JPH0273444A - Computer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily set or confirm an action mode at a system rise by setting automatically the action mode according to a loading or unloading state of an external extension slot. CONSTITUTION:When an external extension slot for an action mode B is con nected to an internal extension slot connector 12, a signal line 14 is connected to an extension slot connector 13 and one of both ends of the line 14 is grounded. Thus a CPU 1 sets the mode B with preference based on a program set at start up. When the CPU 1 starts its working in the mode B, a shared bus 2 and a bus 4 are validated and a bus 3 is invalidated respectively. Then a bus driver 6 for mode B is validated by the signal lines 17 and 18 together with a bus driver 5 for mode A invalidated. As a result, an action mode setting process so far carried out for each system rise can be omitted. Then a system can be smoothly started in response to each action mode.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a computer device capable of processing bus information from a plurality of internal or external expansion slots with different operating modes.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, computer devices have been considered that have a basic output program (BiO2) and various control circuits for compatibility with a plurality of personal computers having different specifications, and can be operated in a plurality of operation modes.

In addition, since an expansion board with an interface that supports compatible operation modes is used, among the multiple operation modes,
- If you install an expansion slot bus compatible with one mode that is often used for boat fishing in the personal computer, and use an expansion board compatible with other operation modes, you can use the expansion slot bus for that mode. By inputting and outputting signals from an expansion slot installed in the main body, and connecting that input/output signal to an expansion slot with that interface installed outside the personal computer main body,
A pair of computer devices has also been proposed that is configured to use expansion boards compatible with other operating modes.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the case of conventional personal computer devices that have multiple compatible operating modes, it is necessary to instruct which operating mode to run in some way when the system is started up. Among the users who use an expansion board that supports a mode other than the operation mode (hereinafter referred to as basic mode), many users think that it is sufficient for the expansion board to operate in the corresponding operation mode. In such a case, when starting the system,
It is necessary to specify the desired operating mode each time. Furthermore, even if the instruction method is automated or has already been set, it is necessary to carry out a process to confirm whether the desired operation mode has been activated, and from the time the system starts up, the desired operation mode must be executed. There are problems in that a considerable amount of preparation time is required before information processing according to the mode is executed, and system processing efficiency is significantly reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides automatic selection and setting of an operation mode based on the attachment/detachment state of an external expansion slot in order to operate a board compatible with an operation mode other than the basic mode. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer device that can greatly simplify the operation mode setting or confirmation process at the time of system startup, and can execute program processing in a desired operation mode after the system startup is complete.

[Means to solve the problem]

The computer device according to the present invention is provided with mode setting means for setting the operating mode environment of bus information input/output via the basic slot based on the installation state of the external expansion slot in the basic slot.

[Effect]

In this invention, when an external expansion slot housing an external expansion board operating in an operation mode other than the basic mode or an internal expansion slot corresponding to the basic mode is connected to the basic slot, the mode setting means is set to the basic slot. Automatically sets the operating mode environment for bus information input/output via the basic slot based on the installed state of the external expansion slot.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a computer device showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a CPU circuit;
It has a RAM and a ROM (not shown), and processes bus information based on a control program stored in the ROM. In addition,
The CPU circuit 1 operates in basic mode A and this basic mode A.
Bus information processing according to operation mode B, which is different from the above, is performed.

A shared bus 2 mutually communicates bus information that is commonly output (or input) to the internal expansion slot connector 12 in both basic mode A and operation mode B.

3) When the A-mode bus driver 5 is enabled on the A-mode bus (hereinafter referred to as the bus), the A-mode-specific bus information of the slot bus 7 information is transferred to the A-mode bus driver. 5 and other devices to communicate with each other. 4 is a bus for B mode (hereinafter referred to as bus);
When the bus driver 6 for the mode is enabled, bus information specific to the B mode among the information on the slot bus 7 is mutually communicated between the bus driver 6 for the mode and other devices. A slot bus 8 is connected to the internal expansion slot connector 12 and the shared bus 2, and communicates bus information from the expansion slots connected to the internal expansion slot connector 12 with each other. In addition, the internal expansion slot connector 12
is based on the basic mode (operation mode A) and inputs and outputs bus information from the internal expansion slot to the slot bus 7.8.

9 is a bus conversion device, when bus information from an external expansion slot connected via an external expansion slot connector 10 is output via a bus 11, the bus information of operation mode B is converted to an internal operation mode (operation mode A ) (however,
(Details differ) Convert it to intermediate bus information and input it to the internal expansion slot connector 12, and input it to the internal expansion slot connector 1.
When the intermediate bus information is output from 2, the intermediate bus information is converted to operation mode B, which is an external operation mode, and output to the external expansion slot connector 10. Note that the external expansion slot connector 10 is configured so that a plurality of expansion boards driven in operation mode B can be connected. In addition, the signal arrangement of the internal expansion slot connector 12 is an arrangement according to operation mode A, and when used in operation mode B, the signals common to operation mode A and operation mode B are in the same order. Signals used only in mode B are arranged independently to avoid conflicts with operation mode A, and the structure or operation has a slightly larger number of signal strings than the number of signal strings used in operation mode A. The signal arrangement is such that the signals used only in mode B are allocated to the locations of signals used only in operation mode A, and to locations such as power lines that do not need to be sent to external expansion slots, and the number of signal strings is different from operation mode A. do not have.

Reference numeral 13 denotes an expansion slot connector, which is configured so that the signal line 14 is connected when the external expansion slot for B mode (an operation mode different from the basic mode) is connected to the internal expansion slot connector 12; Grounded.

15 is a signal line connected to the CPU via a pull-up resistor 16.
Connected to circuit 1. Note that the right side of the broken line in the figure is an external device to the computer device, and the left side is the inside of the computer device (computer device main body).

In addition, when an external expansion slot housing an external expansion board operating in an operation mode other than the basic mode or an internal expansion slot corresponding to the basic mode is connected to the connector of the basic slot, that is, the internal expansion slot connector 12, the mode The CPU circuit 1, which also serves as a setting means, automatically sets the operating mode environment of the bus information input/output via the internal expansion slot connector 12 based on the attachment state of the external expansion slot to the basic slot.

The bus information operation mode environment setting operation according to the present invention will be described below.

When the signal line 14 is connected to the expansion slot connector 13, that is, the external expansion slot for B mode (an operation mode different from the basic mode) is connected to the internal expansion slot connector 12 via the bus converter 9. , when the power to the left of the broken line in the figure is turned on, the CPU circuit 1 starts operating, but since the signal line 14 is grounded within the external expansion slot device, the mode setting request signal on the signal line 14 is not activated. Expansion slot connector 13 to be delivered to signal line 15 (This expansion slot connector 13 is located in the expansion slot for operation mode A of the main body, but it is provided in a position that does not interfere with the attachment and detachment of the peripheral board for original operation mode A. The signal line 15 goes to the L level via the signal line 15 (connected to the signal line). This mode setting request signal is connected to one of the I10 ports of the CPU circuit 1, and the CPU circuit 1 is connected to the startup program (BiO
2), read this and set priority to operation mode B.

Then, when the CPU circuit 1 starts operating in operation mode B, the shared bus 2 and the bus 4 become valid, and the bus 3 becomes invalid. Then, the bus driver 6 for B mode is enabled by the signal lines 17 and 18, and the bus driver 5 for A mode is disabled.

At this time, a signal consisting of the slot bus 7.8 appears on the internal expansion slot connector 12, but this signal is based on the original A mode interface, but is not completely the same, and is similar to the B mode interface. The necessary signals appear in a different arrangement.

This signal is then communicated to the expansion slot device on the right side of the figure by the board inserted into the internal expansion slot connector 12, and returned to the original expansion slot interface in operation mode B by the bus conversion device 9. It is connected to the B-mode external expansion slot connector 10, and is input/outputted to the inserted B-mode expansion board, allowing the expansion board to operate.

On the other hand, if the main unit is powered on with an expansion slot device connected, the signal line 15. Pull-up resistor 1
6, the CPU circuit 1 determines that the operation mode setting request signal is the operation mode A, and the CPU circuit 1 selects the operation mode A at startup (however, depending on the combination of other conditions, the CPU circuit 1 selects the operation mode A). (It may be a configuration that allows selection.)

When the CPU circuit 1 starts operating according to operation mode A, the shared bus 2 and the bus 3 become valid, and the bus 4 becomes invalid. Then, the bus driver 6 for the B mode is disabled and the bus driver 5 for the A mode is enabled by the signal lines 17 and 18.

The signal appearing at the internal expansion slot connector 12 conforms to the original interface of operation mode A, and enables the operation of the A mode expansion board connected to the internal expansion slot connector 12.

Next, the operation mode automatic setting processing operation according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the automatic operation mode setting processing procedure according to the present invention. In addition, (1) to (7
) indicates each step.

First, the CPL1 circuit 1 determines whether the signal line 15 is at the H level.1) If YES, the bus 4 is enabled and the bus 3 is disabled.2) The B mote Novus driver 6 is enabled, and the A After disabling the bus driver 5 for the mode (3), the program processing according to the operation mode B is executed (4), and the processing according to the operation mode B is continued.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (1) is No, bus 4
5) After disabling the B mode bus driver 6 and enabling the A mode bus driver 5 (6), execute the program processing in operation mode A. ), the processing according to operation mode A is continued thereafter.

In the above embodiment, the connection of the expansion slot device to the main body is notified via the expansion slot connector 13.
Although we have described the case where the notification is sent to the PU circuit 1, if it is difficult to install the expansion slot connector 13, the normal internal expansion slot connector 12 (for example, 10
If there is enough pin count (consisting of 0 pins),
The signal line 14 and the signal line 15 may be assigned to specific bins. In addition, if there is no margin in the number of pins, if there is no problem when inserting the original board for operation mode A, it may be possible to cope with this by increasing the number of pins of the internal expansion slot connector 12.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention is provided with a mode setting means for setting the operating environment of bus information input/output via the basic slot based on the attachment state of the external expansion slot to the basic slot. By simply performing connection processing for an expansion slot device in accordance with another operating mode different from the operating mode, the operating mode can be recognized and a desired operating mode can be automatically selected and activated.

Therefore, the operation mode setting process on the host side each time the system is started up can be omitted, and there is no need to check the operation mode, which provides an excellent effect of smoothly starting up the system according to each operation mode.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a computer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an automatic operation mode setting processing procedure according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a CPU circuit, 2 is a shared bus, 34.11 is a bus, 5.6 is a bus driver, 7 and 8 are slot buses, and 9
is a bus conversion device, 10 is an external expansion slot connector, 1
2 is an internal expansion slot connector, 13 is an expansion length slot connector, 1415 is a signal line, and 16 is a pull-up resistor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has multiple compatible operation modes, and with one compatible operation mode as the basic mode, bus information from an external expansion slot that accommodates an external expansion board that operates in an operation mode other than the basic mode is transferred to the basic mode for the basic mode. In a computer device capable of being externally connected via a slot, mode setting means sets an operating mode environment for bus information input/output via the basic slot based on a state of attachment of the external expansion slot to the basic slot. A computer device comprising: