JPH0533558B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a board extension method for adding boards mounted on a motherboard.

(Prior Art) Generally, a board on which connections are made for interconnecting a plurality of printed circuit boards is commonly called a motherboard. The conventional method of adding a board mounted on such a motherboard is basically to provide a slot for the extension board in the board insertion rack of the motherboard, and insert the extension board into this slot. In this case, the expansion board has one fixed circuit configuration by integrating a plurality of circuit blocks (interface circuit blocks), and is fixed by printed wiring. Therefore, by changing the insertion of additional boards having different circuit configurations as appropriate, the entire circuit configuration made up of each board can be made expandable.

In such a board expansion method, focusing on the installation method of slots for expansion boards, (i) A method of providing the same number of expansion board slots as the maximum number of expansion boards: In other words, one expansion board slot is installed for one type of expansion board. (ii) A method of providing a slot for the minimum necessary number of expansion boards: In other words, a method of connecting multiple types of expansion boards to one expansion board slot. Can be divided.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above conventional board expansion method has the following problems.

(b) In the board expansion method using the expansion board slot installation method described in (i) above, if there are a large number of expansion boards, it is necessary to provide slots for expansion boards in the board insertion rack of the motherboard according to the number. Therefore, there is a problem in that the volume of the board insertion rack becomes large, and as a result, the external dimensions of the entire device become large.

(b) In both the board expansion methods using the installation methods (i) and (ii) above, if one expansion board is composed of multiple interface circuit blocks, the There is a problem in that a new expansion board must be developed for each combination of Ace circuit blocks.

Therefore, the present invention solves these problems and
The purpose is to suppress the volume of the board insertion rack to the necessary minimum and realize expansion of various circuit configurations (especially interface circuits) flexibly and efficiently.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a board expansion method in which, when adding a board to be mounted on a motherboard, the board is inserted into an extension board slot provided in a board insertion rack of the motherboard. It depends.

The present invention provides such a board expansion method, in which the expansion board includes: a standard interface joint portion having a plurality of connectors having the same specifications; an interface board portion including a plurality of interface boards inserted into the connector; The connector is configured to include a base board section that controls the transmission and reception of signals between an expansion board slot and an interface board section inserted into the connector.

(Function) Since the present invention includes a plurality of connectors with the same specifications on one extension board, if the interface board inserted into this connector is replaced as appropriate according to the design, one extension board can be used. A combination of street interface circuits can be realized. and,
Signals are exchanged between the interface board and the central processing unit on the control side under the control of the base board section.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a detailed circuit diagram around the standard interface junction in FIG. 1. In the figure, two expansion board slots 7a and 7b are provided in the board insertion rack of the motherboard. These expansion board slots 7a and 7b are constructed according to the same specifications. That is, various signals sent from a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU), etc., not shown, are sent to the expansion board slots 7a, 7.
Both signals b are supplied to predetermined signal terminals in the same way.
Therefore, an additional board 6, which will be described later, can be connected to either of the additional board slots 7a, 7b. Further, even if there are a plurality of expansion boards 6, since the pin arrangement of the connecting portion 14 of each expansion board is the same as described later, they can be inserted into any expansion board slot in the same way.

The expansion board 6 is roughly divided into three parts: a base board part 1, a standard interface joint part 2, and an interface board part 3. Briefly, the interface board unit 3 includes four interface boards 3a to 3d, and each interface board 3a to 3d includes an interface circuit unique to each board. The standard interface joint 2 comprises four connectors 2a to 2d,
Interface boards 3a-3d are inserted into these connectors 2a-2d, respectively. The base board section 1 receives all the signals sent from the CPU through the expansion board slot 7a or 7b through the connector 14, and also receives all the signals sent from the expansion board 6 through the connection part 14 and the expansion board slot.
Send to CPU. Further, the base board section 1 generates a selection signal for selecting the interface boards 3a to 3d, a timing signal common to the interface boards 3a to 3d, a timing signal unique to the interface boards 3a to 3d, and the like.

