JPH07219718A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce power consumption by logically isolating a logical device and also disconnecting from the power source. CONSTITUTION:When a fault occurs in one of five physical devices 9-1 to 9-5 which can physically be attached/detached and the device is logically isolated, a power circuit 12 disconnects the isolated device from the power supply. Relays are provided in accordance with the respective physical devices in the power circuit 12. Power is supplied when the relays are turned on, and it is cut off when the relays are turned off. Then, power consumption can be reduced by disconnecting the logically isolated device. The device can be exchanged in a state where power is off and malfunction is prevented without the occurrence of noise at the time of exchange.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing device, and more particularly to a logical disconnecting means for logically disconnecting any one of N physically removable devices (N is an integer of 2 or more). And an information processing device having the following.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a plurality of small and inexpensive magnetic disk devices (hereinafter, each magnetic disk device is referred to as a physical device) are synchronously processed in parallel to form a disk array device with high reliability. In some cases, a single high-performance magnetic disk device (hereinafter referred to as a logical device) may be realized.

The form of this disk array device is "A
Case for Redundant Arrays
of Inexpensive Disks (RA
ID) ”(Technical Report UCB
/ CSD 87/391, December 198
7. ), RAID 1 to 5 are proposed. However, when a certain physical device fails in these disk array devices and the physical device is replaced with another normal physical device, the failed physical device is replaced until the replacement. Power was still being supplied to the device.

A system provided with a plurality of magnetic disk devices and a magnetic disk control device for supplying power to these devices is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-216662.
It is described in the figure. According to the first known technology,
When a failure occurs when the power is turned on, the power of the failed apparatus is not turned on, and the degenerate operation can be performed by another normal apparatus.

Further, a technique for reducing power consumption in a floppy disk device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-297760. This is to turn on the power only when the floppy disk medium is mounted. According to the second known technique, the power consumption can be suppressed.

[0006]

In the above-mentioned conventional disk array apparatus, the physical device is replaced while the failed physical device is powered on, which may cause malfunction due to noise at the time of replacement. There was a nature.
In addition, there is a drawback in that the failed physical device remains powered on until the failed physical device is replaced with a normal physical device, and unnecessary power is consumed.

Further, in the above-mentioned first known technique, when a failure occurs in any of the magnetic disk devices during the degenerate operation, power is continuously supplied to the failed apparatus, which is also unsatisfactory. It has the drawback of consuming the required power.

Further, considering that a plurality of floppy disk devices according to the above-mentioned second known technique are used and operated, if any one of the devices has a failure, that device is loaded as long as the medium is loaded. Since the device continues to be supplied with power, it also has the drawback of consuming unnecessary power.

The present invention was devised in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide an information processing apparatus with low power consumption.

[0010]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention is a logical disconnection for logically disconnecting any one of N physically removable devices (N is an integer of 2 or more). An information processing apparatus having means, characterized in that it has a power supply control means for cutting off power supply to a device logically separated by the logical separation means among the N devices.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a host interface 2 connected to a host computer 1, a host interface control circuit 3 connected to the interface 2, and a host connected to the control circuit 3. Data bus 4
And an array data control circuit 5 connected to the bus 4.
, 5 array data buses 6-1 to 6-5 connected to the control circuit 5, 5 device interface control circuits 7-1 to 7-5, and 5 connected to these control circuits, respectively. Device interfaces 8-1 to 8-5,
It is configured to include five physical devices 9-1 to 9-5 respectively connected to these interfaces. In addition,
A logical device 10 is composed of five physical devices 9-1 to 9-5.

Normally, this information processing apparatus operates in units of one logical device, but any one of the five physical devices 9.1 to 9-5 normally operates due to some circumstances. When it becomes impossible, the physical device can be logically separated and the processing can be continued by the degenerate operation.

More specifically, when reading the information written in the logical device 10, the contents of the separated physical device are generated from another non-isolated physical device and stored in the host computer 1. It is transmitted. When writing information to a logical device, information is written to physical devices other than the detached physical device in the same way as during normal operation, and nothing is done to the detached physical device. Of. Such an operation is a degenerate operation.

Detaching the physical device as described above is
At the start of the degeneracy operation, the host computer 1 specifies the physical device to be disconnected and the degeneration operation mode to the microprocessor 11 via the host interface 2 and the host interface control circuit 3. At this time, the microprocessor 1
Reference numeral 1 is a disconnection control circuit 1 for information of a physical device to be disconnected.
8 to the array data control circuit 5 to inform that it is in the degenerate operation mode. The disconnection control circuit 18 transmits information on the physical device to be disconnected to the array data control circuit 5. The array data control circuit 5 determines the physical device to be disconnected according to the instructions from the microprocessor 11 and the disconnection control circuit 18.

At this time, the host computer 1
When an instruction for the separated physical device is given to the microprocessor 11 via the host interface 2 and the host interface control circuit 3, the microprocessor 11 determines that the separated physical device 9
-I (i = 1 to 5) is instructed to operate the device interface control circuit 7-i controlling the device interface 8-i. The device interface control circuit 7-i which has received the instruction executes the instruction to the separated physical device using the data from the array data control circuit 5.

The above operation is similar to the basic operation of a general disk array device. The following is a peculiar operation of the disk array system of this embodiment. That is, unlike the conventional apparatus, the apparatus of this example is provided with the power supply circuit 12 that supplies power to the physical devices 9.1 to 9-5 in response to an instruction from the microprocessor 11. Then, the microprocessor 11 instructs the disconnection control circuit 18 via the interface 19 to disconnect the inoperable physical device, and at the same time, disconnects the physical device disconnected via the power supply control interface 16 from the power supply circuit. Twelve instructions. At the time of this instruction, the microprocessor 11 reports the collected information to the power supply circuit 12.

Further, the microprocessor 11 has a function of adding fault information regarding the array data control circuit 5 and the host interface control circuit 3 and transmitting the fault information to the host computer 1 through the host interface control circuit 3. That is, the failure information is collected in functional block units, and is also collected through a bus different from the normal data bus and control bus.

As a result, one of the device interface control circuits 7-1 to 7-5 or the physical device 9-
If one of 1 to 9-5 is determined to be defective,
It is possible to reduce power consumption by logically disconnecting only the physical device of the system and cutting off the power supply. Further, since the physical device can be replaced while the power is off, noise does not occur at the time of replacement and malfunction does not occur.

Here, an example of the internal configuration of the power supply circuit 12 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the power supply circuit 1
A relay 14-1 is provided corresponding to each of the power source 17 and the physical devices 9-1 to 9-5, and supplies the output of the power source 17 to the corresponding device via the power source interface 13 when in the ON state. 14-5 and a relay control circuit 15 for independently controlling ON / OFF of the relays 14-1 to 14-5 in response to a power supply / disconnect instruction input via the power control interface 16.

According to this configuration, since the relay is provided corresponding to each physical device, the physical devices 9-1 to 9-1
It is possible to independently control the power supply or disconnection of the 9-5.

In the above embodiments, the case where the present invention is provided to the disk array device has been described, but the present invention is widely applied to an information processing device including a plurality of physically removable devices. It is clear that you can do it.

Further, although the number of detachable devices is five in the above-mentioned embodiment, it is obvious that the present invention can be applied not only to the case where a larger number of devices are included.

Furthermore, if the present invention is applied not only at the time of failure but also at the time of maintenance and inspection, the device can be replaced while the power is off, and no noise is generated during replacement and no malfunction occurs.

[0025]

As described above, the present invention has an effect that the power consumption can be reduced by logically disconnecting the device and cutting off the power supply thereof. Further, there is an effect that the device can be replaced while the power is off, no noise is generated during the replacement, and no malfunction occurs.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a power supply circuit in the information processing apparatus of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host Computer 3 Host Interface Control Circuit 5 Array Data Control Circuit 7-1 to 7-5 Device Interface Control Circuit 9-1 to 9-5 Physical Device 10 Logical Device 11 Microprocessor 12 Power Supply Circuit 14-1 to 14-5 Relay 15 Relay control circuit 18 Disconnection control circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus having logical disconnection means for logically disconnecting any one of N physically removable devices (N is an integer of 2 or more).
An information processing apparatus comprising: a power supply control unit that cuts off power supply to a device logically separated by the logical separation unit among the individual devices. 2. The logical disconnection means logically disconnects a device in which a failure has occurred when a failure occurs in any one of the N devices. Information processing equipment. 3. The power supply control means is provided for each of the N devices and controls the power supply to the corresponding devices by N relays, and among these relays, the logical disconnection means logically 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a relay control circuit that controls a relay corresponding to the device that has been separated into the off state to an off state.