CN1113296C - Hardware testing device and method for increasing hardware testing speed - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a hardware test module, which accesses test data on a ring register in a parallel operation mode. The present invention uses an interrupt service program to store test data, and uses a main application program to process the test data. The main application program is used to start the interrupt service program to receive data during the data processing period. In addition, due to the parallel operation mode, the required test time is reduced and the required register capacity can be reduced.

Description

Hardware testing device and method for increasing hardware testing speed

technical field

The invention relates to a hardware testing device, in particular to a testing method performed in parallel operation.

Background technique

As far as the existing test software is concerned, in the test process of hardware devices such as modems (Modem), serial/parallel ports, software and hardware drivers, the execution process is often first directly written by the computer to the tested hardware. The response of the hardware under test, and receive it for comparison and inspection. In other words, the testing method in the prior art first transmits the "test information" from the "computer" to the "hardware under test", and then the "hardware under test" transfers the "test information" to the "main application program" for processing to generate a "result". The "result" is then sent back to the "computer" via the "tested hardware" to record and display the test results. The above process is shown in "Figure 1". After starting the test (step 10), the data is first sent to the hardware under test for processing by the main application program (step 11), and then when processing the test information, it is necessary to wait for the hardware to respond to the data ( Step 12). The fourth step is to display the obtained response data (step 13). In the fifth step, the user can input an instruction for further processing (step 14), and then the computer executes the input instruction (step 15). Finally it is checked whether the entire test has been completed (step 16). If not, then continue to do the entire testing process; if completed, then end or proceed to the next test of the hardware under test (step 17).

From the above, it can be known that the prior art uses a "serial operation" method to carry out the testing process. To put it simply, the procedures executed by each step are "progressed in sequence", so each step must wait for the completion of the previous step before proceeding. And this is the main shortcoming of the prior art. Since the execution of each step needs to wait for the completion of the previous step, the overall speed is unavoidably slow. Take the modem (Modem) as an example, assuming that the modem sends the string "This is a test." A total of 15 characters, four words. The application distinguishes each word based on spaces or punctuation marks between English letters. The processing mode of the application is based on "word" as the basic unit, and it takes 3 milliseconds to process a word. Since memory operations (including program execution and data access) are so fast (in nanoseconds), the time it takes is negligible.

In the serial testing method of the prior art, as shown in the flow chart of “ FIG. 1 ”, it is necessary to receive the entire string of test characters before processing them. Therefore, the time required by its modem is the time for receiving 15 characters (15 milliseconds), plus the time for processing four words (4′3=12 milliseconds), a total of 27 milliseconds.

In addition, since the test characters need to be completely received first, the required memory space must have at least 15 characters of memory space. Also, because this is a serial operation, the consumer has no way of knowing what is happening with the application until it is done processing. Therefore, when errors or failures occur, it is often impossible to know and waste time. For this phenomenon, when testing the modem, since its operating rate varies greatly (from 110 baud to 11520 baud), the response time will vary greatly. Especially when the modems run on different CPUs and graphics cards, it is very easy to cause a mix of timing coordination. In addition, data transmission always has a certain bit error rate, and this error will cause changes in the content and length of the received data. - Re-receiving--reprocessing--until the end" mode can only be solved by increasing the temporary storage space, resulting in a waste of storage space.

Contents of the invention

The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a testing device that can increase the hardware testing rate, provide clear data flow direction, and reduce the memory space required for testing.

The spirit of the present invention is to perform hardware testing in a manner of "parallel operation" instead of "serial operation" in the prior art. In the prior art, the application program needs to wait for all the test information to be received before starting to process the test information. However, for the application program, the way to process the test information is to process the letters one by one, instead of processing the entire test information at one time. In other words, as far as the application program is concerned, the process of information processing only needs some test information to start. Therefore, in the present invention, when the test information is received, the application program is started to fetch characters from the memory for processing. In other words, using the characteristics of the application program to process information, the reception of information and the processing of information can be performed simultaneously, thereby reducing the time required for the entire test.

The present invention provides a kind of hardware test device, in order to test the function of hardware transmission data, this hardware test device comprises at least:

- the hardware under test;

- ring register, which can be stored and read the status information of the tested hardware and the data transmitted by the tested hardware;

-The device running the main application program is used to monitor and read the state information and the data stored in the ring register, and process them;

- a device for running an interrupt service program, for accepting the control of the main application program, and writing the data transmitted by the tested hardware into the ring register;

Wherein, when the device running the main application program reads the ring register, it will first close the device for running the interrupt service program, and then open the device for running the interrupt service program after reading;

While the device running the main application program is processing the data, the device running the interrupt service program will continue to write the received new data into the ring register.

