TW202248865A - Electronic device and method to support plural peripheral devices comprising a case, an output driving unit, a controller, and a basic input output system - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device comprising a case, an output driving unit, a controller, and a basic input and output system, wherein plural connection ports are formed on the case. The output driving unit is arranged in the case and has a maximum synchronous output signal number. The maximum number of synchronous output signals is less than the number of connection ports. The controller is arranged in the casing. The basic input and output system is electrically connected to the connection port, the output driving unit, and the controller. In addition, the present invention also provides a method applicable to the above-mentioned electronic device and used to support multiple peripheral devices.

Description

Electronic device and method for supporting multiple peripheral devices

The invention provides an electronic device and a method for supporting multiple peripheral devices, and in particular relates to an electronic device and a method for supporting the above-mentioned electronic device that allow users to freely plug in multiple peripheral devices without going through a bridge.

A computer is a fairly common electronic appliance in the field of life and industrial use. Generally speaking, a computer includes a plurality of output devices, such as monitors, speakers, and printers. Taking a monitor as an example, a host computer may need to be connected to multiple monitors due to actual needs, and these monitors have their own connection terminals, such as video graphic array (video graphic arrays, VGA) terminals, high-resolution multimedia interface (high definition multimedia interface (HDMI) terminal and display port (display port, DP) terminal and so on. However, in the x86 system, the maximum input and output (I/O) space is 64K bytes (byte), and when the display card of each connected monitor declares its required I/O space, the BIOS (basic input/output system, BIOS) will allocate I/O space to each display card, and then consider that the computer will also be connected to other peripheral devices that require I/O space and when the driver program configured on the internal hard disk is executed In terms of required resources, a general motherboard can only support up to three monitors to output images at the same time, which leads to computer host suppliers only configuring three/types of connection ports when designing the host casing.

For this reason, one of the solutions is to use a bridge (such as a PCI/PCIe bridge), whereby a display with a specific connection terminal can be indirectly plugged into a connection port whose original shape and specification are incompatible with each other, and can also Allow the number of monitors plugged into a single host to exceed the number of connection ports on the enclosure. However, the use of bridges will weaken the signal and cause noise easily, and when the working environment of the host computer is relatively harsh, such as a driving unmanned automatic car or a factory with high-frequency operating machines that cause continuous vibration When the ground is on the ground, the connection between the bridge and the chassis and between the bridge and the display is easy to loosen, which seriously affects the user experience and signal quality of the display.

The inventor then exhausted his brain and mind to study, and then developed an electronic device that allows users to freely plug in a plurality of peripheral devices without passing through a bridge and a method for supporting the above-mentioned electronic devices, in order to enable these devices to be used in harsh working environments. Peripheral devices work smoothly without compromising signal quality.

The invention provides an electronic device, including a case, an output drive unit, a controller and a basic input and output system, wherein a plurality of connection ports are formed on the case; the output drive unit is arranged in the case and has a maximum The number of synchronous output signals, and the maximum number of synchronous output signals is less than the number of connection ports; the controller is arranged in the casing; the basic input and output system is electrically connected to the connection ports, the output drive unit and the controller.

In addition, the present invention also provides a method applicable to the above-mentioned electronic device and used to support multiple peripheral devices, including the controller sending out a plurality of output signals; the basic input and output system receiving the output signals, and detecting whether the output signals have corresponding and connected The peripheral device at one of the connection ports; and the BIOS transmits the output signals and a detected information to the output driving unit.

In one embodiment, during the initialization phase of the electronic device, the above-mentioned BIOS detects the total number of peripheral devices and sorts them according to the connected connection ports, and transmits the total number and a sorting result to the output driving unit.

In one embodiment, each of the aforementioned peripheral devices is a display, and the order of priority satisfies: image graphics array port > high-definition multimedia interface port > display port.

In one embodiment, after the initialization phase of the electronic device, the above-mentioned basic input output system detects the total number of each peripheral device and a corresponding information of these output signals and each peripheral device at each time interval, and transmits the total number and corresponding information to the output drive unit.

In one embodiment, each of the aforementioned peripheral devices is a display, and the number of connection ports and the maximum number of synchronous output signals are four and three, respectively.

Thereby, the basic input and output system of the electronic device of the present invention can detect whether the output signals sent by the controller correspond to the peripheral devices through the above-mentioned method of supporting multiple peripheral devices, and transmit the output signals and corresponding information to the output drive unit , not only improves the compatibility of peripheral devices due to the increase in the number of connection ports, but even if the user connects peripheral devices with a number greater than the maximum number of synchronous output signals to the connection port, the electronic device can also maintain the normal operation of the peripheral devices with the maximum number of synchronous output signals In this way, there is no need to connect through a bridge, so as to avoid the effect of degrading the signal quality.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the following specific embodiments are described in detail together with the accompanying drawings.

The aforementioned and other technical contents, features and effects of the present invention will be clearly presented in the following detailed description of preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings. It is worth mentioning that the directional terms mentioned in the following embodiments, such as: up, down, left, right, front or back, etc., are only directions referring to the attached drawings. Accordingly, the directional terms used are illustrative rather than limiting of the invention. In addition, in the following embodiments, the same or similar elements will use the same or similar symbols.

Please refer to FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 , wherein FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the electronic device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another angle of the electronic device of FIG. 1 , and FIG. 3 is the inside of the electronic device of FIG. 1 Block diagram of the components. The electronic device 1 of this embodiment is, for example, an industrial computer, and includes a casing 100, an output drive unit 200, a controller 300, and a basic input output system 400, wherein the output drive unit 200 is stored in the casing, for example. 100 is the driver software of the internal hard disk; the controller 300 is, for example, a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) and is configured on the motherboard in the casing 100; the basic input output system 400 is, for example, burned on a chip on the motherboard firmware, and is electrically connected to the output driving unit 200 and the controller 300 .

Specifically, due to output requirements, the electronic device 1 may be connected to a plurality of peripheral devices, where each peripheral device is, for example, a display. To this end, a plurality of connection ports are formed on the casing 100 , and the BIOS 400 is electrically connected to these connection ports. In this embodiment, there are four connection ports in total, which are distinguished by the first connection port 110 , the second connection port 120 , the third connection port 130 and the fourth connection port 140 hereinafter. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the first connection port 110 is, for example, a video graphics array (VGA) port, the second connection port 120 is, for example, a high-resolution multimedia interface (HDMI) port, and the third connection port 130 and The fourth connection port 140 is a display port (DP) port, wherein the first connection port 110 and the third connection port 130 are configured on the rear side of the casing 100, and the second connection port 120 and the fourth connection port 140 are configured on the The front side of the casing 100, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a schematic flowchart of an embodiment of a method for supporting multiple peripheral devices of the present invention. Specifically, due to the specification of the motherboard and the limitation of the power supply of the electronic device 1, the output drive unit 200 has a maximum number of synchronous output signals. In this embodiment, the maximum number of synchronous output signals is, for example, three. In other words, the output drive unit 200 It can simultaneously drive three displays for image output, and the maximum number of simultaneous output signals is less than the number of connection ports. When the user connects the above connection port to the corresponding display and connection terminal based on the usage requirements, in order to take into account the allocation of I/O resources by the output drive unit 200 and the convenience of use, the present invention provides a multi-peripheral The method of the device includes: the controller 300 sends a plurality of output signals (step S01); the BIOS 400 receives these output signals, and detects whether these output signals are respectively corresponding and connected to one of the connection ports of the connection ports peripheral devices (step S02); and the BIOS 400 transmits these output signals and a detected information to the output driving unit 200 (step S03).

In detail, the BIOS 400 of this embodiment has two operating modes, the first is the real mode (Real Mode), which will be executed during the initialization phase of the electronic device 1; the other is the operating system mode (OS Mode) , will be executed in the background when the operating system allocates the I/O resources of each peripheral device after the initialization phase of the electronic device 1 is completed. When in the real mode, the BIOS 400 detects the total number of peripheral devices and sorts them according to the connected connection ports during the initialization phase of the electronic device 1, and transmits the total number and the sorting results to the output driver unit 200, In this embodiment, the priority basis for sorting is the type of connection port, and the priority of the image graphics array port is higher than that of the high-resolution multimedia interface port, and the priority of the multimedia interface port is higher than that of the display port terminal. The invention is not limited thereto, and in other possible embodiments, the user can also change the priority basis of sorting according to actual needs. If the number of peripheral devices connected to the connection port is less than or equal to the maximum number of synchronous output signals, then all peripheral devices connected to the connection port can be allocated I/O resources and operate normally; if the number of peripheral devices connected to the connection port is greater than the maximum number of synchronous output signals, the output drive unit 200 will ignore the connection port corresponding to the sorting order after the maximum number of synchronous output signals according to the sorting result of the basic input output system 400. Taking this embodiment as an example, the connection port whose sorting order is four The DisplayPort display connected to the quad-connection port 140 will be ignored and not assigned I/O resources.

And when in the operating system mode, the authority to allocate I/O resources will be transferred to the controller 300 and the output drive unit 200. At this time, the basic input output system 400 is only responsible for receiving the output signals sent by the controller 300, and according to these output signals The number detects whether there are corresponding peripheral devices connected to the connection ports. In addition, according to the number of output signals, the maximum number of simultaneous output signals and the detection results, it can be divided into the following situations:

(1) Situation A: Number of output signals≦maximum number of simultaneous output signals, and all output signals have corresponding peripheral devices connected to the connection ports: all corresponding peripheral devices can be allocated to I/O resources.

(2) Situation B: The number of output signals≦the maximum number of simultaneous output signals, but only some of the output signals have corresponding peripheral devices connected to the connection ports: all corresponding peripheral devices can be allocated to I/O resources.

