JP2786370B2 - Peripheral device and its device type automatic recognition method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a peripheral device for an electronic computer such as a magnetic tape device and a method for automatically recognizing the device type.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various devices have been commercialized as peripheral devices such as a magnetic tape device. However, in these devices, except for a part of a mechanical unit (mechanical unit), almost all hardware (circuit unit) is used. , The same unit), and different types of devices may be developed.

In this case, it is desired to reduce the number of development man-hours, the number of man-hours, and the like by unifying the control microprogram of the apparatus and automatically detecting the difference in the mechanism.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of a conventional magnetic tape device. In FIG. 8, 1 is a host computer, 2 is a magnetic tape device, 3 is a controller, 4 is a drive unit, 5 is a drive control unit, and 6 is a drive unit. Is a mechanical unit, 7 is an MPU (microprocessor), 8 is a program memory, 9 is a device type setting pin, 10 is a read / write head, 11 is a stepping motor, 12 is a shielding plate for setting the device type, 13
Indicates a sensor.

[0005] A conventional magnetic tape device comprises, for example, a controller 3 as a higher-level control unit and a drive unit 4 as shown in FIG. And the drive unit 4
Is composed of a mechanical section (mechanical section) 6 and a drive control section 5 as a control section thereof.

The drive control unit 5 includes an MPU (microprocessor) 7, a program memory 8, and the like.
The MPU 7 reads a microprogram in the program memory 8 and performs various controls.

The mechanism section 6 is provided with a read / write head 10, a stepping motor 11 for driving the read / write head 10, and the like. In this case, examples of the device type (device type) of the magnetic tape device 4 include a type having a head for 32 tracks and a type having a head for 20 tracks.

Therefore, in order to automatically recognize whether the apparatus uses a head for 20 tracks or an apparatus using a head for 32 tracks, a setting pin 9 or a shielding plate 12 is provided. on the other hand).

The setting pins 9 are provided with a plurality of setting pins 9 on a printed board, for example, and are set between predetermined setting pins 9 according to the type of head (for 20 tracks or 32 tracks) attached to the apparatus. (If the head is replaced, change the short-circuit state of the setting pin accordingly).

For example, the MPU 7 automatically recognizes the type of the head from the short-circuit state of the setting pin 9. When the shielding plate 12 is used,
A slit corresponding to the type of head is formed in the shielding plate 12. When the head is replaced, the shielding plate 12 is replaced with a shielding plate having a slit corresponding to the replaced head (head). Corresponding to the shielding plate).

When the MPU 7 automatically recognizes the type of the head, it drives the stepping motor 11 to perform a head seek operation to move the shielding plate 12 (the carriage on which the shielding plate 12 is mounted is rotated by the rotation of the stepping motor 11). The sensor 13 detects the slit of the shielding plate 12 and recognizes the head type from the detection signal of the sensor 13.

In this manner, M in the drive control unit 5
If the PU 7 automatically recognizes the device type of its own device and can notify the information according to the request of the controller 3, most of the hardware is the same except for a part of the mechanical unit, and a different device is developed. Also, it becomes possible to unify the microprogram for device control.

As a result, development man-hours, manufacturing man-hours, etc. can be reduced.

[0014]

The above-mentioned conventional apparatus has the following problems. (1) When a setting pin is used for automatically recognizing a device type (for example, a difference between heads) in the device, the setting is manually performed, so that a setting error occurs.

If a setting error of the setting pin occurs, incorrect information will be recognized in the subsequent automatic recognition. In addition, the setting by the setting pin has poor workability. (2) In the automatic recognition of the device type using the shielding plate, for example, when the automatic recognition of the device type cannot be performed due to the occurrence of a failure or the like (for example, when the tape has not been rewound) during the automatic recognition. There is.

In such a case, the device type cannot be correctly recognized. That is, when performing automatic recognition of a device type using a shield plate, a rewind operation is performed if a magnetic tape is wound in the device, but if an error occurs in the rewind operation, the rewind operation is performed. Can not be done.

In such a case, if the head seek is performed, the data portion on the tape may be damaged. Therefore, the head seek is not performed. Therefore, automatic recognition of the device type becomes impossible.

As a result, even if there is a request from a higher-level controller, erroneous information may be sent. An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem and to always enable accurate automatic recognition of a device type even when an automatic recognition operation of the device type cannot be performed due to occurrence of a failure or the like. And

[0019]

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining the principle of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the same components as those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Reference numeral 14 denotes a nonvolatile memory.

The present invention has the following configuration to solve the above problems. (1) At least a mechanism unit 6 and its control unit 5 are provided,
The mechanism 6 has a device type determined by a part of the mechanism.
(Apparatus type) An apparatus type setting mechanism 12 in which information is set is provided, and a processor 7 for performing various controls by a microprogram is provided in the control unit 5, and the setting of the apparatus type setting mechanism 12 is controlled by the processor 7. In a peripheral device of a computer which detects information and automatically recognizes the device type of the device, the control unit 5 is provided with a nonvolatile memory 14 in which data can be written and read by the processor 7. 14 stores the device type information automatically recognized under the control of the processor 7, and the processor 7 stores the device type information of its own device.
When the device type is automatically recognized normally, the newly
Update the device type information of the nonvolatile memory 14 with the
If you can not automatically recognize the device type,
The information in the nonvolatile memory 14 is read out, and the
It has a function to automatically recognize the installation type .

(2) In the method for automatically recognizing the device type in the peripheral device having the configuration (1), when the processor 7 normally and automatically recognizes the device type of the own device, the processor 7 uses the newly recognized device type information and the nonvolatile memory 14. The device type information is updated, and if the device type cannot be automatically recognized due to a failure or the like, the information in the nonvolatile memory 14 is read out to automatically recognize the device type of the own device. .

(3) In the configuration (1) or (2), the mechanism section 6 is a mechanism section of the magnetic tape device 2, and the device type is set to read / write data to / from a magnetic tape recording medium. The type (model) of the head to be performed.

[0023]

The operation of the present invention based on the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. For example, when the peripheral device is a magnetic tape device, if a request for recognition of the device type is issued from the higher-level controller 3 when the power of the device is turned on, an MPU (processor) 7 in the drive control unit 5
Performs an internal initialization process, etc., and if the tape is wound in the apparatus, rewinds the tape.

When the tape has been normally rewound,
Alternatively, if no tape is wound in the device, the MPU 7 performs a seek operation of the read / write head 10 and detects the device type from the output signal of the sensor 13 to thereby determine the device type. The device type information that is automatically recognized is written in a nonvolatile memory.

Then, in response to a request from the host controller 3, the device type information automatically recognized is notified to the controller 3. However, when an error occurs during the tape rewinding operation and the tape cannot be rewound, the MPU 7 reads the information stored in the non-volatile memory 14 in the previous processing by reading the information. It automatically recognizes the device type and notifies the host controller 3 as well.

If a request is received from the host controller 3 during normal operation, not when the power is turned on, information is read from the nonvolatile memory 14 to automatically recognize the device type, and the host controller 3 sends the information to the host controller. Can also be notified.

In this way, even when the automatic recognition of the device type becomes impossible due to the occurrence of a failure or the like, the device type can be recognized from the information in the nonvolatile memory.

Therefore, it is possible to always automatically recognize the correct device type automatically.

[0029]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 2 to 7 are views showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIGS. 2 to 7, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Reference numeral 15 denotes an operator panel, 16 denotes a door, 17 denotes a cartridge set / eject mechanism, 18
Is a control printed board, 19 is a write / read circuit printed board, 20 is a machine reel, 21 is a tape guide, 22 is a head positioning mechanism, 24 is a cartridge (magnetic tape cartridge), 25 is a servo circuit printed board,
26, a base frame; 27, a drive microprogram control unit; 28, a write / read (W / R) circuit;
9 is a deck motor, 30 is a cartridge motor, 31 is a servo circuit, 14A is an EEPROM, 32 is a cable,
35 is a carriage, 36 is a slit, 13A is a light emitting unit,
13B indicates a light receiving unit.

This embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a magnetic tape device, and one example of the magnetic tape device is shown in FIG.
In FIG. 2, only the main components of the device are shown).
As shown in FIG. 2, the magnetic tape device 2 includes an operator panel 15, a door 16, a cartridge set / eject mechanism 17, a control printed board 18, a write / read circuit printed board 19, a machine reel 20, a tape guide, and the like. 2
1. Head positioning mechanism 22, read / write head 10, cartridge (magnetic tape cartridge) 2.
4. Servo circuit printed board 25, base frame 26, etc. are provided.

FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of the magnetic tape device having the above configuration. The magnetic tape device 2 includes a controller 3 and a drive unit 4. The controller 3 is an upper-level controller connected to the host computer 1 and exchanging data with the host computer 1 and controlling the drive unit 4.

The drive unit 4 performs recording / reproduction on a recording medium in accordance with control information sent from the controller 3. The drive section 4 includes a drive microprogram control section 27, a servo circuit 31, a write / read circuit 28, a read / write head 10, a deck motor 2
9, stepping motor 11, cartridge motor 3
0, a sensor 13, an operator panel 15, and the like.

The drive microprogram controller 27 includes an MPU (microprocessor) 7, a program memory 8, and an E ² PROM (Electrically Erasable an).
d Programmable Read Only Memory: A read-only memory (electrically erasable and writable memory) 14A is provided.

The above drive microprogram control unit 2
In 7, the MPU 7 reads a microprogram in the program memory 8 and performs servo control and other drive control in the drive unit 4, various interface processes for the controller 3, and the like.

For example, in response to an interface signal transmission / reception process with the host controller 3, a command from the operation panel 15, various operations related to tape handling (auto-loading, unloading, resetting, etc.) and tape running are performed by a servo circuit. The CPU 31 performs a sequential operation of the entire apparatus to be executed by the apparatus 31, control relating to writing / reading, drive control of the stepping motor 11, and the like.

The servo circuit 31 is operated by the stepping motor 1
1. Servo control is performed to drive the deck motor 29, the cartridge motor 30, and the like.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the head positioning mechanism 22 (see FIG. 2) installed in the magnetic tape device. The head positioning mechanism 22 is a mechanism for positioning the read / write head 10 on a target track when the servo circuit 31 drives the stepping motor 11 based on a command from the drive microprogram control unit 27. is there.

As shown in FIG. 4, the head positioning mechanism 22 is provided with a carriage 35 which moves in the direction of the arrow in the figure (up and down direction in the figure) in accordance with the rotation of the stepping motor 11. The read / write head 10 is fixed to the head.

Further, the shielding plate 1 is mounted on the carriage 35.
2 is fixed and moves together with the carriage 35. Further, a sensor 13 is provided near the shielding plate 12, and the sensor 13 is configured to read setting information of the shielding plate 12.

The shielding plate 12 constitutes a device type setting mechanism, and sets, for example, a difference in the number of tracks. Slits 36 are formed in the shield plate 12 at track position intervals, and each time the vehicle moves between tracks,
The output of the sensor 13 turns on / off. The MPU 7 of the drive microprogram control unit 27 compares the number of tracks moved from the reference track with the number of sensor output signals to determine whether the operation has been performed normally.

In this head positioning mechanism, by sending a pulse signal from the servo circuit 31 to the stepping motor 11, the carriage 35 can be moved a predetermined distance (for example, 35 microns) in one of the upper and lower directions per pulse.

In practice, by sending a few pulses, the read / write head 10 can be positioned at a specified track position. The shield plate 12 and the sensor 1
FIG. 5 shows an example of No. 3. 5 (A) is a side view of the shielding plate 12, FIG. 5 (B) is a view as viewed from the X direction (10-division slit), and FIG. 5 (C) is a view as viewed from the X direction (16-division slit). FIG. 5 (D) is a diagram showing a sensor.

The shielding plate 12 is, as shown in FIG.
It is composed of a plate with a slit 36, for example, 2
In order to correspond to the heads of track 0 and track 32, two types of slits (10-slits and 16-slits) are used.

Each slit 36 matches the actual track pitch, and one of the shield plates 12 is fixed to the apparatus in accordance with the read / write head 10.
For example, when a read / write head 10 for 20 tracks is provided in the apparatus, a shield plate 12 having 10 divided slits is attached to the apparatus, and a read / write head 10 for 32 tracks is provided in the apparatus. In such a case, a shield plate 12 having 16 split slits is attached to the apparatus.

As an example, in the case of a 10-division slit, the slit interval is 560 μm, and the read / write head 10 can be moved 560 μm by sending 16 pulses (560 μm / 35 μm = 16 pulses).

In the case of a 16-division slit, the slit interval is 350 μm, and by sending 10 pulses,
The read / write head 10 can be moved by 350 μm (3
50 μm / 35 μm = 10 pulses).

As the sensor 13, an optical sensor composed of a light emitting section (for example, a light emitting diode) 13A and a light receiving section (for example, a phototransistor) 13B is used. In this sensor, a light emitting unit 13A and a light receiving unit 13B are arranged on both sides of a shielding plate 12 therebetween.

When the light from the light emitting section 13A passes through the slit 36 and is received by the light receiving section 13B, the light from the light emitting section 13A is blocked by the shielding plate 12 and
Since the output signal of the light receiving unit 13B is different when the light cannot be received by B, the device type is detected from the output signal.

The output signal of the light receiving section 13B is input to the MPU 7 in the drive microprogram control section 27, and the MPU 7 detects the signal and performs automatic recognition of the device type (head type).

The information of the device type automatically recognized is
The information is stored in the EEPROM 14A. For example, in the case of two types of devices, only 1-bit identification information (for example, “0” is 20 track heads and “1” is 32 track heads) may be stored.

The processing of this embodiment (processing of the MPU 7) will be described below with reference to the processing flowcharts of FIGS. 6 and 7 are shown in parentheses. In this example, it is assumed that there is a request from the host controller 3 regarding the recognition of the device type during the device start-up process when the power is turned on. Therefore, the following processing will be described as the processing at power-on.

When the power of the magnetic tape device 2 is turned on,
The drive circuit and other circuits are initialized (initialized) (S1), and the circuit system and the mechanical system are initialized (S2).

When this process is completed, it is determined whether or not a tape is wound in the apparatus (S3). If the tape is wound, a rewind operation is executed (S4). As a result, when the winding is completed normally (S5), the head seek operation is performed, and the device type (head type) is automatically recognized (S5).
6). When the tape is not wound (S3)
Similarly, automatic recognition of the device type is performed.

Thereafter, the data in the EEPROM 14A (non-volatile memory) is read and compared with the information already stored (the information recognized in the previous processing).
Rewrite the contents of the EEPROM 14A. However, if there is no difference, it is left as it is (S7).

Then, the status information including the self-recognized device type information is transmitted to the upper controller 3 (S9). Also, if the tape could not be rewound normally in the above process (when the tape could not be terminated normally), (S
5) Read data from the EEPROM 14A and automatically recognize the device type (S8).

Then, status information including the device type is sent to the controller (S9). As described above, when the tape cannot be rewound normally, performing the head seek may damage the data portion on the tape, and the head seek is not performed.

Therefore, since the detection signal from the sensor 13 cannot be obtained and the device type cannot be automatically recognized by head seek, the processing is performed as described above. Automatic device type recognition processing by the above-described head seek operation (processing of S6)
Is as follows.