The present invention also provides a method for increasing hardware testing speed, which includes the following steps:

1) A ring temporary register is set, and the temporary register can be stored and read the status information of the tested hardware and the data transmitted by the tested hardware;

2) Set a main application program, which can read the state information and the data stored in the ring register, and process them;

3) An interrupt service program is set, which accepts the control of the main application program, and writes the data transmitted by the tested hardware into the ring register;

Wherein, the method of parallel operation is used, so that while the main application program is processing the data, the interrupt service program will continue to write the received new data into the ring register.

For this reason, the present invention utilizes the method of directly intercepting hardware interruption, first plans out a ring register, utilizes " Put pointer (put pointer) " and " Take pointer (get pointer) " to operate the access of information, and provides a "Interrupt service" enables the receiving program to continue receiving test information one by one while the application program is processing the test information.

In addition, for the application program, since the test information does not need to be read and written into the memory all at once, the required memory space can also be less than that of the prior art. At the same time, due to the use of the ring register and the two pointers "Put pointer" and "Take pointer", the application program will monitor the status of the ring register at a certain frequency. Therefore, through the application program, the user can also keep abreast of the current testing situation at any time, so it can avoid unnecessary waiting in case of failure.

In order to make the above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, a preferred embodiment will be described in detail below together with the accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the block diagram of prior art test method;

Fig. 2 is the functional block diagram of embodiment;

Fig. 3 is overall flowchart;

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of interrupt service;

Figure 5 is a flow chart of fetching data for the main application program;

Fig. 6 is a flow chart of waiting and dynamically processing data.

Detailed ways

See "Fig. 2" for the functional block diagram of the first embodiment. Several storage units are planned on the ring register 21, each of which is the minimum unit sent by the hardware each time, and the number of bytes depends on different types of hardware. In addition, there is a Put pointer 22, which is used to mark the position when information is stored each time. It will move forward with the information being stored, and when it moves to the bottom, it will return to the starting point. In addition, there is a Take pointer 23 for marking the position when reading information. Similar to the Put pointer 22, the Take pointer 23 will also move forward with the reading of information, and when it moves to the bottom, it will return to the starting point.

During execution, relevant data will be transmitted from the memory in the hardware under test to the interrupt service program 24, and the data will be stored in the ring register 21 sequentially from the initial position through the indication of the Put pointer 22. The main application program 25 takes out the information sequentially through the Take pointer 23 and processes them. Once the Put pointer 22 or the Take pointer 23 exceeds the bottom of the ring register 21, it will automatically return to the initial position of the ring register 21. In the judgment of reading, if the position of the Take pointer 23 is different from that of the Put pointer 22, it means that there is unread information; in the judgment of saving, if the Put pointer 22 catches up with the Take pointer 23, then Indicates that the ring register 21 is full. Using the above two judging principles, you can avoid the problem of over-reading or over-writing.

"Fig. 3" is the overall flow chart of the embodiment. The main application program 31 is responsible for processing user input information, monitoring the status of the communication buffer 33 , reading data accordingly, and correspondingly controlling the current status of the hardware by controlling the interrupt service program 32 . The communication buffer 33 accepts the change of the temporary register of the hardware under test and the writing of test data. The main application program 31 and the interrupt service program 32 are two parallel programs, but if both access the communication buffer 33 at the same time, it will cause information confusion. Therefore, in order to make both the interrupt service program 32 and the main application program 31 mutually exclusive on the communication buffer 33, when the main application program is set to use the ring register, the interrupt service program 32 is first closed to prevent it from The writing of communication buffer zone 33; Open interrupt service program 32 again to continue to receive data after finishing.

" Fig. 4 " is interrupt service flowchart, at first for tested hardware, read in the register value in the tested hardware one by one, to see whether it has data to transmit (step 41). Judging whether there is a change in the register value (step 42), if there is a change, record the change and make a mark (step 43) so that the main application program can identify it. Judging whether all values have been read (step 44), if not, then return to step 41 to continue reading; if all values have been read, then continue to judge whether the interrupt service routine receives new data (step 45). If so, the received data is stored in the ring register according to the indication of the Put pointer, and the position of the Put pointer is updated (step 46). Then, it is judged whether the register will overflow (step 47). If so, then order the hardware to suspend sending data, and set the hardware to be in a suspended state (step 48) and then interrupt and return. If the interrupt service routine does not receive new data (step 45), it returns directly.

