JPH0436410B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention is directed to a method for searching content that matches search conditions specified by a command from a main device from among a huge group of data stored in a secondary storage device. The present invention relates to a content search processing device that searches only a data group and transfers it to a main unit, and particularly relates to control for transferring search result data to the main unit.

[Prior art]

In the field of search processing, especially when searching for necessary data based on its content from a huge group of data stored in a large number of secondary storage devices, the main unit required to search the contents of a huge group of data is In order to save processing time, a method has been implemented in which the content search processing function is placed near the control circuit of the secondary storage device and the search is executed in synchronization with reading from the secondary storage device. Such conventional technology will be explained below.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first configuration example of a conventional content search processing device, in which 1 is a secondary storage device for storing data groups, 2 is a content search processing device, 8 is an I/O interface, and 9 is a secondary storage device for storing a data group. This is the main device. Of these, 1,
8 and 9 are similar to the configurations of the secondary storage device, I/O interface, central processing unit, etc. in large-scale general-purpose computer systems that are currently widely used. The content search processing device 2 uses a secondary storage control unit 3 that controls reading and writing of data to the secondary storage device 1, and extracts data whose contents match the search conditions specified by the command from the main device 9 from among the read data group. a content search circuit 4 for searching, an I/O interface control unit 5 for controlling communication with the main unit 9 via an I/O interface 8, a register 6 for temporarily storing searched data, and all of these. The system is composed of a common control section 100 that manages physical control.

FIG. 2 shows the operational flow of the content search processing device 2 in FIG. 1. After receiving the search conditions from the main unit 9 via the I/O interface 8 by the first command (step 101), a channel/device termination report is sent to the main unit 9 (step 101).
102), requests a command chain for the second command. In the second command, the content search process and the search result transfer process are repeated until the content search is completed (steps 103, 104, and 105). That is, under the control of the common control unit 100, data is read from the secondary storage device 1 via the secondary storage control unit 3, the content of the read data is searched by the content search circuit 4, and the search conditions are met. Set the data to register 6. Every time data is set in this register 6, it is transferred to the main unit 9 via the I/O interface control section 5. When a series of searches are completed in this way, the channel/
A device termination report is made (step 106) and all operations are terminated. The time relationship between the content search process S and the search result transfer process T using this second command is shown in FIG.

As is clear from FIG. 3, in the conventional example shown in FIG. 1, each time the content search circuit 4 retrieves data that matches the search conditions, it is transferred to the main device 9, so one content search device is used. During operation, one I/O interface will be used exclusively.

By the way, this type of content search processing device is used to perform high-speed content searches on huge data groups, and in this case, it is often necessary to operate a large number of content search processing devices at the same time. It is common to do this. Therefore, the first
In the conventional example, the number of I/Os is the same as the content search processing device.
It has the disadvantage that it requires an interface and a channel device for the main device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second configuration example of a conventional content search processing device, in which data of content search results is buffered and transferred all at once to the main unit. In FIG. 4, 2a and 2b are content search processing devices, and the difference from FIG. 1 is that a buffer 7 is provided in place of the register 6.

FIG. 5 shows the operation flow of the content search processing devices 2a and 2b in FIG. 4. After receiving the search conditions from the main unit 9 via the I/O interface 8 by the first command (step 201), and reporting the end of the channel to the main unit 9 (step 201),
202), first, the connection state with the I/O interface 8 is released. Then, content search processing is started, and the data matching the search conditions are sequentially buffered.
(Step 203). After that, when the series of content searches is completed or the buffer 7 becomes full (step 204), the connection with the I/O interface 8 is restarted and the device termination in response to the first command is reported (step 205). Requests a command chain for the second command. In the second command, the search results in the buffer 7 are transferred to the main unit 9 (step 206), a channel/device termination report is made, and the operation is ended (step 207).

FIG. 6 shows the time relationship among the content search process S, the buffer storage process BI, the buffer read process BO, and the transfer process T in the conventional example shown in FIG. As is clear from FIG. 6, in the second conventional example shown in FIG. 4, while a certain content search processing device is executing search processing, the search results are buffered and the I/O interface is not used. Content search processing devices can use the same I/O interface to perform transfer processing, and one set of I/O interfaces can be used in a time-sharing manner by multiple content search processing devices. becomes. For convenience, FIG. 4 shows a case where two content search processing devices 2a and 2b are connected to one set of I/O interfaces 8.

However, in the case of the conventional example shown in Fig. 4, the content search process is interrupted every time the buffer becomes full, and the main unit determines whether the search has ended, and if it is interrupted, the content search is restarted using a command. need to be instructed. Therefore, there is a drawback that it takes a long time to search the contents of the entire data group.

As described above, the conventional technology has drawbacks such as requiring the same number of I/O interfaces and channel devices of the main unit as content search processing devices, and the inability to execute content search processing continuously.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a content search processing device that allows multiple content search processing devices to use a set of I/O interfaces in a time-sharing manner and to execute content search processing continuously without interruption. There is a particular thing.

[Summary of the invention]

The main point of the present invention is to provide a plurality of buffers for temporarily storing data of content search results, and to switch buffers every time the data in the buffer reaches a certain amount to continue the content search process. Only when this is reached, the I/O interface is connected to transfer the search results of the buffer to the main unit, and at the same time, a command chain is established to prepare for the next data transfer process.

[Embodiments of the invention]

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. For convenience, in FIG. 7, it is assumed that two content search processing devices 2a and 2b use the I/O interface 8 in a time-sharing manner, but of course, it is not necessary to use two content search processing devices. In FIG. 7, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 and FIG. 7 are given the same reference numerals. Note that the common control unit 100 is omitted.

Each content search processing device 2a, 2b includes two sets of buffers 10-1,
10-2. There is no need to provide two sets of buffers, and generally N sets (N is an integer of 2 or more) are provided. 11 is batshua 10-1, 10
-2 is a counter that counts the amount of stored data, and 12 is a transfer capacity register that indicates the amount of data transferred at one time. Reference numeral 13 designates a switching circuit that switches the buffer for storing search result data when the count value of the counter 11 reaches a predetermined capacity of the register 12;
Reference numeral 4 designates a selection circuit that selects one buffer when the data stored in that buffer reaches a predetermined capacity.

FIG. 8 shows the operational flow of the embodiment shown in FIG.
First, the content search processing devices 2a and 2b transfer search conditions from the main device 9 in response to a first command (step 301). Transfer capacity register 1 specifies the one-time divided transfer capacity specified as part of this search condition.
2, and other search conditions are set in the content search circuit 4. When the above preparations are completed, the I/O interface control unit 5 under the control of the common control unit
reports the end of the channel to the main unit 9, releases the connection with the main unit 9, and makes the I/O interface 8 available for use by others (step 302). The content search circuit 4 reads out the data group from the secondary storage device 1 via the secondary storage control unit 3 and performs content search processing on the data group (step 303). Then, while storing the content search result data in the buffer 10-1, the counter 11 counts its capacity. When the content search within the range specified by the search conditions is completed,
The I/O interface control unit 5 requests connection with the main device 9, and when the connection is permitted, reports the end of the first command due to device termination, and requests a command chain to the second command (step
304, 307). On the other hand, while the content search is not completed,
When the content search results in the buffer 10-1 reach a predetermined capacity, the switching circuit 13 switches the buffer for storing the search results to 10-2 to continue the content search process, while the I/O interface control unit 5
requests connection with the main device 9, and after the connection is permitted, reports the end of the first command by device termination, and requests a command chain to the second command (steps 304, 305, 306).

In the second command, if the content search has already been completed, the I/O interface control unit 5 transfers the search results stored in the buffer 10-1 or 10-2 to the main device 9, and After completion, the end of the second command is reported by channel end and device end (steps 308, 309,
310). On the other hand, if the content search process continues, the I/O interface control unit 5 transfers the search results stored in the buffer 10-1 or 10-2 to the main device 9, and after the transfer is completed, the channel While reporting the completion and releasing the connection state with the main device 9, the content search circuit 4 continues the content search process (steps 308, 311, and 312). Thereafter, when the content search process is completed, the I/O interface control unit 5 requests connection with the main unit 9, and when the connection is permitted, reports the end of the second command due to device termination, and repeats the second command. A command chain is requested for two commands (steps 313 and 316). On the other hand,
When the search results in one buffer reach a predetermined capacity while the content search is not completed, the switching circuit 14 switches the buffer storing the search results to the other buffer and continues the content search process, while the I/O interface The control unit 5 requests connection with the main device 9, and when the connection is permitted, reports the end of the second command due to device termination, and requests a command chain for the second command again (steps 313, 314, 315).
Thereafter, the second commands are executed one after another from the command chain, and the final transfer process is performed with the command next to the command for which the content search process has been completed, ending all operations.

FIG. 9 shows the relationship among content search processing, buffer storage processing, and transfer processing to the main unit in this embodiment. In the figure, Sa indicates content search processing in one content search processing device 2a, and BIa ₁ and BIa ₂ indicate storage processing in two buffers 10-1 and 10-2 of the same device 2a, BOa ₁ and BOa, respectively. ₂ are respectively batshua 10-1,
10-2 shows output and transfer processing of search results stored in 10-2. Also, Sb, BIb ₁ , BIb ₂ ,
BOb ₁ and BOb ₂ are respective content search processing devices 2
The corresponding processing in b is shown. Ta ₁ , Tb ₁ ,
Ta ₂ and Tb ₂ are BOa ₁ , BOb ₁ , BOa ₂ , respectively
The transfer process on the I/O interface corresponding to BOb ₂ is shown. Content search processing is performed continuously as in Sa, storage in buffers is switched every time a predetermined capacity is reached as in BIa ₁ and BIa ₂ , and search result transfer processing is performed as in BOa ₁ and BOa ₂ . This is done in response to buffers.

In content search processing, only data that matches the search conditions from the main device is transferred to the main device, so the amount of data transferred to the main device is generally smaller than the amount of data read from the secondary storage device. few. In addition, since the reading speed from the secondary storage device and the data transfer speed of the I/O interface are generally set in a balanced manner, the BO
The time required for BI is shorter than the time required for BI.
Therefore, after the transfer process BIa ₁ and BOa ₂ of one buffer is completed, the use of the I/O interface is canceled, and the transfer process of other content search processing devices is canceled.
Can perform BIb ₂ and BOb ₂ . in this way,
The I/O interface performs time-sharing transfer processing Ta ₁ , Tb ₁ , Ta ₂ , from the content search processing devices 2a and 2b.
Tb ₂ can be done.

In the embodiment, the switching capacity of the buffer is specified by a command from the main unit, but without doing so, the buffer may be switched when the storage capacity of the buffer reaches a predetermined predetermined capacity.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention includes a plurality of buffers for temporarily storing content search result data, and each time the data stored in one buffer reaches a predetermined capacity, the storage buffer is switched to continue content search processing. However, since the search results are transferred through the command chain, the content search process can be executed continuously without interruption. In addition, after the content search processing device transfers the search results of one buffer, it releases the connection with the main unit and makes the I/O interface usable, so multiple content search processing devices connect to the I/O interface. Ace can be used in a time-sharing manner, and a large number of content search processing devices can be connected to one I/O interface and operated simultaneously. As described above, the present invention has the advantage that the time required for content search can be shortened by connecting a large number of content search processing devices using the minimum number of I/O interfaces.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a first configuration example of a conventional content search processing device, Fig. 2 is an operation flow diagram of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a timing diagram of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a conventional content search processing device. A diagram showing a second configuration example of the search processing device, FIG. 5 is an operation flow diagram of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a timing diagram of FIG. 4, and FIG. 7 is an implementation of the content search processing device of the present invention. 8 is an operation flow diagram of FIG. 7, and FIG. 9 is a timing diagram of FIG. 7. 1...Secondary storage device, 2a, 2b...Content search processing device, 3...Secondary storage control unit, 4...Content search circuit, 5...I/O interface, 10-
1, 10-2... Buffer, 8... I/O interface, 9... Main unit, 11... Counter,
12... Division transfer capacity register, 13... Switching circuit, 14... Selection circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Search the contents of a data group connected via the I/O interface of the main device and read from the secondary storage device, and search for content that matches the search conditions specified by a command from the main device. A content search processing device that transfers data (hereinafter referred to as search result data) to the main unit via the I/O interface, comprising: a plurality of buffers for temporarily storing the search result data; and a plurality of buffers. a switching circuit connected to the input side of the buffer for switching a buffer for storing the search result data; a selection circuit connected for the output side of the plurality of buffers for selecting a buffer for reading the search result data; an I/O interface control unit that controls communication with the main device via the Ace; and an I/O interface control unit that controls the switching circuit every time the search result data stored in one of the plurality of buffers reaches a predetermined amount. to sequentially switch the storage destination buffer, and continuously execute the content search process for the data group within the range specified by the search conditions, while controlling the I/O interface control unit to connect to the main unit and restore the previous data. reports the end of the command and requests a command chain to the next command; upon receiving the command, controls the selection circuit to select the buffer in which the search result data is stored;
a common control unit that transfers the search result data of the buffer to the main unit, and when the transfer is completed, controls the I/O interface control unit again to release the connection with the main unit; A content search processing device characterized by: