JPH0644192A - Data shareing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To share data between two computers with different processing objects. CONSTITUTION:For a memory connecting device 24 which executes the mapping of the main storage 19 of one computer 1 to the I/O space 26 of the other computer 4, the head address 30 and size 31 of shared data space 20 are designated so that shared data space 20 is executed mapping to an access wind 32 inside I/O space and the shared data space of the computer 1 can be accessed from the computer 4 with a device driver 40. Thus, data is easily transmitted and received between the two computers at high speed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an operating system of a computer, for example, and to a processing system for enabling data sharing between two processors having different processing purposes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 shows computers 1, 4 having different processing purposes.
1 is an example of a system construction for sharing data between two computers. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a computer for real-time processing, of which 2 is a processor and 2 is a main memory. Further, 4 is a computer having a portable operating system, of which 5 is a processor and 6 is a main memory. Further, 7 is a local area network (LAN), which has a connection form for sharing data between these two computers.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG.
When the data processed by the computer 1 is used and processed by the computer 4, the process 10 in the computer 1 first processes the created data 11 by making a system call 12 to the operating system 9. It is transmitted to the process 17 in the above. The process 17 makes a system call 16 to the operating system 15 in advance in order to receive the data 11 from the process 10.

[0004]

Since the conventional data transfer method is configured to transfer data via the LAN device, the data transfer rate is reduced and the data transfer rate is reduced due to the increase in LAN traffic. There were problems such as disappearance. There is also a problem in that the loss of data cannot be communicated to the process.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is possible to transfer and share data between two processors having different processing purposes, and to notify a process of the loss of shared data. The purpose is to obtain a data sharing method that makes possible and enhances reliability.

[0006]

According to the data sharing method of the present invention, a part of the main memory of one computer is secured as a data sharing area, and a process uses a system call for the data sharing area. It is possible to directly access the area by using, and has the following elements. (A) a first computer having a storage memory, (b) a memory coupling device for accessing at least a part of the storage memory of the first computer, (c)
A second computer having the following elements, (c1) a definition file that defines at least a part of the storage memory of the first computer as a shared space, (c2) the shared space defined by the definition file Setting means for setting in the memory coupling device, (c3) a driver for executing a request through the memory coupling device to access the shared space defined in the definition file.

[0007]

According to the data sharing method of the present invention, the setting means sets the information of the shared space of the storage memory of the first computer in the definition file to the memory coupling device so that the driver in the second computer can operate. Realizes the sharing of data by directly accessing the storage memory in the first computer via the memory coupling device for a request for accessing the shared space. In other words, since the main memory of one computer is secured as a shared space for the processes running on the other computer, it is possible to easily access by specifying the offset from the beginning of the data area when accessing data. It becomes possible, and the contents of the data are guaranteed until it is written by another access. Further, it is possible to inform the process of the other computer of the loss of the data in the shared space by downing one computer having the main memory having the shared space.

[0008]

【Example】

Example 1. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, 1 is a computer that holds the shared data space 20, 19 is its main memory, 23 is a physical space, 21 is a multiple logical space of processes, and a process on the computer 1 directly accesses the shared data space 20. It is possible. Two
Reference numeral 4 is a memory coupling device for accessing the shared data space 20 from the computer 4. Further, in FIG.
Is a shared data space defined in the computer 1, 30 is the start address of the shared data space 20, and 31 is the size of the shared data space 20. 27 is a logical space in the computer 4, and 26 is an I / O for accessing a shared data space specially defined in the logical space 27.
It is a space. An access window 32 is provided in the I / O space 26 and has an access window size similar to the size 31 of the shared data space 20 described above. Further, 39 is a place for recording the base register group start address, and 40 is a device driver file having a name "comdata". Reference numeral 50 is a shared data space definition file, which is the shared data space 2 described above.
It is a file that holds a leading address 30 of 0 and a size 31 in advance. 51 is a system initialization file (r
FIG. 3C is a system initialization file for setting the shared data space in the computer 4 when the power is turned on. Further, 34 is a base register group provided in the memory coupling device 24, and a register 35 at the head thereof is a shared data space base register, and this shared data space base register 35 has the above-mentioned start address of the shared data space 20. 30 is set.

The process in the computer 4 is executed in the I / O space 26.
Data can be transferred by a method described below by making an input / output request with respect to the shared data space mapped to. For example, the operating system realizes data access by the method shown in FIG. 2 so that the process can access the shared data space by making an input / output request to the operating system. First, the preprocessing for accessing the shared data space 20 will be described. The hardware of the computer 4 maps the control base register group 34 of the memory coupling device 24 to the base register group start address 39 of the I / O space 26 when the system is booted. On the other hand, in the system initialization file (rc), first, the device driver file 40 for accessing the memory coupling device is created. The device driver file 40 regards the shared data space of the computer 1 as one device. Access to the shared data space is performed via this device driver. The process running on the computer 4 can access the shared data in the shared data space 20 without being aware of the specific access method of the memory coupling device 24 or the shared data space 20. Thereafter, the process can access the memory coupling device by making a system call to the device driver file 40.