"Figure 5" is the process of reading the data stored in the ring register by the main application program. After the program starts, judge whether there is new data in the scratchpad by monitoring the positions of the Put pointer and the Take pointer (step 51). If so, then close the interrupt service routine (step 52), to avoid writing new data again when the main application program fetches data. Then, take out the data unit by unit from the ring register, change the Take pointer of the ring register after completion (step 53), and open the interrupt service routine (step 54) to continue to receive new data. Then set the data success flag (step 55), and then return to (step 56). If there is no new data in the ring register, a data fetch failure flag is first set (step 57) to determine whether the hardware is in a suspended state (step 58). If so, then send the instruction that continues to transmit data to hardware, and hardware is set to sending state (step 59), then returns (step 56); If hardware is in normal state, then directly returns (step 56).

"Figure 6" is the data access process. First judge whether there is data to be processed (step 61), and if so, process the data specified by the update flag, and clear the update flag (step 62) until the processing of all data is completed. Then judge whether the hardware has obtained the expected response, the data of the response should be the same as the transmitted data (step 63), if not, wait for the delay to respond to the hardware (step 64). Judging the waiting time (step 65), if the upper limit of the waiting time has not been received hardware response again, then return to the program starting point, and do the judgment of "whether there is new data to be processed" again. On the contrary, if the waiting exceeds the upper limit of the waiting time, then the status is set to overtime (step 66), and then the processing result is returned (step 68). If the hardware has made the expected response, it sets the hardware response value (step 67), and directly returns the processing result (step 68).

If the same modem (Modem) is used as an example, it is assumed that the modem sends the string "This is a test." characters, four words. The application distinguishes each word based on spaces or punctuation marks between English letters. The processing mode of the application is based on "word" as the basic unit, and it takes 3 milliseconds to process a word. Since memory operations (including program execution and data access) are so fast (in nanoseconds), the time it takes is negligible. The capacity of the ring register is 8 Bytes. Then the present embodiment takes "This is test" as an example and the operation steps are as follows:

1. As shown in "Figure 6", in the initial state, the Take pointer and the Put pointer point to the top of the ring register, that is, the first Byte;

2. The interrupt service program puts the received data "This", a total of five characters, into the 1st to 5th Byte of the temporary register, and moves the Put pointer to the next stored character (in this case, it is the 6th Byte Byte), this process takes 5 milliseconds;

3. The main application program judges that the position of the data fetch pointer (Take pointer) is different from that of the Put pointer, so it is judged that there is data to be processed. The main application program reads (This), and because it contains a space " ", it automatically judges that a complete word has been read, and at the same time moves the Take pointer to the next word (in this case, the 6th Byte );

4. The main application program starts to process the read single word "This", and this process will take 3 milliseconds. When the main application program processes the single word, because the interrupt service program is still receiving data in parallel, the main application program completes the single word When processing (3 milliseconds), "is" is stored in the 6th-8th Byte in the ring temporary register. In order to avoid overflow of the scratchpad, the Put pointer is moved to the first Byte;

5. The main application takes out "is", judges that it has received a complete word according to " ", and moves the Take pointer to the first Byte;

6. The main application program processes the single word "is", and at the same time, the interrupt service program stores the received "at" into the 1st to 3rd Byte, and moves the Put pointer to the 4th Byte. This process takes 3 milliseconds;

7. Take out the word "a", and move the Take pointer to the third Byte.

8. Process the word "a", and at the same time, the interrupt service program stores the received "est" in the 4th to 6th Byte, and moves the Put pointer to the 7th Byte, and the process takes 3 milliseconds;

9. According to the Take pointer, take out "test" from the third Byte, but because the interval symbol is not received, it indicates that the taken out data may be incomplete, so start the interrupt service program first, wait for it to receive the next character, and keep in monitoring state;

10. The interrupt program stores the next received character "." into the 7th Byte, which takes 1 millisecond, and moves the Put pointer to the 8th Byte;

11. The main application program receives the character ".", and after it is judged as an interval symbol, it means that "test" is a complete word, so the Take pointer is moved to the 8th Byte;

12. It takes 3 milliseconds to process the word "test".

Therefore, the total time is 5+3+3+3+1+3=18 (milliseconds). 27 milliseconds faster than the prior art method. At the same time, the required scratchpad space is also reduced from 15 Bytes to 8 Bytes. It can be seen that the present invention can clearly achieve the purpose of speeding up and reducing the required register space.

