CN1321385C - Remote computer display data redirection method and computer system thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for redirecting the display data of remote computer includes periodically sending an interrupt signal to a processor of remote computer to let said processor periodically enter an independent operation mode, capturing the display data on a display of remote computer by a display processing unit when said processor is in said independent operation mode, and transmitting said display data to host.

Description

Remote computer display data redirection method and computer system thereof

technical field

The invention relates to a remote computer management method and its computer system, in particular to a method and its computer system for redirecting display data of a remote computer to a host computer by using a processor in an independent operation mode.

Background technique

For computer system administrators, it is necessary to keep abreast of the working status of the central host, especially in the distributed computer system architecture, it is often to build many servers first, and then use each server to provide the services required by many clients . However, a common problem is that the place where the server is built is often far away from the place where the system administrator is located. Therefore, when a problem occurs on the remote server, the system administrator must personally go to the location of the server to solve the problem. Cause time and cost waste.

In view of this, many auxiliary tools or methods with remote management capabilities have been produced, so that the administrator can use a host to connect to the server through the network, and can directly monitor the server remotely through the host. One of the methods is to use the so-called bus-mastering, that is, a bus-mastering card is installed in the remote server first, and the control card is used to capture the VGA chip in the server. Display data, and then redirect the display data to the host, so that the host can display the working status of the server, but its disadvantage is that it is only compatible with specific types of display chips, so its compatibility is not high.

Another better method is as shown in US Patent No. 6,170,021 "Redirection Tool". The full text of it will be excerpted below and incorporated into this case as reference data. As shown in FIG. 1 , its architecture mainly includes a host 500 and a server 600 , and the connection and data transmission between the host 500 and the server 600 are realized through a modem 61 . The server 600 has a processor 62 , a microcontroller 63 connected to the processor 62 , a display buffer 64 , a display buffer 65 , and a serial device controller 66 .

The method is mainly that after the system administrator uses the keyboard 501 of the host computer 500 to key in data, it will be sent to the microcontroller 63 through the modem 61, and the system management interrupt signal generated by the interrupt signal generator 631 in the microcontroller 63 (system manamgent interrupt, SMI), forcing the processor 62 to enter the system management mode (system management mode, SMM), and the processor 62 after entering the system management mode will read in specific SMM computer program codes (SMM handler routines) 621, In order to retrieve the display data from the display buffer 64 and the display buffer 65, optimize it through the optimization processor 632, and then send it to the display 502 of the host 500 for the system administrator to use through the host 500 To monitor the operation of the server 600.

The above method utilizes the system management mode of the processor 62 , so the operation of the operating system or application programs in the server 600 will not be affected during the process of transmitting the display data. In other words, after the processor 62 enters the system management mode, it suspends the operation of the operating system and the application program. Insufficient compatibility troubles.

However, since this method requires a built-in microcontroller 63 with specific functions to optimize display data, generate interrupt signals, etc., its construction cost is relatively high. Secondly, since the read request is passively waited for, the processor 62 will be triggered to send the display data only after the system manager sends an instruction through the keyboard 501, so the timeliness is poor.

Contents of the invention

In view of the fact that the previous display data redirection method is not perfect, the object of the present invention is to provide a remote computer display data redirection method that can make the remote computer actively redirect its display data to a host computer and use the method computer system.

In a preferred embodiment, the computer system of the present invention can transmit its display data to a remote host, and the computer system includes a processor, a display processing unit, a firmware (firmware), a trigger unit and a timer.

The processor can be triggered by an interrupt signal to enter an independent operation mode. The display processing unit is connected to the processor and can generate the display data displayed on the display. The firmware stores a plurality of data for the display. The computer program code executed when the processor enters the independent operation mode, the trigger unit can periodically send the interrupt signal to the processor, so that the processor periodically enters the independent operation mode and executes the computer program code, so as to Make the processor periodically capture the display data of the display processing unit and transmit the display data to the remote host, and a timer connected to the trigger unit, the timer can provide a periodic pulse wave The signal is sent to the trigger unit, so that the trigger unit periodically generates the interrupt signal according to the pulse signal.