Next, when the shared data space definition file exists, the head address 30 and the size 31 are read from the file and the validity is checked, and then the I / O space 2
Shared data space base register 3 mapped to 6
The leading address 30 is written in 5. As a result, the memory coupling device 24 maps the shared data space 20 in the computer 4 onto the access window 32 in the I / O space 26.
After that, the process specifies read / write in the shared data space 20 by designating an offset from the start address 30 of the shared data space 20 (seek system call).
Can be written.

The main points of the above-described pretreatment will be described below. (1) The base register group 34 of the memory coupling device is mapped in the I / O space 26. (2) The head address 39 of the mapped base register group 34 is transmitted to the operating system. (3) The operating system (driver) holds the start address 39 of the control base register group 34 in the data structure, and thereafter uses that address to access the memory coupling device 24. (4) Next, in the system initialization file rc, a process for executing the process of setting up the shared data space is activated.

Next, the initialization operation of the system initialization file 51 will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a specific example of a process in which the system initialization file 51 sets up a shared data space.
First, in S1, the device driver file 40 for accessing the shared data space 20 is created. The creation here means that the device driver is already prepared as a file in advance, but this file is read when the power is turned on so that it can operate in a part of the logical value space 27 of the computer 4. It means to allocate. In this way, the device driver
By being allocated to 7, the process running on the computer 4 can call this device driver at any time. Next, in S2, it is checked whether the shared data space definition file 50 exists,
If it exists, the head address 30 and size 31 of the shared data space 20 defined therein are read. S
4, the start address and size can be set in the shared data space base register 35 prepared in advance in the memory coupling device, or can be set up within a range smaller than the size of the access window 32 scheduled in the logical space 27. The range is checked.
Next, in S5, the head address 30 of the shared data space 20 is set in the shared data space base register 35. The device driver 40 can refer to the start address set in the shared data space base register 35, and when accessing the shared data, the device driver 40 only needs to specify an offset from the start of the shared data space to be stored in the computer 1. It becomes possible to access shared data.

As described above, in this embodiment, the head address 30 of the shared data space 20 is set to the memory coupling device 24 which maps the main memory 19 of one computer 1 to the I / O space 26 of the other computer 4. By specifying the size 31, the shared data space 20 is mapped to the access window 32 in the I / O space, and the shared data space of the computer 1 can be accessed from the computer 4 via the device driver 40. According to this embodiment, data can be exchanged between two computers at high speed and easily.

Example 2. Although the case where the memory coupling device 24 is provided independently between the computers 1 and 4 has been described in the first embodiment, the memory coupling device is the computer 1.
It may exist inside. Alternatively, the memory coupling device may be present inside the computer 4.

Example 3. In the first embodiment, the case where the memory of one computer can be accessed from the other computer between the two computers has been described.
The present invention can be applied not only when there is a single computer but also when three or more computers share a memory.

Example 4. In the first embodiment, the case where the shared data space definition file 50 is provided and the start address 30 of the shared data space 20 and its size 31 are held is shown. By providing the start address and its size, the start address and size used by the shared data space can be changed each time the system is powered on, and the range of the shared data space can be flexible. Can be changed to.

Embodiment 5. In the first embodiment described above, the case where data is shared between two computers has been shown.
The data is not limited to be shared by the computers, and the memory may be shared with an information processing device other than the computers.

Example 6. In the above-described first embodiment, the case where the memory of the computer 1 is shared by the computer 4 is shown. However, by providing the computer 1 with the same configuration as the computer 4, two sets of base register groups are provided in the memory coupling device. By having it, the memory of the computer 4 can be shared by the computer 1, and in this case, the memory of the other computer can be shared in both directions.

As a conventional technique for sharing data, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-79152 discloses a "high-speed access method for shared data in a multiprocessor system".
There is an access method for shared data as shown in
According to this method, when the shared data in the local memory is accessed, a table that points to the address of the shared data is created and the shared data can be accessed by referring to this table. In the above, the indirect table as described above is not necessary, and it is possible to access the shared data from the process simply by designating the offset address of the shared data space. As a conventional access method for shared data, a direct access method is generally used by using a physical address of a shared memory, but in the present invention, a logical address called an offset address is used as described above. It is a great feature of the present invention that shared data can be accessed by using the shared data.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the data space that can be shared between computers can be set up by designating the address size, and the contents of the data are guaranteed unless the computer having the main memory goes down. Data can be exchanged between two computers at high speed and freely.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a hardware conceptual diagram for performing data sharing by securing one main memory as a shared data space between two computers of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing components for realizing the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of system initialization according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a system configuration diagram for exchanging data between two conventional computers.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing processing of a process for performing data transmission in the conventional system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,4 Computer 19 Main memory 20 Shared data space 24 Memory coupling device 27 Logical space 30 Start address 31 Size 32 Access window 34 Base register group 35 Shared data space base register 40 Device driver file 50 Shared data space definition file 51 System initialization File

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A data sharing method having the following elements: (a) a first computer having a storage memory, (b) a memory coupling device for accessing at least a part of the storage memory of the first computer, ( c) a second computer having the following elements, (c1) a definition file that defines at least a part of the storage memory of the first computer as a shared space, (c2) a shared space defined by the definition file (C3) A driver that executes a request for accessing the shared space defined by the definition file through the memory coupling device.