Explanation of reference symbols 10 Start 11 Send data to the tested hardware 12 Wait for hardware response data 13 Display response data 14 Whether there is user input 15 Display and process user input 16 Whether the test is completed 17 Return 21 Ring register 22 Put pointer 23 Take pointer 24 Interrupt service program 25 Main application program 31 Main application program 32 Interrupt service program 33 Communication buffer 41 Read the scratchpad value one by one 42 Determine whether the scratchpad value has changed 43 Update and mark 44 Determine whether all the data has been read 45 Determine whether new data is received 46 Put the data into the ring temporary register and update the position of the Put pointer 47 Determine whether the temporary register will overflow 48 Command the hardware to suspend sending data and set it to the pause state 51 Determine whether there is new data Data 52 Close the interrupt service program 53 Take out the data and update the position of the Take pointer 54 Open the interrupt service program 55 Set the data fetching success flag 56 Return 57 Set the data fetching failure flag 58 Determine whether the hardware is in a pause state 59 Send the continue transmission instruction to the hardware, and Set the hardware to the sending state 61 Determine whether there is data to be processed 62 Process the data specified by the update mark, and clear the update mark of the data 63 Determine whether the expected response is received. 64 Delayed waiting 65 Judging whether the upper limit of the waiting time has been reached 66 Setting the timeout state 67 Setting the response value 68 Return

Claims (10)

1. hardware testing device transmits the function of data in order to testing hardware, and this hardware testing device comprises at least:

-tested hardware;

-ring-type working storage, it can be stored and be read the status information of this tested hardware and the data that this tested hardware transmitted;

The device of-operation primary application program is used to monitor and read status information and this data that this ring-type working storage is deposited, and is handled;

The device of-outage service routine is used to accept the control of this primary application program, and these data that will this tested hardware transmitted write this ring-type working storage;

Wherein, when the device of this operation primary application program when reading this ring-type working storage, will close the device of this outage service routine earlier, reading the device of just opening this outage service routine after finishing again;

When the device of this operation primary application program was being handled these data, the device of this outage service routine still can continue received new data is write in this ring-type working storage.

2. hardware testing device as claimed in claim 1 it is characterized in that this ring-type working storage puts the storage that pointer comes locating information by one, and a fetch pointer comes reading of locating information.

3. hardware testing device as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the mode of operation of the device of this operation primary application program comprises the following step:

1) monitors this ring-type working storage, and find in this ring-type working storage new data is arranged;

2) close this interrupt service routine;

3) read this new data;

4) open this interrupt service routine;

5) handle this new data.

4. hardware testing device as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the mode of operation of the device of this operation primary application program comprises the following step:

1) monitors this ring-type working storage, and find do not have new data in this ring-type working storage;

2) detect tested hardware and be in the time-out situation;

3) send the instruction that continues to transmit data to this tested hardware;

4) setting this tested hardware is transmit status;

5. hardware testing device as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the mode of operation of the device of this outage service routine comprises the following step:

1) reads in the interior data of tested hardware working storage one by one;

2) these data that received are deposited in this ring-type working storage, this ring-type working storage includes one and puts pointer;

3) upgrade this and put pointer position pointed.

6. method that increases hardware testing speed, it includes the following step:

1) a ring-type working storage is set, described working storage can be stored and be read the status information of tested hardware and the data that this tested hardware transmitted;

2) establish a primary application program, it can read status information and this data that this ring-type working storage is deposited, and is handled;

3) establish an interrupt service routine, it accepts the control of this primary application program, and these data that will this tested hardware transmitted write this ring-type working storage;

Wherein, utilize the mode of parallel work-flow, make when this primary application program is handled these data, this interrupt service routine still can continue received new data is write in this ring-type working storage.

7. the method for increase hardware testing speed as claimed in claim 6 it is characterized in that this ring-type working storage is to put the storage that pointer comes locating information by one, and a fetch pointer is come reading of locating information.

8. the method for increase hardware testing speed as claimed in claim 6 is characterized in that the mode of operation of this primary application program includes the following step:

1) monitors this ring-type working storage, and find in this ring-type working storage new data is arranged;

2) close this interrupt service routine;

3) read this new data;

4) open this interrupt service routine;

5) handle this new data.

9. the method for increase hardware testing speed as claimed in claim 6 is characterized in that the mode of operation of this primary application program includes the following step:

1) monitors this ring-type working storage, and find do not have new data in this ring-type working storage;

2) detect tested hardware and be in the time-out situation;

3) send the instruction that continues to transmit data to this tested hardware;

4) setting this tested hardware is transmit status.

10. the method for increase hardware testing speed as claimed in claim 6 is characterized in that the mode of operation of this interrupt service routine includes the following step:

1) reads in the interior data of tested hardware working storage one by one;

2) these data that received are deposited in this ring-type working storage, this ring-type working storage includes one and puts pointer;

3) upgrade this and put pointer position pointed.

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