Therefore, the computer system can actively redirect its display data to the remote host, so that the system manager can know the picture of the computer system through a display of the remote host.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the redirection tool described in US 6,170,021 patent;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating that a preferred embodiment of the present invention is applied in a distributed network architecture;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a server of the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the processor switching between a normal mode and a stand-alone mode of operation while performing redirection of display data in accordance with the preferred embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the steps performed by the preferred embodiment to perform redirection of display data.

Explanation of reference numbers

100 servers

101 display

200 hosts

201 display

202 input device

1 processor

2 network adapter card

3 display processing unit

4 firmware

5 trigger unit

6 timers

31 display controller

32 display basic input output system

33 frame buffer

10 main memory

51～55 steps

Detailed ways

The foregoing and other technical content, features and effects of the present invention will be more clearly described in the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 2 , FIG. 2 shows a distributed network architecture using the present invention. Under this architecture, a server 100 can be used by multiple clients, and the server 100 is connected to a remote host 200 . What is shown in FIG. 2 is for the sake of simplification of description. Actually, there may be more than one server 100 for many clients, and the number of remote hosts 200 is not limited to one.

The system administrator can monitor the server 100 through the remote host 200 . Each main frame 200 has a display 201 and an input device 202, and this display 201 is the display screen (CRT) of cathode ray tube type, or similar flat display such as liquid crystal display (LCD) etc.; Input device 202 then Such as keyboard, mouse, track ball (track ball), track stick (track point), and touch panel (touch panel), tablet and so on. In other words, the system administrator can view the current operation of the server 100 through the display 201 of the remote host 200, and can also control the server 100 through the input of the input device 202 to achieve the purpose of remote monitoring, which will be described in detail below.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the server 100 has a processor 1 , a network adapter card 2 , a display processing unit 3 , a firmware 4 , a trigger unit 5 , and a timer 6 (timer).

Processor 1, in the present embodiment, refers to the processor of model after Inter 80386, such as IntelPentium I, Pentium II... etc., or processors such as K5, K6 that AMD Company produces, can operate independently work in mode. The so-called independent operation mode means that the operation of the processor 1 can not be affected by any application program or operating system, and can execute the corresponding SMM computer program code (SMM) in an independent address space in the main memory 10. subroutines).

In addition to the system management mode (SMM) described in the prior art, there is also an online simulation (in circuits simulator, ICE) mode (or called a debugging mode (debugging mode), a detection mode (probe mode), etc.], and the online simulation mode is In order to facilitate program debugging, a processor mode is set. In this mode, processor 1 can also be the same as in the system management mode, and has the ability to support network drivers, system peripheral drivers, and data security monitoring. . The difference is that the interrupt signal that triggers processor 1 to enter the online emulation mode is the R/S# signal (take Intel Pentium processor as an example).

Of course, in the server 100, in addition to the above-mentioned main memory 10 used by the processor 1, it is also necessary to have components such as a read-only memory (ROM) (not shown) for storing the basic input and output system (BIOS). , since this is the same as the structure of a general computer system, it will not be further described.

The network adapter card 2 is connected to the processor 1, and through the network adapter card 2, the remote host 200 can be connected to the server 100 through a local area network or the Internet.

Display processing unit 3 is connected with processor 1 by system bus, such as PCI bus, AGP bus etc., display processing unit 3 has a display controller 31 (VGA controller), a display basic input output system (VGA BIOS) 32, And a frame buffer 33 (frame buffer). The display controller 31 refers to a general graphics processing chip, and the frame buffer 33 is used to store data to be displayed on the display of the server 100. Usually, the frame buffer 33 has a plurality of buffer units, for example, one of the buffer units is used One is used to store the picture currently displayed on the display 101 of the server 100, and the other is used to store the picture being drawn by the display controller 31 and the like.

