodiment of the present invention. It is a flow chart.

As shown in FIG. 2, the method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention starts from detecting a power-on of a system (S100).

The step 100 may be performed by various methods, but may be performed by the system power control means detecting the signal and transmitting a signal to the control unit 60.

When the power-on of the system is detected, a new channel is allocated to the SATA device 30 provided in at least one system (S200).

At this time, the channel is provided in plurality in the SATA controller 40, as described with reference to FIG.

Meanwhile, when a new channel is allocated, a channel other than the channel connected to the SATA device 30 is allocated before the system is powered off.

This may be performed by referring to channel allocation history information stored in the storage unit, or may be performed by connecting random channels.

Then, a full booting procedure of the computer system is performed (S300). During the booting procedure, a test procedure for each of the SATA devices 30 is performed (S400). During this process, by monitoring whether one of the SATA devices 30 detects an error (S500), if an error is detected In operation S600, a channel allocated to the SATA device 30 in which an error is detected is changed.

In this case, the changed channel is one of the remaining channels allocated to each of the SATA devices 30 when the system is powered on.

The test procedure for the SATA device 30 which changed the channel in step 600 is performed again (S700). If the error is detected again after rerunning the test procedure, the step of changing the channel is repeated again.

However, if the changed channel is no longer left, a warning sound or a screen is output to notify the user of an error during the booting process.

On the other hand, if an error is not detected in step 500 and the test procedure for all of the SATA devices 30 is completed, the remaining booting process is performed (S800), and the booting is completed (S900).

Meanwhile, in the method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, data is transmitted to the SATA device 30 or from the SATA device 30, as the system operates. Starting from the step of receiving data (S150).

In addition, during the data transmission with the SATA device 30, the data transmission rate is continuously measured (S250).

In this case, the transmission speed may be measured by a central processing unit or a separate control means.

In operation S350, the transmission speed measured in step 250 is compared with a preset reference speed.

Here, the reference speed is as described with reference to FIG. 1, which may be set differently for each SATA device 30.

As a result of comparing the reference rate and the transmission rate, if the transmission rate is greater than or equal to the reference rate (S450), it is determined that data transmission is normally performed, and transmission of data is continued (S650).

However, if it is determined in step 450 that the transmission speed is less than the reference speed, it is difficult to see that data transmission is normally performed. Therefore, the channel allocated to the SATA device 30 for transmitting data is changed. A step is performed (S550).

When the channel change of the SATA device 30 is completed in step 550, data transmission is performed again (S650).

If it is determined that data transmission is completed in this data transmission process (S750), all procedures are terminated, but if it is determined that data transmission is not completed, all subsequent steps from the 250th step of measuring the transmission speed are performed. The steps are repeated.

The method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to another embodiment of the present invention as described above may be performed step by step with the specific embodiment of the present invention described with reference to FIG. 2.

The rights of the present invention are not limited to the embodiments described above, but are defined by the claims, and various changes and modifications can be made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the claims. It is self-evident.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a data transmission apparatus of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer according to another embodiment of the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: HDD 20: ODD

30: SATA device 40: SATA controller

50: connection unit 60: control unit

Claims (16)

An interface controller having a plurality of channels; A connection unit for allocating the channel to respective devices; And a control unit for controlling the connection unit to change a channel allocated to the device. The method of claim 1, The control unit, And controlling the connection unit to change a channel assigned to each device every time the computer is powered on. The method of claim 2, The control unit, And when the error occurs in the test step for each device in the booting process of the computer system, controlling the connection unit to change the channel allocated to the device in which the error occurs. The method of claim 3, wherein The control unit, If the transmission speed is detected to be less than the set reference speed during the data transmission of the device, the connection unit is controlled to change the channel assigned to the device detected that the transmission rate is less than the reference speed Data transmission device. The method of claim 3, wherein The computer system, And a storage unit storing a channel assignment history for the device of the interface controller. The method of claim 5, The control unit, And a channel to be allocated to the device by referring to the channel assignment history stored in the storage unit to control the connection unit. The method of claim 3, wherein The data transmission device, And a power on detection unit for detecting a power-on operation of the computer and sending a signal to the control unit. The method of claim 3, wherein The data transmission device, And an error detecting unit for sending a signal to the control unit when an error occurs in the test step for the device. The method of claim 4, wherein The data transmission device, The apparatus further comprises an abnormality detecting unit which detects a transmission speed during data transmission of the device and compares it with a reference speed and sends a signal to the control unit when the transmission speed is detected to be less than the reference speed. Transmission device. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, The interface controller is a SATA controller; And the device is a SATA device. In the data transmission apparatus of a computer comprising a control unit for controlling the channel assignment of the interface controller connected to each device, A step of receiving a channel change command; And changing the channel to each device and setting the channel. The method of claim 11, The channel change command of the step A, A method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer, characterized in that occurs whenever the computer is powered on. The method of claim 11, The channel change command of the step A, The method of changing a data transmission channel of a computer, characterized in that, when an error is detected in a specific device during a sequential test of each device during a computer booting process, the error is generated for the detected device. The method of claim 13, The data transmission channel change method, A step C of performing a test procedure for the device whose channel is changed in the step B; And if the error is detected again in step C, further comprising step D, in which the channel change command is generated again for the device in which the error is detected. The method of claim 11, The channel change command of the step A, Measuring the data transmission rate of each device, comparing the measured transmission rate with the reference rate, and if the transmission rate is detected to be less than the reference rate, is generated for the device detected that the transmission rate is less than the reference rate Method for changing the data transmission channel of a computer, characterized in that. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 15, The interface controller is a SATA controller; And the device is a SATA device.

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