(4) Situation C: The number of output signals > the maximum number of synchronous output signals, and all output signals have corresponding peripheral devices connected to the connection port: the electronic device 1 will be based on the sorting results of the output drive unit 200, from high priority to Low is assigned to a number of peripherals for maximum synchronous output signal.

(5) Situation D: The number of output signals > the maximum number of synchronous output signals, but only part of the output signals have corresponding peripheral devices connected to the connection port: the electronic device 1 will be based on the sorting results of the output drive unit 200, from the highest priority The lowest is allocated to the peripheral devices that have at most the maximum number of synchronous output signals and the output signals correspond to.

It is worth mentioning that, in the operating system mode, the electronic device 1 of this embodiment also supports hot plugging of peripheral devices. The specific method is: after the initialization phase of the electronic device 1, the Detecting the total number of each peripheral device and the corresponding information of these output signals and each peripheral device, and transmitting the total number and corresponding information to the output drive unit 200, and sorting by the output drive unit 200, wherein the time interval is, for example, 100 milliseconds, But the present invention is not limited thereto. In this way, even when the electronic device 1 is in operation, the number of peripheral devices increases from below the maximum number of synchronous output signals to greater than the maximum number of synchronous output signals, decreases from greater than the maximum number of synchronous output signals to less than the maximum number of synchronous output signals, or The total number of peripheral devices remains the same but connected to different connection ports, the output driver unit 200 can be sorted in real time, so that at most the maximum synchronous output signal several peripheral devices can be allocated to I/O resources and function normally, providing more Great use flexibility, and solve the problem of signal quality degradation caused by the use of bridges.

The present invention has been disclosed above with preferred embodiments, but those skilled in the art should understand that the above embodiments are only for describing the present invention and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present invention. And it should be noted that all changes and replacements equivalent to those of the above-mentioned embodiments should be included within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be defined by the scope of the patent application.

1: Electronic device 100: Chassis 110: the first connection port 120: Second connection port 130: the third connection port 140: the fourth connection port 200: Output drive system 300: controller 400: Basic Input Output System S01 ~ S03: Steps

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of an embodiment of an electronic device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the electronic device of FIG. 1 from another angle. FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of internal components of the electronic device of FIG. 1 . FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of an embodiment of a method for supporting multiple peripheral devices of the present invention.

S01~S03: Steps

Claims (9)

An electronic device comprising: a casing, on which a plurality of connection ports are formed; An output drive unit, configured in the casing, the output drive unit has a maximum number of synchronous output signals, and the maximum number of synchronous output signals is less than the number of the plurality of connection ports; a controller configured in the housing; and a basic input output system, electrically connected to the plurality of connection ports, the output drive unit and the controller; Wherein, when the basic input and output system receives the multiple output signals sent by the controller, the basic input and output system transmits the multiple output signals and the information of whether the multiple output signals respectively have a corresponding peripheral device to the The output drive unit, wherein each of the peripheral devices is respectively connected to one of the plurality of connection ports. The electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the BIOS detects the total number of the peripheral devices and sorts them according to the connected connection ports during the initialization phase of the electronic device, and the total number and a The sorted results are passed to the output drive unit. The electronic device as described in claim 2, wherein each of the peripheral devices is a display, and the priority of the sorting satisfies: VGA port > HDMI port > DisplayPort port. The electronic device as described in claim 1, wherein the basic input output system detects the total number of each peripheral device and the correspondence between the plurality of output signals and each peripheral device at each interval after the initialization phase of the electronic device information, and transmit the total and the corresponding information to the output drive unit. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the peripheral devices is a display, and the number of the plurality of connection ports and the maximum number of synchronous output signals are four and three, respectively. A method for supporting a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising: A controller of an electronic device sends a plurality of output signals; A BIOS of the electronic device receives the plurality of output signals, and detects whether the plurality of output signals respectively have a peripheral device corresponding to and connected to one of the plurality of connection ports of the electronic device; and The basic input output system transmits the plurality of output signals and a detected information to an output drive unit of the electronic device, wherein the output drive unit has a maximum number of simultaneous output signals, and the maximum number of simultaneous output signals is less than the The number of plural connection ports. The method as described in claim item 6, further comprising: During the initialization stage of the electronic device, the BIOS detects the total number of the peripheral devices and sorts them according to the connected ports; and The BIOS transmits the total and a sorted result to the output driver unit. The method as described in claim 7, wherein each of the peripheral devices is a display, and the priority of the sorting satisfies: VGA port > HDMI port > DisplayPort port. The method as described in claim item 6, further comprising: After the initialization stage of the electronic device, the basic input output system detects the total number of the peripheral devices and the corresponding information of the plurality of output signals and each peripheral device at each time interval, and transmits the total number and the corresponding information to the output drive unit.

Images