TWI648638B - Multi-microcontroller system, internet of things gateway system, and control flow of multi-microcontroller system based on network bridge - Google Patents

Abstract

A multi-microcontroller system, an internet of things gateway system, and a control method of a bridge-based multi-microcontroller system, wherein the multi-microcontroller system includes a master microcontroller and a plurality of slave microcontrollers The master microcontroller is respectively connected to the plurality of slave microcontrollers through a bridge; the bridge comprises a first memory interface and a first SPI interface to form a first communication part, the plurality of first The communication department is respectively connected with the master microcontroller and the slave microprocessors; the bridge is mainly responsible for handling the transmission of control signals and data between the master microcontroller and the plurality of slave microcontrollers, and as a common memory. The memory area is used to automatically manage multiple slave microcontroller states, specify slave microcontroller addresses, and allocate memory blocks.

Description

Multi-microcontroller system, IoT gateway system, and bridge-based multi-microcontroller system Control Method

The invention relates to a multi-micro controller system, an internet of things gateway system, and a control method of a cloud networked control system, in particular to a module composed of a plurality of micro-controllers with distributed processing.

The industry is entering a new era of Internet of Things (IoT). People, objects, objects and objects are transmitted, received, processed, and provided with various control, detection, and service. This architecture creates a large discrete network with unlimited possibilities. Billions of devices with embedded technology can be managed, seamlessly interconnected, and securely interacted with the Internet.

In the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is described, that is, machines can interact and communicate with other machines, objects, environments, and infrastructure. The results of the communication generate a large amount of information that, after processing and analysis, provides meaningful, immediate decisions for management and control.

In the small, low-power IoT application architecture, the microcontroller is used as the core of the traditional gateway, so the microcontroller is the core technology to promote the development of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. It integrates the CPU, program memory, data memory, Timer/Counter, DI/DO/AI/AO and other peripherals into a microcomputer on a single chip. Small size, low power consumption, simple input and output interface, fast development, and high reliability in the absence of operating systems make these microcontrollers suitable for use in developing IoT gateways.

Traditional IoT gateways use a single microcontroller to combine peripheral approaches for development. A single microcontroller is developed in conjunction with the surrounding approach, but because the microcontroller is a component designed for the application, in terms of market demand, Different combination components must be designed according to individual applications. Manufacturers can't satisfy the vast market with a single architecture. Microcontrollers with different core counts, transmission interfaces, I/O pin counts and functions must be provided. When an IoT gateway cannot meet the requirements of slow processor operation or too few hardware peripherals, developers must redesign the hardware and software architecture of the microcontroller according to the application, or replace the higher-order The processor faces different application scenarios.

Therefore, how to propose a microcontroller system and an IoT gateway control system with better transmission speed, stability and functionality in the case of mass data transmission is the direction of the industry's desire to improve and work hard. Where.

In view of the above, the present invention provides a multi-microcontroller system including a master microcontroller and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; wherein the master microcontroller is respectively connected to a plurality of slave micros through a bridge a controller is connected; the bridge forms a first communication part with a first SPI interface and a first SPI interface, and the plurality of first communication parts are respectively connected with the main control microcontroller and the slave microcontroller; the bridge Mainly responsible for handling the transmission of control signals and data between the master microcontroller and multiple slave microcontrollers, and as a temporary storage area for the common memory, to automatically manage the status of multiple slave microcontrollers, specify slave microcontrollers Address and allocation memory block.

The multi-controller system, wherein the bridge system can be a utility program A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

The multi-controller system, wherein the main control unit is connected to the first communication unit by a second communication unit, and the second communication unit comprises a second memory interface and a second SPI interface.

The multi-controller system, wherein the plurality of slave microcontrollers are connected to the first communication unit by a third communication unit, and the third communication unit comprises a third memory interface and a third SPI interface.