For this purpose, the base board section 1 includes an address decoder 4 and a response circuit 5. The address decoder 4 receives a selection signal 1 for selecting one of the interface boards 3a to 3d according to the address signal received from the expansion board slot 7a or 7b via the connection part 14.
2 is created and output to the standard interface junction section 2. The response circuit 5 is the interface board 3a to 3.
When d is selected, a timing signal unique to each board is created to be output to a CPU on the selection side (not shown) as a response. Others, base board part 1
are interface signals such as the A signal 10 which is a read signal corresponding to each interface board 3a to 3d and the B signal for determining whether each interface board 3a to 3d is connected to the standard interface joint part 2. The bus 1 carries signals and also transfers data between the CPU and each interface board 3a to 3d.
5. Note that the pin arrangement of the connecting portion 14 is common to each expansion board 6, and a predetermined signal is supplied to a predetermined pin.

The standard interface joints 2a to 2d all use the same connector, and the base board part 1
It has the minimum number of pins necessary for connecting the interface boards 3a to 3d. Standard interface joints 2a-2d can be connected to any combination of interface boards 3a-3d. That is, a predetermined signal is supplied to a predetermined pin.

The interface board section 3 has the same connector part for connecting to the standard interface joint section 2 and some interface signals as the interface boards 3a to 3d, and the internal circuit is unique to the interface board. be. As shown in FIG. 2, each interface board 3a-3d has a unit discrimination circuit 9 for discriminating the unit that performs the interface. The unit discrimination circuit 9 has a buffer 8 and a switch 16, and by turning on/off the switch 16, a unit number (a number unique to the interface board) can be set. Then, the A signal 10 from the base board section 1 is supplied to the buffer 8 via the standard interface joint 2, and the unit number set by the switch 16 is transferred from this buffer 8 to the internal bus 17 and the standard interface joint 2. It is sent out to the base substrate section 1 side via. Further, each interface board 3a to 3d has a connection determination circuit 13 for sending out a B signal 11 to the base board section 1 side. The connection determination circuit 13 supplies the installation voltage as the B signal 11 when the corresponding interface board parts 3a to 3d are in the connected state. Further, the selection signal 12 from the base board section 1 is supplied to the internal circuit as a CS signal.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, all the interface board parts can be connected to any standard interface joint part, so that the conventional plural interface circuits are fixed by patterns. Compared to conventional expansion boards, a large number of interface combinations are possible with the same expansion board. In addition, whereas it is necessary to remanufacture all expansion boards with large circuit configurations that include n interfaces on one expansion board, in the expansion board according to the present invention, the prepared interface is a single circuit. This has the great advantage that it is only necessary to change the connection of the interface board section, which has a small configuration.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a standard interface joint 2 of this embodiment.
It is a detailed circuit diagram of the periphery. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Base board part, 2... Standard interface joint part, 2a-2d... Connector, 3... Interface board part, 3a-3d... Interface board part,
4...Address decoder, 5...Response circuit, 6...Extension board, 7a, 7b...Slot for extension board, 8...Buffer, 9...Unit discrimination circuit, 10...A signal,
11...B signal, 12...selection signal, 13...connection determination circuit, 14...connection section, 15...bus, 16...switch, 17...internal bus.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a board expansion method in which an expansion board is inserted into an expansion board slot provided in a board insertion rack of the motherboard when adding a board to be mounted on a motherboard, the expansion board includes a plurality of expansion boards. A standard interface joint section having connectors of the same specifications, an interface board section having a plurality of interface boards inserted into the connector, and an expansion board slot and an interface board section inserted into the connector. A board expansion method characterized by comprising: a base board section that controls the transmission and reception of signals between the parts; 2. The interface board section includes a unit determination circuit for setting and outputting a unique unit number for the interface board section, and a signal for determining whether or not the interface board section is connected to the connector. The board expansion method according to claim 1, further comprising a connection determination circuit that outputs an output. 3. When providing a plurality of slots for the expansion board,
2. The board expansion method according to claim 1, wherein all slots for expansion boards have the same specifications.