JPH04219850A - Control system for remote input/output device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control method for a remote input/output device used at a location remote from a data processing device. With the arrival of an advanced information society in recent years, it has become necessary for personal computers to store large amounts of data. On the other hand, the market needs for personal computers are extremely high, such as making them smaller and lighter so that they can be easily carried anywhere. However, there is a limit to how hard disks can be made larger in capacity, smaller, and lighter, and the current book type has reached its limit in reducing the size and weight of hard disks and other peripheral devices.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example, in which (A) shows a conventional display control method of a serial interface, and (B) shows a control method of a personal computer. In (A), an input/output device 70 with a display is conventionally used as an input/output terminal for TSS services using a large computer.
RT) is provided as an output device, and a keyboard is provided as an input device.

However, such an input/output device 70 has the purpose of receiving a code sent from a large-sized computer through a serial interface 73 and displaying the code itself under the control of a character display control section 71. It is a device that simply converts the printer part into a display. Furthermore, input signals from the keyboard are encoded (codes representing characters) by the keyboard control section 72 and transmitted via the serial interface.

On the other hand, a recent personal computer, shown in FIG. 7B, is equipped with a storage device such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, and has a character display control section, a graphics control section, and a keyboard connected to the CPU via a bus. A control section, a hard disk control section (HDC), a floppy disk control section (FDC), a printer interface, and a memory are provided. Due to the reduction in the cost of memory, such a personal computer 74 is equipped with a large-capacity video memory, and has a configuration that allows high-speed graphic control by controlling the display using the personal computer. Therefore, the output signal to the display device is generally an analog video signal.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Only characters defined in the ASCII or ISO code system can be displayed on the display of the method shown in FIG. 7(A).
The shape and size of the characters are also predefined by the display device. Furthermore, the display device has a problem in that it only has the function of displaying received characters in order from the current position of the cursor to the left, and cannot control the display of graphics.

Furthermore, in the method shown in FIG. 7(B), the interface with the display device is an analog video signal, and in order to satisfy the demand for making the input/output device portable and performing input/output from a remote location. requires a high-speed transmission medium to be able to transmit video signals. An object of the present invention is to provide a control method for a remote input/output device that uses a conventional serial interface and is capable of high-speed graphic display.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 10 is a remote input/output device, 11
1 is a display device, 12 is a keyboard, 13 is a character display control unit, 14 is a graphic display control unit, 15 is a keyboard control unit, 16 is a logical/physical interface conversion unit, 17 is a serial interface, 18 is a remote control unit, and 19 is a 20 is a data processing device, 21 is a serial interface, 22 is a remote control section, 23 is a logical interface control section, and 24 is a data processing section.

The present invention stores and processes data in a data processing device, performs processing corresponding to instructions from a remote input/output device separated from the data processing device, and transmits graphic data to the remote input/output device. and generates a corresponding graphical display on the remote input/output device.

[0009]

[Operation] The data processing device 20 and the remote control units 22, 18 of the remote input/output device 10 are connected to the remote input/output device 10 or the data processing device 20 via the communication line 19 via the serial interfaces 21, 17, respectively. Performs control for communication (protocol control, transmission/reception control, etc.). The operation of the principle configuration of FIG. 1 will be explained with reference to the operation explanatory diagram of the present invention shown in FIG. When the remote input/output device 10 is connected to the data processing device 20 and sends a request using a command from the keyboard 12, the signal coded by the keyboard controller 15 is sent to the logical/physical interface converter 1.
6 and the like to the remote control unit 22 of the data processing device 20, and is supplied to the data processing unit 24 through the logical interface control unit 23.

The data processing section 24 performs processing corresponding to the input command and outputs a control signal for displaying figures to the logic interface control section 23, and then checks the normality of the signal and performs processing corresponding to the displayed figure. The format of the message ("G001 information" in the example of FIG. 2) is edited. This message (logical control code) is prepared in advance in correspondence with the graphic.

Since the message is a combination of short codes, it can be transmitted over the communication line 19 at high speed. When the remote input/output device 10 receives this message, the logical/physical interface conversion unit 16 outputs the character code as it is to the character display control unit 13 for display, and converts it into a logical control code for graphic display. is converted into a physical signal for displaying the corresponding figure and output to the figure display control section 14. The graphic display control section 14 performs control based on input signals and displays graphics on the display device 11.

0012

Embodiment FIG. 3 shows the configuration of an embodiment, FIG. 4 shows a specific operational flow example, FIG. 5 shows an example of a logical interface for graphic control, and FIG. 6 shows an example of a physical interface for a graphic control section. In FIG. 3, the remote input/output device 30 includes a CRT display 31 and a keyboard 32, and internally includes a character display control section 33, a graphic control section 34, a keyboard control section 35, a memory 36, a serial interface 37,
The CPUs 38 are connected to each other by a bus (BUS).

A data processing device 40 connected to the remote input/output device 30 through a communication line 39 includes a serial interface 41, a hard disk controller (HDC) 42, a floppy disk controller (FDC) 43, a printer interface 44, a memory 45, and a The CPUs 46 are connected to each other via a bus, and a hard disk device (HD) 47 and a floppy disk device (FD) 48 are connected to their respective control devices. Note that the communication line 39 can be a variety of lines such as telephone lines of various public networks, data lines, and ISDN.

The functions of the remote control unit 18 and logical/physical interface conversion unit 16 of the remote input/output device 10 shown in FIG. 1 are realized by program processing in the CPU 38 and memory 36 of the embodiment, and The control unit 22, logical interface control unit 23, and data processing unit 24 are realized by program processing in the CPU 46 and memory 45 of the embodiment. Figure 4 shows the operation of the example.
An example of a specific operation sequence shown in FIG. 5 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

From the keyboard 32, select ``RUN PRO''.
When you input the command "G", the keyboard control section 3
5 to the data processing device 40 via the serial interface 37, communication line 39, and serial interface 41, and reaches the CPU 46, where the program stored in the memory 45 is activated. If it is not stored in the memory 45, it will be loaded from either the HD 47 or the FD 48 and then activated. In this example, the specified program name ("PROG") represents a program that draws a circle, and the program starts the circle. In addition to this command, data specifying coordinates, radius, line type, etc. is input from the remote input/output device 30.

[0016] The CPU 46 of the data processing device 40 uses a circle drawing program to execute commands such as ``draw a circle'', ``coordinates'', and ``coordinates''.
Generates graphic control signals such as "radius" and "solid line" (including specified values such as coordinates, radius, etc.). This graphic control signal is converted by a message conversion processing program into one corresponding message from among a large number of messages prepared in advance for each graphic function, as shown in FIG. For example, the graphic control signal (function) "draw a circle" is "G412,
Y, R" message (logical interface) and sent from the serial interface 41 to the communication line 39. FIG. 4 shows a message including the specified values of X=10, Y=10, and R=5.

Messages sent from the data processing device 40 are converted into a physical interface to the graphics control section 34 under the control of the CPU 38 and program of the remote input/output device 30. An example of a physical interface generated by this conversion is shown in FIG. In other words, “G412
, X, Y, R", a physical interface (memory image format) for "drawing a circle" as shown in FIG. 6(a) is generated.

[0018] In this example, one word consists of 16 bits (2 bytes) and includes data for controlling multiple graphic functions, such as function control code (drawing a circle), X coordinate, Y coordinate, radius, etc. ing. When the physical interface of this control section (FIG. 6) is supplied to the graphics control section 34, it is decoded and a corresponding graphic signal is generated and displayed on the CRT display 31.

Other messages (logical interface) shown in FIG. 4, namely "G522,0" and "G526
, 1'', etc. are shown in Figure 5, and the format of the physical interface of each graphic function is shown in Figure 6.
As shown in In the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a CRT display 31 is used as the display device, but it is clear that a lightweight, compact display device such as a liquid crystal display device can be used.

[0020]

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, by providing a graphic control mechanism on the remote input/output device side equipped with a display device, graphic control becomes possible even if a serial interface is used between the display device and the data processing device. Moreover, by using a logical interface, high-speed graphic control becomes possible.

[0021] As a result, the display control function as an input/output device can be made smaller and lighter, and it can be used as if operating a personal computer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of operation.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a logical interface for graphical control.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a physical interface of a graphic control unit.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example, in which (A) is a display control method of a conventional serial interface, and (B) is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example.
) is a control method for personal computers.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Remote input/output device 11 Display device 12 Keyboard 13 Character display control section 14 Graphic display control section 15 Keyboard control section 16 Logical/physical interface conversion section 17
, 21 serial interface 18, 22 remote control section 19 communication line 20 data processing device 23 logical interface control section 24
Data processing section

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A remote input/output device used at a location remote from a data processing device, the remote input/output device comprising a display device and a keyboard, connected to the data processing device via a serial interface, and the display device capable of displaying characters. It is controlled by the control unit and the graphic display control unit, and the graphic display control unit controls the graphic display by converting the logic signal for graphic display sent from data processing by the signal converted by the logical/physical interface conversion unit. A control method for a remote input/output device, characterized in that the device communicates with the remote input/output device and processes requested data under the control of a remote control unit. 2. According to claim 1, a logical interface control section is provided between a remote control section and a data processing section in the data processing device, and a logical interface is provided between the data processing device and the remote input/output device. A control method for a remote input/output device characterized by: