JP2019159832A - Image processing apparatus, control method of storage device, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve the problem that a storage content of a cache in an HDD or a SSD is eliminated when performing re-activation or forcibly turning off a power in the case where a CPU is not normally operated.SOLUTION: An image processing apparatus includes: a storage device having a storage medium, and storing information; and power source control means of controlling a power source supply to at least storage device. A command for controlling the storage device at an off of the power supply of the storage device is stored, and the command stored in the storage medium is transmitted to the storage device in accordance with detection that a CPU of the image processing apparatus is not normally operated before the power supply of the image processing apparatus is turned off, and a processing for turning off the power source of the storage device is executed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing device, a storage device control method, and a program.

  Conventionally, it has been proposed that the CPU of an information processing device issues a predetermined command to the storage device immediately before the power of the storage device connected to the information processing device such as a PC is turned off. For example, in Patent Document 1, when the power of an HDD (hard disk drive) is turned off, the CPU issues two commands. The first command is a command for writing the storage content stored in the volatile temporary memory (cache) in the HDD to the nonvolatile storage medium (disk). This process prevents loss of stored contents when the HDD is powered off. The second command is a command for unloading the head of the HDD. The HDD that has received this unload command retracts the head to a retreat location other than the storage area of the disk, and then stops the rotation of the disk. This process prevents damage to the disk and the head.

Japanese Patent No. 5279634

  However, in the above-described conventional technology, for example, when the CPU cannot operate normally due to runaway or hang-up of the CPU, a command for making preparations before turning off the power cannot be issued. When the CPU cannot operate normally, the device is generally restarted or the power is forcibly turned off. However, when restarting or forcibly turning off the power, since the CPU cannot issue the above-mentioned command, there is a possibility that the disk and the head are damaged and break down.

  Also, if the CPU cannot operate normally, the stored contents of the cache in the HDD or SSD will be lost if the CPU is restarted or forcibly turned off. Generally, the storage capacity of the cache inside the SSD is larger than the storage capacity of the cache inside the HDD. For this reason, when the above-mentioned command cannot be issued, the risk associated with data loss is greater in the case of SSD.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of issuing a command necessary for normally turning off a power supply of a storage device even when a CPU cannot operate normally.

In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention has the following arrangement. That is,
An information processing apparatus,
A storage device having a storage medium and storing information;
Power control means for controlling power supply to at least the storage device;
Storage means for storing a command for controlling the storage device when the storage device is powered off;
Detecting means for detecting whether the CPU of the information processing apparatus is operating normally;
In response to the detection unit detecting that the CPU is not operating normally, the command stored in the storage unit is transmitted to the storage device before the information processing device is turned off. And control means for controlling as described above.

  According to the present invention, even when the CPU cannot operate normally, a command necessary for normally turning off the power of the storage device can be issued.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration including an MFP according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration for performing power control of the main controller and the storage device of the MFP according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a storage device host control unit according to the first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart for explaining operations of a power supply control unit, a storage device host control unit, and a storage device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an HDD unit that is an example of a storage device according to the first embodiment. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a command issued by the storage device host control unit during power-off preprocessing of the MFP according to the first embodiment. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration including an MFP according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and all combinations of features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the present invention. . Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. Here, for explanation, a multifunction peripheral (MFP (Multi Function Peripheral)) will be described as an example of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to such a multifunction peripheral.

[Embodiment 1]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration including an MFP 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  MFP 100 is connected to host computer 107 via network 106. Next, the inside of the MFP 100 will be described.

  The main controller 120 is a control unit for controlling the MFP 100, and performs communication with each unit around the main controller 120 and control of the entire MFP 100. A main CPU (hereinafter simply referred to as a CPU) 101 performs overall control of the MFP and various arithmetic processes. The memory control unit 102 performs input / output control to various memory devices, DMA (direct memory access) control, and the like. A memory 103 is a rewritable nonvolatile memory, and stores a control program, control parameters, and the like of the MFP. A DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) 104 is a volatile rewritable memory represented by a DDR (Double-Data-Rate) memory. It is used for applications such as a program work area, a print data storage area, and various table information storage areas. Here, the relationship between the memory control unit 102 and various memory devices is expressed in a simplified manner, and is generally controlled independently.

  The LAN-IF control unit 105 performs input / output control with the local area network 106 connected to the MFP 100. Generally, it corresponds to the TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) protocol. It is connected to a network compatible device such as the host computer 107 via a network cable and can communicate via the network 106.

  The reader IF control unit 108 performs communication control with the scanner device 109. The copy function is realized by printing image data obtained by the scanner device 109 scanning the document with the printer unit 118. The image processing unit 110 performs various types of image processing on image data captured via the LAN-IF control unit 105 and the reader IF control unit 108. The storage device host control unit 111 has a host IF and is connected to a storage device 113 such as an HDD or an SDD to perform data input / output control. The operation unit IF 115 performs communication control with the operation unit 116. Although not shown here, as a UI (user interface), various settings and states of the MFP 100 can be confirmed by detecting a screen display on the operation unit 116 or an operation of a button or the like by the user. The video output IF unit 117 performs command / status communication control with the printer unit 118 and print data transfer. The printer unit 118 prints an image on a sheet based on the image data in accordance with command information from the video output IF unit 117. The main bus 119 includes a bus controller, and represents a control bus, a data bus, and a local bus between arbitrary blocks for convenience. Representative examples include PCIe (PCI Express) and ASIC internal buses.

  The CPU monitoring unit 130 monitors whether the CPU 101 is operating normally. The CPU monitoring unit 130 includes, for example, a watchdog timer, and when the CPU 101 runs away or hangs up, the watchdog timer cannot be initialized periodically. Therefore, the CPU monitoring unit 130 can detect whether the CPU 101 is operating normally by monitoring the watchdog timer. If the CPU 101 is not operating normally, it is generally reset or turned off. However, in the first embodiment, it is assumed that when the CPU 101 is not operating normally, the storage device host control unit 111 or the power supply control unit 132 is notified of the power-off via the power-off notification signal 131.

  A power control unit 132 controls power supply of the MFP 100. The power control unit 132 instructs the power supply device 107 to power off or power on in accordance with a power state such as a normal operation mode, a low power mode, or a power off. In the first embodiment, after the storage device 113 is ready to be powered off from the storage device host control unit 111, the power control unit 132 instructs the power supply device 107 to turn off the power.

  Next, details of configuration examples of the main controller 120 and the storage device 113 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration for performing power control of the main controller 120 and the storage device 113 of the MFP 100 according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 2, the parts common to FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  The power-off notice signal 131 is a signal that the power control unit 132 notifies the storage device host control unit 111 before the storage device 113 is turned off. Here, it is assumed that the power-off notice signal 131 changes from a high level to a low level before turning off the power of the storage device 113, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  The power-off preparation completion signal 220 is a signal for notifying the power supply control unit 132 from the storage device host control unit 111 that preparation for turning off the power to the storage device 113 has been completed. Here, it will be described that the power-off preparation completion signal 220 changes from the high level to the low level when preparation for powering off the storage device 113 is completed, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  The power off signal 250 is a digital signal output from the power control unit 132 to the power supply device 107. For explanation, it is assumed that the power supply of the storage device 113 is turned off when the power-off signal 250 is at a low level, but the present invention is not limited to this.

  Next, the internal configuration of the storage device 113 will be described.

  The storage device controller 230 communicates with the storage device host control unit 111 and controls the storage device 113. The storage device cache memory 232 is a volatile storage element controlled by the storage device controller 230 and temporarily stores write data of the storage device 113. When the power of the storage device 113 is turned off, the stored contents of the storage device cache memory 232 are lost. The storage medium 231 is a non-volatile storage medium and corresponds to, for example, the disk 30 shown in FIG. Here, the write data temporarily stored in the storage device cache memory 232 is written into the storage medium 231 before the storage device 113 is turned off. The power supply line 240 is a power supply line through which the power supply device 107 supplies power to the main controller 120. The power supply line 240 is a power supply line through which the power supply device 107 supplies power to the main controller 120. The power supply line 140 is a power supply line through which the power supply device 107 supplies power to the storage device 113. The storage device I / F signal 260 is a signal line for communication between the storage device host control unit 111 and the storage device 113. Here, for the sake of explanation, the storage device I / F signal 260 will be described below as a signal conforming to the SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) standard.

  Here, the power-off notice signal 131 is not limited to the above-described configuration, and the power control unit 132 and the storage device host control unit 111 may communicate with each other via the main bus 119 before the power is turned off. . Further, the storage device I / F signal 260 is not limited to the SATA standard, and any bus that can connect the main controller 120 and the storage device 113 is SAS, SATA Express, PCI Express, NVM Express, M.M. 2, eMMC, USB, etc.

  Next, the configuration of the storage device host control unit 111 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the storage device host control unit 111 according to the first embodiment.

  As described above, the storage device host control unit 111 is an interface that connects the storage device 113 to the main controller 120, and is connected to the main bus 119 to convert the storage device I / F signal 260 into a protocol. Next, an internal block of the storage device host control unit 111 will be described.

  The main bus I / F 301 is a bus bridge between the main bus 119 and the internal bus of the storage device host control unit 111, and converts a protocol for a command to the storage device 113 issued by the CPU 101. The command selection unit 302 is a selector that selects a command from the main bus I / F 301 or a power-off preprocessing command issuing unit (hereinafter referred to as a preprocessing command issuing unit) 304 described later. The command selection unit 302 selects a command from the main bus I / F 301 when the power-off notice signal 131 is at a high level (when no power-off notice is given). The command selection unit 302 selects a command from the preprocessing command issuing unit 304 when the power-off notification signal 131 is at a low level (when the power-off notification is issued).

  The storage device interface 303 is a host interface that connects the storage device 113, and converts the command from the command selection unit 302 into the protocol of the storage device I / F signal 260. The preprocessing command issuing unit 304 issues a command before turning off the power. When the power-off notice signal 131 is at a high level, a command stored in a power-off pre-processing command storage unit (hereinafter referred to as a pre-processing command storage unit) 305, which will be described later, is read, and the command is transmitted to the command selection unit 302. The pre-processing command storage unit 305 is a storage unit that stores a later-described command issued when the power is turned off. The preprocessing command storage unit 305 may be formed of a non-volatile storage element such as EEPROM or ROM, or may be formed of a volatile storage element such as SRAM or DRAM. When the preprocessing command storage unit 305 is a volatile storage element, for example, the CPU 101 needs to write a command to the preprocessing command storage unit 305 at startup.

  As described above, the storage device host control unit 111 is normally controlled by the CPU 101 via the main bus 119 and transmits a command to the storage device 113. In the first embodiment, even when the CPU 101 cannot operate, the storage device host control unit 111 generates a command stored in advance and transmits it to the storage device 113 to prevent a failure of the storage device 113 and data loss. Yes.

  Here, the preprocessing command storage unit 305 has been described as a nonvolatile storage element such as a ROM. However, the preprocessing command storage unit 305 is not limited to the ROM, and may be a volatile storage element such as a RAM. At this time, it goes without saying that a command stored in advance in the storage device host control 111 unit may be transferred from the CPU 101 when the CPU 101 can operate normally, such as at the time of startup. At that time, the command may be transferred using a command undefined by ATA / ATAPI.

  Next, operations of the main controller 120 and the storage device 113 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining operations of the power control unit 132, the storage device host control unit 111, and the storage device 113 according to the first embodiment. Note that the processing shown in S401 to S404 of this flowchart is executed under the control of a logic circuit (not shown) of the power supply control unit 132 or a CPU (not shown) in the power supply control unit 132. Further, the processes shown in S411 to S414 in the flowchart are executed under the control of a logic circuit of the storage device host control unit 111 or a CPU (not shown) of the host control unit 111. Furthermore, the processes shown in S421 to S423 in the flowchart are executed under the control of a logic circuit of the storage device 113 or a CPU (not shown) of the storage device 113.

  First, the operation of the power control unit 132 will be described.

  S401 is a conditional branch that waits for the storage device 113 to be turned off. For example, when the power control unit 132 detects that the user has operated the power off switch, the CPU 101 determines that the power of the MFP 100 is turned off. If the CPU 101 determines that the storage device 113 is to be turned off, the CPU 101 notifies the power supply control unit 132 of a signal, command, register change, etc., and the process proceeds to S402. Alternatively, when the power control unit 132 determines that the CPU 101 has hung up for a certain time, the process proceeds to S402. Alternatively, when the process of the CPU 101 is slow and the power supply control unit 132 determines that the shutdown process of the MFP 100 has taken a certain time, the process proceeds to S402. If the storage device 113 does not transition to power off, the process returns to S401 and waits until an instruction to transition the storage device 113 to power off is received.

  In step S402, the power supply control unit 132 notifies the storage device host control unit 111 and the storage device 113 that the power-off notice signal 131 is output at a low level so that the power-off pre-processing is performed. In step S403, the power control unit 132 waits for completion of power-off preprocessing from the storage device 113. Here, for example, as described above, when the power-off preparation completion signal 220 output from the storage device host control unit 111 changes from the high level to the low level, it is determined that the preprocessing is completed, and the process proceeds to S404. If the preprocessing is not completed, the process stays at S403. S404 is a process for turning off the power of the storage device 113. For example, the notification is given by the power-off signal 250 as described above.

  Next, the operation of the storage device host control unit 111 will be described.

  S411 waits for the power-off notice signal 131 to go low. When the power-off notice signal 131 is at a high level, that is, when the power-off preprocessing instruction is not received, the process returns to S411. If it is determined that the power-off notice signal 131 is at a low level and a power-off pre-processing instruction has been received, the process proceeds to S412. In step S412, a power-off preprocessing command is issued to the storage device 113. As described above, at this time, the storage device host control unit 111 issues the command stored in the command storage unit 305 to the command issuing unit 304, and sends a command to the storage device 113 via the command selection unit 302 and the storage device interface 303. Issue. Since this has already been explained, detailed explanation is omitted. In step S413, it is determined whether all commands stored in the command storage unit 305 have been issued and all processing of the command has been completed. If all command processing has not been completed, the process returns to step S412.

  When all the processes of the power-off preprocessing command are completed in S413, the process proceeds to S414. In step S414, all commands stored in the command storage unit 305 are issued, and the power supply control unit 132 is notified that all command processing has been completed.

  Here, if a command from the main bus 119 is processed during the power-off preprocessing, the power-off preprocessing is not performed correctly. In order to prevent this from happening, the command selection unit 302 does not process the command from the main bus 119 when the power-off pre-processing instruction is received, for example, when the power-off notice signal 131 is low level, that is, in S412 to S414. It is desirable to do so.

  Next, the operation of the storage device 113 will be described.

  In step S421, a command from the storage device host control unit 111 is waited for. If no command is received, the process stays at S421. If a command is received, it will progress to S422. In S422, the received command processing is executed. Details of the command will be described later. In step S423, the execution result of the command processing in step S422 is notified. If the command processing is successful, it returns completion, and if it fails, it returns an error. For example, when the storage device I / F signal 303 is SATA, the storage device 113 notifies the storage device host control unit 111 of the completion or error of command processing using RegDH (Register Device to Host).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of the HDD unit, which is an example of the storage device 113 according to the first embodiment.

  In the HDD unit 20, the disk 30 rotates and the head 31 scans the disk 30, whereby access (reading or writing) to data stored in the disk 30 can be executed. Further, in the HDD unit 20, when the power is turned off, the head 31 is saved in a head withdrawal area (an area other than the storage area of the disk 30 shaded in FIG. 5).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a command issued by the storage device host control unit 111 during the power off pre-processing of the MFP 100 according to the first embodiment. Here, for explanation, an example of storing in the preprocessing command storage unit 305 will be described, but the storage may be performed anywhere such as the storage device 113, the memory 103, and the DRAM 104. FIG. 6 shows an example of the ATA command, and it is assumed that the commands 611, 612, 613, and 614 are issued in order.

  The command 611 is a command for instructing to write the contents of the cache of the storage device 113 to the disk 30. Since the command 612 is the same processing as the command 611, its description is omitted. The command 613 is a command for shifting the power supply state of the storage device 113 to the standby state. For example, in the standby state, the head 31 of the storage device 113 is retracted to the head retracting area, and the rotation of the disk 30 is stopped. Since the command 614 is the same as the command 613, description thereof is omitted.

  Here, an ATA command used in SATA has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a SCSI command used in SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), for example, a SYNCHRONIZE CACHE command or a START STOP UNIT command may be used. Similarly, an SD command used in an SD card or eMMC, for example, a SELECT / DESELECT_CARD command may be used. Also, NVM Express and M.I. 2 may be used, for example, a shutdown notification command. Thus, this command is not limited to a specific standard, and may be a command of any standard.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, even when the CPU 101 cannot operate normally, pre-processing for turning off the power to the storage device 113 is possible, and the power to the storage device 113 can be safely turned off. As a result, failure of the storage device 113 and loss of data due to turning off the power of the storage device 113 without power off pre-processing can be prevented.

  Although the example of the MFP has been described here, the present invention is not limited to the MFP, and any device that issues a command prepared in advance from the storage device interface to the storage device when the storage device is turned off. anything is fine.

  In the first embodiment, the storage device host control unit 111 has been described as having the preprocessing command storage unit 305 and the preprocessing command issuing unit 304. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration, and these are the storage devices. And anywhere in the main controller.

[Embodiment 2]
Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration including the MFP 100 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Here, parts common to those in FIG. 1 according to the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  The SATA bridge control unit 112 is connected to the SATA host control unit 111, the storage device 113, and a storage device 114 described later, and performs a SATA-SATA bus bridge for performing RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Drive) control and data encryption processing. It is. The storage device 114 is a storage device similar to the storage device 113, and the storage devices 113 and 114 constitute a RAID.

  In the second embodiment, the SATA host control unit 701 may include a preprocessing command storage unit 305 and a preprocessing command issue unit 304. In this case, the SATA bridge control unit 112 transfers the commands issued by the preprocessing command storage unit 305 and the preprocessing command issuing unit 304 to the storage devices 113 and 114 as they are. Thereafter, when the power-off pre-processing for the storage devices 113 and 114 is completed, the SATA host control unit 701 or the SATA bridge control unit 112 notifies the power control unit 132 that the power can be turned off. Alternatively, it goes without saying that the SATA bridge control unit 112 may include a preprocessing command storage unit 305 and a preprocessing command issue unit 304.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... CPU, 111 ... Storage device host control unit, 107 ... Power supply device, 113,114 ... Storage device, 131 ... Power off notice signal, 132 ... Power control unit, 302 ... Command selection unit, 303 ... Storage device interface, 304 ... Power-off pre-processing command issuing unit, 304 ... Power-off pre-processing command storage unit

Claims (9)

An information processing apparatus,
A storage device having a storage medium and storing information;
Power control means for controlling power supply to at least the storage device;
Storage means for storing a command for controlling the storage device when the storage device is powered off;
Detecting means for detecting whether the CPU of the information processing apparatus is operating normally;
In response to the detection unit detecting that the CPU is not operating normally, the command stored in the storage unit is transmitted to the storage device before the information processing device is turned off. Control means for controlling
An information processing apparatus comprising:   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the command includes a command that instructs to write the contents of the cache of the storage device to the storage medium.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the command includes a command for shifting a power supply state of the storage device to a standby state.   The detection means includes a watchdog timer, and detects whether the CPU is operating normally based on whether the CPU periodically initializes the watchdog timer. 4. The information processing apparatus according to any one of items 1 to 3.   5. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein the control unit further instructs the power source control unit to turn off the power in response to the storage device having executed all the commands. The information processing apparatus according to item 1.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores the command under the control of the CPU when the CPU is operating normally.   When the detection means detects that the CPU is operating normally, the control means connects the main bus connected to the CPU and the storage device, and the detection means is connected to the CPU. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the storage unit and the storage device are connected when it is detected that the device is not operating normally. A method of controlling a storage device in an information processing apparatus having a storage medium and connected to a storage device that stores information,
A storage step of storing a command for controlling the storage device when the storage device is powered off;
A detection step of detecting whether the CPU of the information processing apparatus is operating normally;
In response to the detection step detecting that the CPU is not operating normally, the command stored in the storage step is transmitted to the storage device before the information processing device is turned off. A control process to control,
A control method characterized by comprising:   The program for making a computer perform each process of the control method of Claim 8.

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