Display basic input and output system (hereinafter referred to as VGA BIOS) 32, in this embodiment, especially refers to the VGA BIOS conforming to VESA BIOS Extension (hereinafter referred to as VBE) version 2.0 or above. In other words, by calling a specific function (VBE Function 4F0Ah: Return VBE Protected Mode Interface, returning the function entry point of VBE in protected mode), it is possible to operate in the protected mode of processor 1 (the operating mode suitable for multitasking operating systems, Refers to the general normal mode), so the VBE function calls in VGA BIOS 32 include (but not limited to): Function 4F00h-Return VBE Controller Information, return display card information; Function 4F01h-Return VBE Mode Information, return Specific display mode (eg: 1024×768 True Color) information; Function 4F03h-Return Current VBE Mode, returns the current display mode; and Function 4F04h-Get/Restore State, returns/restores the current display card settings status, etc., to know the starting address of the current picture in the frame buffer 33, the actual width, length, and color palette (color palette) or the like. For the VGA BIOS32 that does not have a protection mode entry point, the "Triple Fault" or "LOADALL" command can also be used to make the CPU temporarily leave the protection mode and enter the real mode (Real Mode), and the above-mentioned various VBE function calls can be used , to know the relevant information in the frame buffer 33.

The firmware 4 is used to store the above-mentioned SMM computer program codes. In this embodiment, the firmware 4 refers to a non-volatile memory that stores the computer program codes, such as read-only memory or flash memory (flash), these The SMM computer program code is used to be loaded into the main memory 10 after the computer system is turned on, and then captured and executed by the main memory 10 after the processor 1 enters the system management mode, or after the processor 1 enters the system management mode, It is directly captured and executed by the firmware 4. In this embodiment, the SMM computer program code enables the processor 1 to capture the display data in the display processing unit 3. The details of this part will be further described below.

It is worth mentioning that in the SMM program code, an "RSM" instruction can be added, and when the processor 1 executes this instruction, it will jump out of the system management mode and return to the original normal mode, making the operating system Processor 1 can be controlled again. Similarly, if it is in the online simulation mode, an "end probe mode" command can be added in the program code, which can make the processor 1 return to the normal mode.

The trigger unit 5 is connected to the processor 1, and the trigger unit 5 is composed of a simple logic circuit, and its purpose is only to periodically send a system management interrupt (SMI) to the processor 1, so that the processor 1 can be repeatedly triggered to enter the system in management mode.

The timer 6 refers to a periodic pulse wave generator, which can generate a pulse wave of a certain period, so that the trigger unit 5 can repeatedly generate a system management interrupt signal according to the pulse wave. It should be noted that in a general computer system, the timer 6 does not need to be installed separately, for example, the clock (clock) in the keyboard controller (keyboard controller) on the motherboard (not shown) or the RTC can be used to The chip is used to provide the clock signal to the trigger unit 5, both of which can achieve the same purpose as above.

Please refer to the paths ① to ④ in Figure 4 in sequence, and combine them with Figure 5. According to the above structure, as shown in step 51, the present invention first uses the trigger unit 5 to send a system management interrupt signal to the processor 1, so that the processor 1 can enter the aforementioned independent operation mode, as shown in step 52. Then, as step 53, after the processor 1 enters the independent operation mode, read the SMM computer program code, and call the VGA BIOS 32, and read the frame buffer 33 from the VGA BIOS 32 about start address, length, actual Screen information such as width and length, and read the screen data currently stored in the frame buffer 33 from the frame buffer 33 .

Then, as in step 54, the processor 1 transmits the display information to the display 201 of the remote host 200, so that the system administrator can monitor the current screen on the server 100 through the remote host 200. Finally, when the processor 1 has After the display data is transmitted to the remote host 200, it automatically escapes from the system management mode and returns to the normal mode, and continues to process the previously suspended computer program code, as in step 55 . Since the triggering unit 5 periodically sends the system management interrupt signal, it will return to step 51 from step 55, and so on, and the display 201 of the remote host 200 will continuously display the display data of the server 100.

Therefore, the frequency at which the trigger unit 5 sends the system interrupt signal determines the display frequency of the screen on the remote host 200. For example, the refresh frequency on the general screen is 30-75 Hz, so the timer 6 can be used to provide this frequency range. The internal clock signal makes the trigger unit 5 send the system management interrupt signal according to the clock signal, so the update frequency of the screen displayed on the remote host 200 can be determined.

It should be noted that the system administrator can also use the input device 202 to control the server 100, that is, the signal input by the system administrator through the input device 202 (such as a keyboard), when the processor 1 enters the system management mode , will also redirect this input signal to the corresponding controller on the server 100 (such as a keyboard controller, not shown in the figure), and after the processor 1 returns to the normal mode, it will read the input signal, so that the system management It is as if it is located in front of the server 100 and can directly input to the server 100. Since this part is basically the same as the prior art, it will not be repeated here.

As can be seen from the above description, although the server 100 is used as an example in this embodiment, in fact, as long as it is a general computer system, the present invention can be used for remote monitoring, and it is not limited to the server 100

In summary, the present invention uses the trigger unit 5 to periodically send a system management interrupt signal, so that the processor 1 can periodically enter the system management mode, and actively transmit the display data on the server 100 to the remote host 200, that is, to The concept of broadcast enables the system administrator to continuously receive the images of the server 100, which is convenient for the system administrator to monitor, and indeed achieves the purpose of the present invention.

The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and cannot limit the scope of the present invention with this. All simple equivalent changes and modifications made according to the scope of the claims of the present invention and the content of the description should still belong to the present invention. covered by the patent.

Claims (11)

1. A computer system capable of transmitting display data displayed on a display of the computer system to a remote host, the computer system comprising: A processor capable of being triggered by an interrupt signal to enter an independent operation mode; a display processing unit, connected to the processor, capable of generating the display data displayed on the display; a firmware storing a plurality of computer program codes executed when the processor enters the stand-alone operation mode; a trigger unit, periodically sending the interrupt signal to the processor, so that the processor periodically enters the independent operation mode and executes the computer program code, so that the processor periodically captures the display data of the display processing unit and transmitting the display data to the remote host; and A timer connected with the trigger unit, the timer can provide a periodic pulse signal to the trigger unit, so that the trigger unit periodically generates the interrupt signal according to the pulse signal. 2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the stand-alone mode of operation is a system management mode. 3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the stand-alone mode of operation is an in-circuit emulation mode. 4. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the interrupt signal is a system management interrupt signal. 5. The computer system according to claim 1, wherein the display processing unit has a display controller, a frame buffer connected to the display controller, and a display basic input and output read by the display controller system, the processor can read information related to the display data from the display basic input and output system. 6. A remote computer display data redirection method, which can display the display data of a remote computer on a host connected to the remote computer, the remote computer has a processor and a processor connected to the processor and can A display processing unit that generates the display data, the method includes the following steps: A) providing a periodic pulse signal to the trigger unit, so that the trigger unit periodically generates the interrupt signal according to the pulse signal and sends an interrupt signal to the processor, so that the processor enters an independent operation mode; B) capturing the display data from the processor to the display processing unit in the independent operation mode; C) transmitting the display data from the processor to the host; and D) Periodically carry out steps A) to C) above. 7. The remote computer display data redirection method as claimed in claim 6, wherein, the step B) is to read the relevant information of the display data from a display basic input output system from the processor to the display processing unit, And read the color value of the display data from a frame buffer of the display processing unit. 8. The method for redirecting display data of a remote computer as claimed in claim 6, wherein the stand-alone operation mode is a system management mode. 9. The method for redirecting display data from a remote computer as claimed in claim 6, wherein the stand-alone operation mode is an online emulation mode. 10. The method for redirecting display data of a remote computer as claimed in claim 8, wherein the interrupt signal is a system management interrupt signal. 11. The remote computer display data redirection method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a step E of returning the processor from the stand-alone operation mode to a normal mode between the step C) and the step D). ).

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