In this process, the stepping motor 11 is rotated, the distance between the slits 36 is recognized based on the amount of rotation (the number of pulses), and the apparatus type is determined. First, in order to move the position of the carriage 35 to the reference position, the stepping motor 11 is rotated to move the carriage 35 to the uppermost position (S11).

In this case, the movement is performed until no slit signal is output. Next, the stepping motor 11 is rotated in the direction of lowering the carriage 35 (S12), and is moved to the first detection position of the slit 36 (S13).

Thereafter, the stepping motor 11 is further rotated in a direction to lower the carriage 35 (S14), and is moved until the slit is detected again (S15). Then, the rotation amount (number of pulses) of the stepping motor 11 from the first slit detection to the next slit detection is checked, and the device type is determined (S16).

That is, according to the above two types of slits, 1
Since there are cases of 0 division slit and 16 division slit,
By detecting this, the device type can be automatically recognized. Note that the above processing is performed when the power of the apparatus is turned on, or for example, during operation of the apparatus,
If there is a request for the device type from
The U7 may read out the device type information from the non-volatile memory 14A, recognize it, and report it to the upper controller 3.

This eliminates the need for head seek and other processing. (Other Embodiments) Although the embodiments have been described above, the present invention can be implemented as follows.

(1) The present invention is applicable not only to the magnetic tape device but also to other similar devices. (2) The magnetic tape device can be similarly applied to a device having a configuration different from that of the above embodiment.

(3) As the device type, not only the difference between the heads but also the difference between other mechanisms may be used.

[0066]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. (1) Even if the device type cannot be automatically recognized due to a failure or the like, the device type can be automatically recognized from the information in the nonvolatile memory.

(2) It is possible to always automatically recognize the correct device type automatically, and to report to the upper-level controller using correct information. Therefore, the reliability of the device is also improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a magnetic tape device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the magnetic tape device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a head positioning mechanism.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a shielding plate and a sensor.

FIG. 6 is a processing flowchart (from power-on to device type recognition) of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a device type recognition process (the process of FIG. 6).

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional magnetic tape device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 host computer 2 magnetic tape device 3 controller 4 drive unit 5 drive control unit 6 mechanical unit (mechanical unit) 7 MPU (microprocessor) 8 program memory 10 read / write head 11 stepping motor 12 shielding plate (device type setting unit) ) 13 Sensor 14 Non-volatile memory

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] An apparatus comprising at least a mechanism (6) and a controller (5) for controlling the mechanism, wherein the mechanism (6) has a device module determined by a part of the mechanism .
The control unit (5) is provided with a processor (7) for performing various controls by a microprogram, and the control unit (5) controls the device type by controlling the processor (7). In a peripheral device of a computer which detects setting information of a setting mechanism (12) and automatically recognizes the device type of the device, data writing and reading are performed by the processor (7) in the control unit (5). Possible nonvolatile memory (1
4) is provided, in said non volatile memory (14), storing the device type information automatically recognized by the control of the processor (7) co
In addition, the processor (7) normally sets the device type of its own device.
When automatically recognized, the newly recognized device type information
Update the device type information in the non-volatile memory (14).
If the device type cannot be automatically recognized,
Reads the information from the transmission memory (14) and reads the device data of the own device.
A peripheral device characterized by having a function of automatically recognizing an IP . 2. When the processor (7) automatically and automatically recognizes its own device type, the processor (7) updates the device type information in the non-volatile memory (14) with the newly recognized device type information. 2. The peripheral device according to claim 1, wherein when the automatic recognition of the device type cannot be performed due to the occurrence of the above, information of the nonvolatile memory is read out and the device type of the own device is automatically recognized. Device type automatic recognition method. 3. A head (10) for reading / writing data from / to a magnetic tape recording medium, wherein the mechanism (6) is a mechanism of a magnetic tape device (2). 3. The method for automatically recognizing a device type in the peripheral device according to claim 1 or the peripheral device according to claim 2, wherein