KR20100053122A

KR20100053122A - Micom learning board utilizing usb in multi-functional way

Info

Publication number: KR20100053122A
Application number: KR1020080112105A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 배인수
Original assignee: 배인수
Priority date: 2008-11-12
Filing date: 2008-11-12
Publication date: 2010-05-20

Abstract

PURPOSE: A MICOM development board for learning utilizing USB in multi-functional way is provided to directly make additional functions which are necessarily required to apply to a MICOM development broad for learning based on the USB. CONSTITUTION: A USB(Universal Serial Bus) port(300) comprises a USB connector with a host computer. A USB controller(500) controls a USB operation. A signal control unit(600) generates a control signal which is necessary in the development board for learning. A board power supply(410) performs a power supply of the development board for learning. A extension I/O unit(625) provides extension I/O function of learning target microcomputer(700).

Description

MICOM learning board utilizing USB in multi-functional way}

The present invention relates to the improvement of the learning microcomputer development board used for the development and learning of the microcomputer, and relates to a technology for providing an improved microcomputer development learning environment by utilizing USB as a multi-function.

In the conventional case, the microcomputer development boards used for learning require an external power supply, an external serial cable, and an external programming device in addition to the microcomputer development board itself to build a development learning environment. In particular, as the number of users of portable notebooks has increased, in addition to the above-mentioned items, notebook users have recently released a large number of notebooks on the market with USB only without the support of serial or parallel ports. There may be occasions requiring the need for additional USB serial converters for serial communication or USB parallel converters for microcomputer programming. As a result, the microcomputer development boards previously used for learning require at least one or more additional devices to build a development learning environment, and if a large number of devices are required, the microcomputer development boards must be expensive as well. This makes it difficult to build a flexible development learning environment outside of the specific places where they are installed. Accordingly, the present inventors have made a technical study on a method for providing basic functions necessary for learning microcomputer development without any additional device, even with a portable microcomputer development board having a portable size.

The present invention provides a low-cost, simple and flexible development learning environment by directly attaching additional functions required in addition to the learning microcomputer development board itself in the microcomputer learning to one small learning microcomputer development board using USB together. The purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention supplies power to the board from the host computer 100 using a USB, and enables programming of the learning target microcomputer 700 through the USB from the host computer 100, Provides a serial communication function for the developer terminal with the computer 100 via USB, additionally a board reset control function via USB from the host computer 100, and a chip select transferred from the host computer 100 via USB. Ability to change the chip select signal configuration inside the learning microcomputer development board with (chip select) information, and to temporarily store program data in volatile memory for execution, optionally for quick debugging. And the function of external expansion I / Os, which allows the user to connect external additional circuits arbitrarily, and DCE (D for additional external serial connection). It provides an additional serial port for external selection that can be selected as ata Communication Equipment (DTE) connection or Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) connection.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a power source required for micom learning, serial communication with the host computer 100, and a learning object by a user who aims for micom learning only by a USB connection with the host computer 100 without any additional device additionally with the present invention. By providing the basic functions necessary for micom learning of the functions for programming the microcomputer 700, it is possible to easily build a development learning environment at a low cost, and if necessary, carry it easily and move it to a desired place and continue to develop. to provide.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a learning microcomputer development board according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the present invention provides a USB device port 300 that makes a physical USB connection with the USB host port 200 of the host computer 100, and a power or external power terminal 400 supplied through USB. A board power supply unit 410 for selectively supplying one of the powers supplied from the power supply to the board through a power selection switch 405, a signal control unit 600 for generating various necessary control signals in the board, The USB control unit 500 that interprets all commands and data coming and going through the USB from the host computer 100 in accordance with the operation of the board and exchanges with the control signal unit 600, and is mounted for the purpose of actual learning And a reset switch 605 for performing a reset function by the board alone regardless of the reset control from the host computer 100, the host computer 100 via USB, In addition to serial communication for developer terminals, an external additional serial port 615 for additional external serial communication connections, and an external serial port 615 can be selected as a Data Communication Equipment (DCE) connection or a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) connection. A serial port DCE / DTE selection switch 620, an external expansion I / O unit 625 that collects various additional I / O signals provided by the learning target microcomputer 700 for connection with an external circuit, When programming a microcomputer via USB in the host computer 100, the program takes a long time and instead of storing the program data in a nonvolatile memory having a limited number of programs, the program speed is optional and the program count is limited. And a program memory selection switch 610 that can be selected to drive a microcomputer by temporarily storing a program in a nonvolatile volatile memory.

The USB controller 500 includes a separate USB controller, a CPU, and a memory. When the learning microcomputer development board is connected to the host computer 100, the USB controller 500 may be recognized by the host computer 100 as a USB device device. The firmware for the USB control must be running. In the firmware, a bidirectional instruction data pipe that can exchange instructions and execution results between the host computer 100 and the learning microcomputer development board, and bidirectional serial communication data for serial communication with the host computer 100. There are USB end points with isochronous or bulk or interrupt transfer protocols for pipes. The endpoint for instructions receives reset instructions from the host, instructions for changing programming instructions and chip selects, and returns the results to the host. point) functions as a buffer when the serial output of the learning target microcomputer 700 is transmitted to the host computer 100 or the serial data from the host computer 100 is serially input to the learning target microcomputer 700. The data once transmitted from the host computer 100 to the end point is interpreted by the CPU in the USB control unit 500 and performs a function corresponding to the corresponding command in accordance with the interpreted contents. When the reset command is received, a control signal corresponding to the signal control unit 600 is transmitted to send the reset signal to the learning target microcomputer 700, and when the programming command is received, the signal control unit 600 learns. The signal control unit 600 and the control signal corresponding thereto may be exchanged to perform programming of the target microcomputer. In addition, when the program is not normally completed during programming and the program is terminated due to a specific problem, the program transmits the situation to the host computer 100 again. If the received command relates to a chip select change, the host computer may store the chip select configuration value previously stored in the nonvolatile memory in the USB control unit 500 according to whether it is a read command or a write command. 100 or a new chip select configuration value transmitted from the host computer 100 in a non-volatile memory location in the designated USB control unit 500, and a signal is applied to the actual board. The control unit 600 is loaded. The chip select configuration values are always stored in non-volatile memory in the USB control unit 500 in this manner, and when the power is turned on or at reset or the chip select configuration values are stored from the host computer 100. Whenever changed by the control, it is operated in the form of newly loading into the signal control unit 600.

The board power supply unit 410 serves to create and supply various kinds of power required for the board. The board power supply unit 410 receives a power source used for the board through VBUS of the USB port 300 or an external power terminal 400. ) Can be received from an external power source (source) connected to the power supply, and a power selection switch 405 is used for selection thereof. When the power is supplied from the USB port 300, chipset used in the actual configuration of the present invention uses a low power product because there is a limit to the amount of power available.

The signal controller 600 generates a host signal transmitted from the host computer 100 through the USB controller 500 to generate signals necessary for actual function operation, and a reset switch 605 and a program selection switch ( 610 and serial port DCE / DTE selection switches 620 control the necessary signals to perform their functions. In addition, the external expansion I / O signals provided by the learning target microcomputer 700 for arranging the external circuit is arranged to provide easy access from the outside, and additional external connection serial port 615 is also provided. The signal controller 600 may be configured as a small low power transistor transistor logic (TTL) device, a programmable logic device (PLD), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The serial port 615 is an additional serial port in case a serial connection is required for an external device connection in addition to the serial communication for the terminal with the host computer 100 via USB. The serial port DCE / DTE selector switch 620 provides a DCE It can be selected to operate as a Data Communication Equipment (DTE) connection or a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) connection. In case of selecting DCE (Data Communication Equipment) connection, Pin 2 of serial port 615 is configured to transmit and Pin 3 is used as transmit function in the signal control unit 600.DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) connection At the time of selection, the signal control unit 600 configures pin 2 of the serial port 615 to transmit and pin 3 to transmit.

The reset switch 605 is a switch capable of performing a reset on the learning target microcomputer regardless of the reset command from the host computer 100. In the actual operation, the learning control unit 600 receives whether or not the reset switch is operated. Generates a reset signal for the microcomputer.

The external expansion I / O unit 625 is a collection of I / O functions for external circuit interfaces provided by the microcomputer to be studied and is used for external circuit expansion if necessary.

The learning target microcomputer 700 is a microcomputer that targets learning and refers to a microcontroller chipset such as 8051 or AVR or PIC or ARM. The configuration of the USB controller 500, the signal controller 600, and the external expansion I / O unit 625 may be partially changed according to the learning target microcomputer used.

The program memory selection switch 610 may be selectively used according to the learning target microcomputer 700 used. Instead, the program memory selection switch 610 takes a long time to develop and debug a program and instead of storing the program data in a nonvolatile memory having a limited number of programming. In addition, the program can be selected to run the microcomputer by temporarily storing the program data in volatile memory having fast program speed and unlimited programming times. The basic configuration is to allocate a portion of the volatile memory used as the data memory to the code memory area. When programming to the volatile memory is selected by checking the state of the program memory selection switch in the signal controller 600, For the purpose of accessing the code memory, the related signals are manipulated so as to replace the address, data, and control signals output from the learning target microcomputer 700 with a region of a pre-allocated volatile memory.

A programming operation of the learning target microcomputer 700 according to the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a programming process for a learning target microcomputer according to the present invention.

The drawings only mention instruction processing related to programming, and other instruction processing is discussed here.

In step S300, it is first checked whether a programming command is received from the host computer 100. If no programming instruction is received, it will continue waiting for the instruction. When a program command is received, the signal control unit 700 activates an ISP (In-System Programmer) function possessed by the learning target microcomputer or a storage device for external program data in step S305. This includes starting boot programs embedded in the target microcomputer, enabling special I / Os for in-system programmer (ISP) functions, and preparing protocols for in-system programmer (ISP) operation. After activating the In-System Programmer (ISP) function In step S310, the In-System Programmer (ISP) function is checked. If an obvious phenomenon is found, the In-System Programmer (ISP) function does not work properly. In S315, the host computer 100 sends a NACK (No Acknowledge) signal indicating that the activation of the ISP (In-System Programmer) function has failed along with the brief information on the error phenomenon. An example of a failure to activate the In-System Programmer (ISP) is an example of a learning object that performs an In-System Programmer (ISP) function via serial communication and provides an echo function that retransmits all received command characters as they are. In the case of the microcomputer, if you do not receive an echo during the initial command exchange after enabling the serial connection for the In-System Programmer (ISP), it is considered a failure to activate the In-System Programmer (ISP) function and the related situation To 100. After the activation of the ISP (In-System Programmer) function is normally performed, in step S320, the total data size of the program data to be programmed is first received and assigned to a variable called Total. Therefore, Total represents the size of the total data to be received from the host computer (100). In addition, in step S320, a variable called Received is initialized to 0, which represents the amount of data actually received from the host computer 100 to date. Subsequently, in step S330, reception of program data is started from the host computer 100. At this time, the entire program data is received and divided into a predetermined amount without processing. Once the program data is received, the variable Received is updated to reflect the value of the amount received in step S335. In addition, in step S340, the received data is analyzed to extract detailed information of which data to be programmed in which address area. Also, in step S345, the received data is checked whether the received data is received without any problem, from the host computer 100. The existence of an error is determined by a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value attached for the purpose of error detection, which is transmitted together in every transmission data unit. If it is determined that there is an error in the data received in step S345, the host computer 100 sends a NACK (No Acknowledge) signal with brief information on the current state in step S350 to inform that there is a problem with the received data. If it is found that there is no problem with the received data, in step S355, the data specified in the designated address area is programmed according to the information extracted from the received data by the ISP (In-System Programmer) method. When programming of the data is completed, there is a problem in programming by determining whether there was no problem during programming or whether programming was completed correctly, and if there is a problem, in step S365, by sending a NACK (No Acknowledge) signal to the host computer 100. If it is determined that programming is normally completed without any problem, it is determined in step S370 that the amount of data received so far is specified as Total, that is, the total amount of data to be received from the host computer 100, and the total amount of data to be received. If the program data has already been received and programmed, the programming procedure is terminated. If there is still more data to be received, the steps of steps S330 to S370 are repeated until programming is completed for the total amount of data to be received. .

3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a chip select configuration change inside a learning microcomputer development board according to the present invention.

The drawings only mention instruction processing related to the chip select configuration change, and other host instruction processing is discussed here.

First, after checking whether the command received from the host computer 100 in step S400 is the current chip select configuration value read command, and in the case of the chip select configuration value read command, in step S425 the USB control unit After reading data corresponding to a chip select configuration value from a storage device mounted at 500, the value read in step S430 is sent to the host computer 100 via USB. On the other hand, if the received command is not a chip select configuration value read command, check again whether the command received in step S405 is a chip select configuration value write command and write a chip select configuration value command. If not, the process returns to the instruction standby state, and if the receive instruction is the write command of the chip select configuration value, the host computer 100 sets a new chip select configuration value to be used first in step S410. After receiving from the device, the new chip select configuration value received in step S415 is stored in the area allocated for storing the chip select configuration value of the storage device mounted in the USB control unit 500. do. Once the new chip select configuration value is stored in the storage area, in step S420, the newly stored chip select configuration value is loaded into the signal control unit 600 so that the learning microcomputer development board actually receives a new one. To be reactivated with the selected chip select configuration value. The chip select configuration value received from the host computer 100 is stored in the nonvolatile memory and then loaded into the signal control unit 600, thereby providing a learning microcomputer development board without a USB connection with the host computer 100. Even when operating from an external power source, the most recently stored chip select configuration value is always applied to the learning microcomputer development board.

Although the invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments described based on the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention within the scope covered by the claims set forth below from this description. Do.

The present invention can be used industrially in the technical field related to the development and micom learning and its application technology.

1 is a block diagram of a learning microcomputer development board according to the present invention.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a programming process for the learning target microcomputer 700 according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a chip select configuration change inside a learning microcomputer development board according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings

100: host computer 200: USB port of the host computer

300: development port USB port 400: external power terminal

405: power selection switch 410: board power supply

500: USB control unit 600: signal control unit

605: reset switch 610: program memory selection switch

615: serial port 620: external serial port DCE / DTE selector switch

625: External Expansion I / O Part 700: Learning Target Microcomputer

Claims

A USB port 300 for establishing a USB connection with the host computer 100;

A USB control unit 500 for controlling a USB operation;

A signal control unit 600 for generating necessary control signals in the learning development board;

A board power supply unit 410 for supplying power in the learning development board;

A serial port 615 for connecting an external series circuit;

A reset switch 605 for performing a board reset function;

External expansion I / O section 625 providing the expansion I / O function of the target microcomputer

Learning target microcomputer 700 for the purpose of actual learning;

Microcomputer development board for learning utilizing the multi-function USB, characterized in that configured to include.

The learning microcomputer development board according to claim 1, wherein the programming of the learning subject microcomputer within the learning microcomputer development board is configured to be possible through a USB from the host computer (100).

The method of claim 1, wherein the chip select signal configuration value in the learning microcomputer development board is stored in a storage device in the learning microcomputer development board that can be read and written from the host computer 100 via USB. Development board.

The learning micom according to claim 1, wherein the reset of the learning microcomputer development board can be performed by a reset switch 605 in the microcomputer development board, and can also be controlled by a reset execution command transmitted from the host computer 100 via USB. Development board.

The power supply of the learning microcomputer development board of claim 1 is basically supplied from a USB, and, if necessary, is supplied from a USB by a power selection switch 405 or from an external power source connected to the external power terminal 400. Learning microcomputer development board, characterized in that the control.

The method of claim 1, wherein the serial port for external circuit connection is selected by a serial port DCE / DTE selector switch 620 to select a DCE (Data Communication Equipment) connection or a Data Terminal Equipment (DTE) connection. board.

The quick debugging operation method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the program memory selection switch 610 temporarily stores and executes program data in volatile memory when programming the learning target microcomputer in the learning microcomputer development board. A microcomputer development board for learning, characterized by a choice of expressions.