JPS6237858B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a power-on control system configured to turn on power to a terminal device only when necessary.

Generally, in a banking system, a control device such as a central processing unit (center) receives data such as the day's trading volume from a terminal device at night.

In order to receive data from this terminal device, each terminal device must be powered on, but since it is wasteful to leave the power on all day long, the applicant has already proposed this method. The power-on method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 53-83428 is adopted.

That is, a power-on command is issued from the central processing unit (center), and in the terminal device, only the part that decodes this power-on command, that is, the power control unit 2 or the power control unit (APC), is always powered on. This power control unit or power control device (APC) receives the power-on command and turns on the power of the terminal device.

Conventionally, in such data transmission systems, after the power is turned on, the terminal device performs initialization such as rotation of necessary programs, and then, after the terminal device becomes able to operate normally, the central processing unit In response to the startup request, a machine ready signal is sent and the actual processing operation begins.

However, in such conventional power-on control methods, the terminal device is powered on in response to a startup request from the control device, and during initialization until the terminal device operates normally, the terminal device does not perform control. No response can be made to the device. Of course, this is because the terminal device cannot perform any processing while it is being initialized.

However, some recent terminal devices have storage devices such as hard magnetic disk devices, and initialization of these devices often requires time such as waiting for the disk to rotate, so it often takes a long time to initialize the terminal device. There are more and more.

Therefore, no matter how many activation requests are received from the control device during this initialization, no response is returned from the terminal device side, so the central processing unit side may treat the terminal device as having some kind of abnormality.

This varies depending on the system, but for example, retransmission of a startup request is usually limited to about 7 times, and terminal devices with long initialization times as described above may be judged as having an abnormality as described above. Ta.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new power-on control method that eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks.The purpose of this invention is to issue a power-on command from a control device to a terminal device and turn on the power to the terminal device. In a power-on control method in which data is transferred between the control device and the terminal device after the power is turned on, the terminal device that has received the power-on command does not control the control device until the terminal device operates normally after the power is turned on. This is achieved by making the terminal device send out a signal indicating that it is preparing for operation in response to an activation request from.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the power-on control method of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a central processing unit (control unit);
2 and 2 are modems, 3 and 3' are power control devices,
4 and 4' indicate terminal devices, respectively.

The data transmission system shown in FIG. 1 is a banking system, and the terminal devices 4 and 4' are bank terminal devices. During the day, the terminal devices 4, 4' are always powered on. The central processing unit 1 on the center side, the modems 2 and 2, and the power control units 3 and 3' are always powered on day and night.

As mentioned above, in the banking system, the central processing unit 1 on the center side receives processing data from the terminal devices 4, 4' even at night. Since the terminal devices 4 and 4' are not powered on at night, in order for the central processing unit to receive data from the terminal devices 4 and 4', the corresponding terminal device, for example, terminal device 4, must first be powered on. No.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a power supply control device 3 and a terminal device 4, which are characteristic parts of the power-on control system of the present invention. In the figure, the same symbols as in Figure 1 indicate the same things, and 5, 5' are drivers, 6,
6' is a receiver, 7 is a power-on command decoder,
Reference numeral 8 indicates a signal generation unit in preparation for terminal device operation, 9 indicates a line control unit, 10 indicates a microprocessor, 11 indicates a memory, 12 indicates a disk control unit, 13 indicates a hard disk device, 14 indicates a common bus, and 15 indicates a machine ready pointer. show.

When the power control device 3 normally receives the power-on command via the receiver 5, it instructs the terminal device 4 to turn on the power via the power-on command decoder 7, and at the same time sends an instruction to the central processing unit 1 (see FIG. 1). The terminal device operation preparation signal generating section 8 sends out a signal indicating that the terminal device 4 is preparing for operation, that is, initializing, via the driver 6'. What you need to be careful about here is the power-on command. This power-on command may be completely new to distinguish it from other commands, but in the embodiment of the present invention, it is also used as a startup request signal for the terminal device.