The multi-controller system, wherein the first memory interface, the second memory interface, and the third memory interface are used as a data communication interface; the first SPI interface, the second SPI interface, and The third SPI interface is used as a state control interface.

The multi-controller system, wherein the bridge further includes a main controller, the main controller is responsible for resolving instructions transmitted by the main control microcontroller, and the main control microcontroller and the plurality of slave microcontrollers The data is moved between.

The multi-controller system, wherein the main controller is composed of a microprogram control unit, a data path unit, and a function unit.

In addition, the present invention further provides an Internet of Things gateway system, comprising a main control microcontroller, a bridge and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; the main control microcontroller and the bridge are disposed in a main control device, Each of the slave microcontrollers is disposed in a plurality of electronic devices; the bridge forms a first communication portion with a first memory interface and a first SPI interface; the master control unit has a second communication portion and the first a communication unit is connected, the second communication unit includes a second memory interface and a second SPI interface; and the plurality of slave microcontrollers are connected to the first communication unit by a third communication unit, and the third The communication unit includes a third memory interface and a third SPI interface; accordingly, the master device manages the plurality of electronic devices through the bridge.

In the Internet of Things gateway system, the bridge is connected to the second communication unit and the third communication unit by the first communication unit, and processes the control signal between the main control microcontroller and the plurality of slave microcontrollers. The transfer of data and the temporary storage area as a common memory to automatically manage multiple slave microcontroller states, specify slave microcontroller addresses, and allocate memory blocks.

The Internet of Things gateway system, wherein the control signal and data transmission between the first communication unit, the second communication unit, and the third communication unit are transmitted through ZigBee, mobile communication 2G, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, USB, Completed by CAN, VPN, Wi-Fi or MQTT agreements.

The Internet of Things gateway system, wherein the bridge further comprises a main controller, which is responsible for resolving instructions transmitted by the main control microcontroller, and data transfer between the main control microcontroller and the plurality of subordinate microcontrollers .

The Internet of Things gateway system, wherein the main controller is composed of a microprogram control unit, a data path unit, and a function unit.

The Internet of Things gateway system, wherein the plurality of electronic devices are a camera, a sensor, an actuator, a DI/DO, or a programmable logic controller (PLC), or a human-machine interaction interface. (HMI) consists of a single or a mixture.

In addition, the present invention further provides a control method of a bridge-based multi-microcontroller system including a master microcontroller and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; wherein the master microcontroller transmits a bridge is respectively connected to a plurality of slave microcontrollers; The method includes the following steps: Step 1: Initialize the master microcontroller, the bridge, and the plurality of slave microcontrollers; Step 2: cause the bridge to send an inquiry signal to the master microcontroller and the slave microcontroller, And give the master microcontroller and the slave microcontroller an ID and address; Step 3: Return the number of slave microcontrollers to the master microcontroller, and then the bridge determines whether the master microcontroller has sent The instruction to retrieve the data, if yes, proceeds to step 4, if not, returns to step 1; step 4: causes the bridge to parse the instructions transmitted by the master microcontroller, including the specified ID and control instructions in the slave microcontroller Step 5: Execute the aforementioned control command for the specified slave microcontroller ID; Step 6: Receive the value returned by the slave microcontroller, and return to step 1 after the reception is completed.

The method for controlling a bridge-based multi-microcontroller system, wherein a master interface between a master microcontroller, a bridge, and a plurality of slave microcontrollers is used as a data communication interface. And use an SPI interface as a state control interface.

1‧‧‧Multi-controller system

10‧‧‧Internet of Things Gateway System

11‧‧‧Master Microcontroller

13‧‧‧Subordinate Microcontroller

12‧‧‧ Bridge

121‧‧‧First memory interface

122‧‧‧First SPI interface

120‧‧‧ First Ministry of Communications

110‧‧‧Second Ministry of Communications

111‧‧‧Second memory interface

112‧‧‧Second SPI interface

130‧‧‧ Third Ministry of Communications

131‧‧‧ third memory interface

132‧‧‧ Third SPI interface

123‧‧‧Master controller

1231‧‧‧Microprogram Control Unit

1232‧‧‧Data unit

1233‧‧‧Function command unit

101‧‧‧Master control unit

103‧‧‧Electronic devices

S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6‧‧ steps

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a multi-microcontroller system proposed by the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of an Internet of Things gateway system proposed by the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a control method of a bridge-based multi-micro controller system according to the present invention.

Since the present invention discloses a multi-microcontroller system, an Internet of Things gateway system, and a control method of a bridge-based multi-microcontroller system, the related basic principles of communication protocols and wireless links used are related technologies. The field is known to those of ordinary skill and will not be fully described in the following description. At the same time, the drawings referred to in the following texts express the structural schematics related to the features of the present invention, and need not be completely drawn according to the actual size, which is first described.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention proposes to include a master microcontroller 11 and a plurality of slave microcontrollers 13; wherein the master microcontroller 11 is connected to a plurality of slave microcontrollers through a bridge 12, respectively. 13 is connected; the bridge 12 forms a first communication unit 120 with a first memory interface 121 and a first SPI interface 122, and the plurality of first communication units 120 respectively and the master microcontroller 11 and the plurality of slave micro-controls The router 13 is connected; the bridge 12 is mainly responsible for processing the transmission of control signals and data between the master microcontroller 11 and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 and as a temporary storage area of the common memory, thereby automatically managing multiple dependent micros The controller 13 states, specifies a plurality of slave microcontroller 13 addresses, and allocates memory blocks.

In a preferred embodiment, the bridge 12 can be a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application-specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

The second communication unit 110 is connected to the first communication unit 120 of the bridge 12, and the second communication unit 110 includes a second memory interface 111 and a second SPI interface 112. .

The plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 are connected to the first communication unit 120 of the bridge 12 by a third communication unit 130. The third communication unit 130 includes a third memory interface 131 and a third Three SPI interfaces 132.

The first memory interface 121, the second memory interface 111, and the third memory interface 131 are used as a data communication interface; the first SPI interface 122, the second SPI interface 112, and the first The three SPI interface 132 is used as a state control interface.

In this embodiment, two slave microcontrollers 13 are provided. Therefore, the bridge 12 is provided with at least three sets of first communication units 120, which are individually connected to the master microcontroller 11 and the slave microcontroller 13. The first communication unit 120, the second communication unit 110, and the third communication unit 130 control the transmission of signals and data to each other through ZigBee, mobile communication 2G, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, USB, CAN, VPN, and Wi. -Fi or MQTT agreement completed. It should be particularly noted that the communication mode and the number of slave microcontrollers 12 are not limited thereto, and the number of slave microcontrollers 13 may be increased as required, and then the first communication of the bridge 12 is increased correspondingly. The number of the parts 120 is sufficient.

In addition, please continue to refer to FIG. 1. In a preferred embodiment, the bridge 12 further includes a main controller 123, which is responsible for parsing the incoming commands of the main control microcontroller 11, and mastering Data transfer between the microcontroller 11 and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13. The main controller 123 is composed of a microprogram control unit 1231, a data operation unit 1232 (datapath unit), and a function command unit 1233 (function unit).

Through the multi-microcontroller system 1 proposed by the present invention, a plurality of microcontrollers are integrated into a large virtual microcontroller module 1 through a bridge 12, and in a plurality of microcontrollers One is the master microcontroller 11, and the rest is the slave microcontroller 13. The master microcontroller 11 is used to perform monitoring, management of the status and data capture of all slave microcontrollers 13, and has the ability to include all of the slave microcontrollers 13, including its Timer/Counter, DI/DO/AI. /AO Wait around the virtual to become a very large microcontroller. The fields that can be applied in the future are very wide, such as industrial control, consumer electronics, health care, home applications, and automotive electronics.

Referring to FIG. 2, the present invention further provides an Internet of Things gateway system 10 including a master microcontroller 11, a bridge 12, and a plurality of slave microcontrollers 13; a master microcontroller 11 and a bridge The 12 series are disposed in a main control device 101, and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 are respectively disposed in the plurality of electronic devices 103. The bridge 12 is configured by a first memory interface 121 and a first SPI interface 122 to form a first communication unit 120. The main control unit 11 is connected to the first communication unit 120 by a second communication unit 110. The communication unit 110 includes a second memory interface 111 and a second SPI interface 112. The plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 are connected to the first communication unit 120 by a third communication unit 130, and the third communication unit 130 includes A third memory interface 131 and a third SPI interface 132; accordingly, the master device 101 communicates with the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 through the bridge 12 to simultaneously manage the plurality of electronic devices 103.

The data transfer and the communication mode between the bridge 12, the master microcontroller 11, and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 are as described above, and are not described herein again. The electronic device 103 referred to herein may be composed of a single camera or a sensor, an actuator, a DI/DO, or a programmable logic controller (PLC).

Please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a control method of a bridge-based multi-micro controller system according to the present invention. The multi-micro controller system referred to herein is as described above, and will not be described herein again. The method includes the following steps: Step 1 (S1): Initialize the master microcontroller 11, the bridge 12 and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13; Step 2 (S2): the bridge 12 pairs the master microcontroller 11 with multiple Subordinate micro control The device 13 sends an inquiry signal and gives the master microcontroller 11 and the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 an ID number and address; step 3 (S3): returns the number of the plurality of slave microcontrollers 13 to the master Controlling the microcontroller 11, then, the bridge 13 determines whether the master microcontroller 11 has an instruction to send data, if yes, proceeds to step 4 (S4), and if not, returns to step 1 (S1); 4 (S4): Causes the bridge 13 to parse the instruction transmitted by the master microcontroller 11, the instruction including the designated ID and control instruction in the slave microcontroller 13; step 5 (S5): for the specified genus microcontroller 13 The ID executes the aforementioned control command; Step 6 (S6): Receives the value returned by the slave microcontroller 13, and after receiving, returns to step 1.

Through the multi-microcontroller system 1, the Internet of Things gateway system 10 of the present invention, and the control method of the multi-microcontroller system based on the aforementioned bridge, the bridge 12 uses two different communication protocols, data transmission and state control. Can be synchronized to make the operation more efficient. Moreover, the number of nodes can be detected, that is, the number of slave microcontrollers is detected, and the current state of the node and the correspondence of the node ID numbers are detected. Meanwhile, it is possible to monitor whether there is a new system during the operation of the system. The node is added, or there is a missing node, and the plug detection is achieved accordingly. Meanwhile, when the user wants to control a slave node (slave microcontroller 13), the bridge 12 receives an instruction from the master microcontroller terminal 11 and discriminates the node address and the latest state of the update node, and simultaneously bridges The device 12 can allocate a dedicated memory space for each node, so that the node can freely use the memory space to increase the scalability of future peripheral hardware.

The above is only the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. The patent application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety to the extent of the disclosure of the disclosure of in.

Claims (15)

A multi-microcontroller system includes a master microcontroller and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; wherein the master microcontroller is respectively connected to the slave microcontrollers through a bridge; the bridge a first memory interface and a first SPI interface form a first communication portion, and the plurality of first communication portions are respectively connected to the master microcontroller and the slave microcontrollers; the bridge is mainly responsible for processing the Controlling the transmission of signals and data between the master microcontroller and the slave microcontrollers, and as a temporary storage area for the common memory, thereby automatically managing the status of the slave microcontrollers, specifying the slave microcontroller addresses And allocate memory blocks. The multi-microcontroller system of claim 1, wherein the bridge is a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an Application-specific integrated circuit. , referred to as ASIC). The multi-microcontroller system of claim 2, wherein the main control unit is connected to the first communication unit by a second communication unit, and the second communication unit comprises a second memory interface and a second SPI interface. The multi-microcontroller system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of slave microcontrollers are connected to the first communication unit by a third communication unit, and the third communication unit includes a third memory interface and The third SPI interface. The multi-microcontroller system of claim 4, wherein the first memory interface, the second memory interface, and the third memory interface are used as a data communication interface; The SPI interface, the second SPI interface, and the third SPI interface are State control interface. The multi-microcontroller system of claim 1, wherein the bridge further comprises a main controller, the main controller is responsible for parsing an instruction sent by the main control microcontroller, and the main control microcontroller is Data movement between the slave microcontrollers. The multi-microcontroller system of claim 6, wherein the main controller is composed of a microprogram control unit, a data path unit, and a function unit. . An Internet of Things gateway system includes a master microcontroller, a bridge, and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; the master microcontroller and the bridge are disposed in a master device, and the plurality of slaves The microcontrollers are respectively disposed in the plurality of electronic devices; the bridges form a first communication portion with a first memory interface and a first SPI interface; the main control microcontroller has a second communication portion and the first a communication unit is connected, the second communication unit includes a second memory interface and a second SPI interface; the plurality of slave microcontrollers are connected to the first communication unit by a third communication unit, the third communication unit The third memory interface and the third SPI interface are included; accordingly, the master device manages the plurality of electronic devices through the bridge. The Internet of Things gateway system of claim 8, wherein the bridge is coupled to the second communication unit and the third communication unit by the first communication unit, and processes the main control microcontroller and the Controlling the transmission of signals and data between the slave microcontrollers, and as a temporary storage area for the common memory, thereby automatically managing the status of the slave microcontrollers, specifying the slave microcontroller addresses, and allocating memory blocks. The Internet of Things gateway system of claim 8, wherein the control signal and the data transmission between the first communication unit, the second communication unit, and the third communication unit are transmitted through ZigBee, mobile communication 2G, and 3G. , 4G, Bluetooth, USB, CAN, VPN, Wi-Fi or MQTT agreement. The Internet of Things gateway system of claim 8, wherein the bridge further comprises a main controller, wherein the main controller is responsible for parsing an instruction sent by the main control microcontroller, and the main control microcontroller is Data movement between the slave microcontrollers. The Internet of Things gateway system according to claim 11, wherein the main controller is composed of a microprogram control unit, a data operation unit, and a function unit. . The Internet of Things gateway system of claim 8, wherein the electronic device is a camera, a sensor, an actuator, a DI/DO, or a programmable logic controller (PLC), or A single or mixed human-machine interface (HMI). A control method for a multi-microcontroller system based on a bridge, the multi-microcontroller system comprising a master microcontroller and a plurality of slave microcontrollers; wherein the master microcontroller is respectively connected to a bridge through a bridge The slave microcontrollers are connected; the control method includes the following steps: Step 1: Initialize the master microcontroller, the bridge, and the slave microcontrollers; Step 2: The bridge controls the master control Transmitting an inquiry signal to the slave microcontrollers and assigning the master microcontroller an ID and an address to the slave microcontrollers; Step 3: returning the number of the slave microcontrollers to the Mastering the microcontroller, and then the bridge determines whether the master microcontroller has an instruction to send data, and if so, Going to step 4, if not, returning to step 1; step 4: causing the bridge to parse the instructions transmitted by the master microcontroller, including the specified ID and control instructions in the slave microcontrollers; step 5: The slave microcontroller ID corresponding to the designated ID executes the control command; step 6: receives the value returned by the slave microcontroller, and after receiving, returns to step 1. The control method of the bridge-based multi-microcontroller system of claim 14, wherein the master microcontroller, the bridge, and the slave microcontrollers use a memory interface as The data communication interface is used, and an SPI interface is used as the state control interface.