Therefore, the first time a startup request is sent from the central processing unit 1 to the terminal device 4 is treated as a power-on command. Therefore, in response to this power-on command, that is, a startup request, a signal indicating that the terminal device 4 is preparing for operation is sent from the terminal device side (actually from the power control device 3) to the central processing unit 1. . When the central processing unit 1 receives this signal indicating that the terminal device 4 is preparing for operation, the central processing unit 1 determines that the terminal device 4 is preparing for operation, and thereafter increases the interval between sending startup requests to the terminal device 4 and periodically sends the activation request to the terminal device 4. Sends a device startup request.

On the other hand, in the terminal device 4, when the hard disk device 13 rotates normally, the memory is transferred from this disk 13 via the disk control unit 12.
IPL (Initial Program Load) is performed, self-diagnosis of various hardware in the terminal device 4 is performed using the microprocessor 10 and memory 11, and power supply is controlled by setting the machine ready pointer 15 of the line control section 9. Notification is made to the terminal device operation preparation signal generation unit 8 of the device 3.

Until the machine ready pointer 15 is set, the power supply control device 3 sends a signal indicating that the terminal device 4 is preparing for operation in response to an activation request from the central processing unit 1.

When the machine ready pointer 15 is set, the power supply control device 3 enables the driver 6 and receiver 5' and connects the line to the terminal device 4, and the terminal device 4 accepts subsequent startup requests from the central processing unit 1. Make sure to return a response.

Therefore, when a startup request is received from the central processing unit 1 in this state, the terminal device 4 responds to the central processing unit 1 with a machine ready signal indicating that it can respond to the startup request. Perform predetermined processing.

As described above, in the present invention, a power-on instruction is given to the terminal device, and if the terminal device is preparing for operation after the power is turned on to the terminal device, in response to a startup request from the central processing unit, By responding that the terminal device is preparing for operation, the interval at which the central processing unit issues a startup request becomes longer, so even if the terminal device is preparing for operation (initialization) for a long time, it may be determined that the device is safe. It disappears.

Further, in carrying out the present invention, there is no need to modify the central processing unit or the terminal device at all, and only a portion of the power supply control device can be modified, so that the invention can be implemented at low cost.

Although not described in detail, in normal processing, when the central processing unit issues a startup request to the terminal device, the startup request is issued depending on whether there is no response or when a response indicating that it is preparing for operation is returned. It is generally known to change the time interval at which the signals are emitted.

Further, in the embodiments, the power supply control device and the terminal device have been described as separate bodies, but the power supply control unit may be included as a part of the terminal device, and the present invention also includes this case.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a power-on control system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a terminal device according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a central processing unit, 2, 2',
2″, 2 is the modem, 3, 3′ is the power control device,
4, 4' are terminal devices, 5, 5' are drivers, 6,
6' is a receiver, 7 is a power-on command decoder,
Reference numeral 8 indicates a signal generation unit in preparation for terminal device operation, 9 indicates a line control unit, 10 indicates a microprocessor, 11 indicates a memory, 12 indicates a disk control unit, 13 indicates a hard disk device, 14 indicates a common bus, and 15 indicates a machine ready pointer. show.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A device comprising a control device and a terminal device, wherein the control device issues a power-on command to the terminal device, and after turning on the power to the terminal device, the control device issues the power-on command. In a power-on control method in which data is transmitted between the control device and the terminal device only when a response signal is received from the terminal device within a certain period of time after the response signal is issued, A power supply control device connected via a line, a generating means provided in the power supply control device and generating a response signal indicating preparation to the control device, and the terminal device being in a state capable of data transmission. detection means for detecting that the terminal device is capable of data transmission with the control device after power is turned on; and output means for outputting a ready signal to the power supply control device based on the detection result when the detection means detects that the terminal device is capable of data transmission with the control device after power is turned on. is provided in the terminal device, and the power control means turns on the power to the terminal device after receiving the power-on command, and responds to the activation signal from the control device until the ready signal is output. A power-on control method characterized in that a response signal is generated, and after the preparation completion signal is output, the control device and the terminal device are brought into a connected state.