JP2664168B2 - Starting method of information processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a method for starting an information processing apparatus capable of utilizing a plurality of system configurations having different input / output firmware and / or input / output control circuits for an information input / output apparatus It is about. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, magnetic disk drives, CRT displays, printers, optical reading devices, memories, and various other information input / output devices (peripheral devices) have been used in information processing devices such as personal computers and word processors. The control circuit and firmware for controlling these input / output devices are not the same for all devices, and different control circuits and firmware are used by different manufacturers of the system. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] For example, different OEMs use the same input / output device and the same operating system produced by OEM.
When there are two systems A and B, different I / O addresses may be set in the firmware when viewed from the system software side. In such a case, application software on the same operating system cannot always operate on the two systems A and B. If the application software uses only the system call of the operating system, it is possible to operate in both systems A and B. However, it is necessary to call the firmware directly for the purpose of increasing the execution speed. In many cases, it does not actually work. Originally, an operating system should be intended to run the same application across different hardware, but in reality there are barriers between the systems as described above. Since there are the above-mentioned problems between systems using the same input / output device and the same operating system, it can be said that application software can hardly be shared between systems partially different from each other. Therefore, conventionally, there have been proposed several methods for utilizing software assets of a system having a large number of shares in firmware or another system having different hardware of an input / output device. For example, software emulation is one of the methods. However, such a method has a problem that the number of steps at the time of software execution is increased, and not only a satisfactory execution speed cannot be obtained but also a large memory capacity is required. is there. Further, when a peripheral device is shared between different systems, for example, when a disk drive and its control circuit may be shared, a technique for operating two different system software by sharing the same is known. In this case, it is possible to switch and operate different CPUs.However, since input / output routines close to address mapping and hardware are not common, all software can be executed in the same manner as in the above example. Not always. [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a plurality of system configurations having different input / output firmware and / or input / output control circuits are provided for the information input / output device. In an available information processing apparatus, a starting step of selecting and starting a predetermined system configuration, and identification information for specifying a system configuration capable of executing the software from a storage medium storing system software after the starting in the starting step A reading step of reading the information, a discriminating step of discriminating whether or not the system configuration specified by the identification information read in the reading step matches the currently activated system constitution; A restarting step of selecting and restarting the system configuration specified by the identification information when determined. It was adopted. [Operation] According to the above configuration, a predetermined system configuration is selected and activated, and after activation in the activation step, identification information for specifying a system configuration capable of executing the software is stored from a storage medium storing the system software. It is determined whether or not the system configuration specified by the identification information read in the reading step and the currently activated system configuration coincides with the currently activated system configuration. Here, the system configuration specified by the identification information and the currently activated system configuration are determined. If it is determined that the system configuration does not match the selected system configuration, the system software and the system configuration can be matched by selecting and restarting the system configuration specified by the identification information. EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on examples shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the structure of an information processing apparatus employing the present invention. The illustrated device is configured as a device capable of executing application software of two types of personal computers A and B. Here, for the sake of simplicity, the two personal computers A and B use the same input / output device hardware and the same operating system, as described in the section of the conventional example.
The two systems have different I / O devices using different control circuits and different firmware, especially different address mappings. In FIG. 1, what is indicated by reference numeral 2 is a CPU.
It is connected to each section described later via an address bus 16 and a data bus 17, and controls these sections. Hereinafter, each unit connected to the buses 16 and 17 will be described in order. Reference numerals 4a and 4b denote DMA control circuits, which use different address mappings in the A and B systems, respectively. Any of these is selected and used by the address switching circuit 3a. In this embodiment, such address mapping is also considered as a part of firmware that differs for each system. The address switching circuit 3a includes an adder, a shift register, a multiplexer, and the like, and operates to convert address data supplied from an address bus and supply the converted data to a connected control circuit. The address switching circuits 3b to 3g to be described later have the same configuration. The address switching circuits 3a to 3g are switched according to output information of a selection circuit 1 composed of a latch circuit or the like. Selection circuit 1
Is switched in accordance with the system selection described later. Next, BIOS storage circuits indicated by reference numerals 5a and 5b are provided for each of the systems A and B. The BIOS (basic input / output system) is a well-known basic input / output device (for example, input / output data of one character).
Firmware for controlling the processing, system A,
Since different control circuits are used for B, different software is used for BIOS. The BIOS storage circuit itself
It is composed of a memory such as a ROM. BIOS storage circuits 5a, 5
b is selected and used by the address switching circuit 3b. Next, what is indicated by reference numeral 6 is a main storage circuit, which is composed of a memory element such as a RAM. The two systems A and B also have different main memory address assignments. Therefore, where the main memory area is set in all the address areas accessible by the CPU 2 is determined by the address switching circuit 3c.
Is switched by. The hardware itself of the CRT display 12 is A,
The same can be used in both systems.
However, since the CRT display 12 is mapped to different input / output addresses in the systems A and B, two CRT control circuits 7a and 7b are provided. CRT control circuits 7a, 7b
Is selected and used by the address switching circuit 3d. Similarly, the same hardware is used for the floppy disk drive 13, but the controller elements for address mapping, disk formatting or drive control are different between the systems A and B.
The floppy disk control circuit 8 is also provided with two reference numerals 8a and 8b. One of the floppy disk control circuits 8a and 8b is selected and used by the address switching circuit 3e. In addition, a keyboard, a printer, an optical reader, a light pen, a mouse, a hard disk, a communication port, a modem and other peripheral devices are used, which are indicated by broken lines in FIG.
The peripheral device group 14 (for example, a printer) provided in both the systems A and B includes the peripheral device control circuit 9a,
9b. Peripheral device control circuit 9a,
9b is selected and used by the address switching circuit 3f. Further, the peripheral device group 14 includes devices provided only in the system A (for example, a fairly non-standard modem), and the system B has no control circuit and firmware for controlling the same. Here, only the peripheral device control circuit 10 is provided. The peripheral device control circuit 10 is activated only when operating as the system A by the address switching circuit 3g. Next, the operation in the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described. It is assumed that the apparatus of the present embodiment is started by starting up system software stored in the floppy disk drive 13. Whether the device operates as the system A or the system B is determined based on ID information in an IPL (initial program loader) program written on the disk. In many systems, the IPL is formatted as shown in FIG.
Is stored in FIG. 2 shows the lower addresses of track 0 and sector 1 on the left and right sides of the figure. A jump instruction is written in the lowest address area 100 of the IPL program.
D information is often written. The actual IPL program body is written in area 102 following area 101,
The jump instruction in the area 100 points to the beginning of the area 102. The IPL program runs in the BIOS storage circuit 5a or 5b.
Is read and executed by the boot loader stored in the ROM included in the. In order to start up as either A or B system before executing IPL, reference numerals 4a, 4b, 5a,
It is necessary to appropriately select any of the circuits 5b, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, and 10. At this time, the switching may be performed using ID information written in the area 101 in FIG. 2 in advance, that is, information written on the disks used in the standard systems A and B. Shows how to write and use unique ID information used in the system. FIG. 3 shows a system ID information writing routine. Third
The routine in the figure is the BIOS storage circuit 5a as part of the BIOS, etc.
A key operation sequence written in both 5b and not used in either of the systems A and B (for example, inputting a desired character string such as "SYSID-ENT")
Shall be called based on Also, here
The routine of FIG. 3 is to be executed after the system has been set up as either A or B (it can also be performed at startup). First, in step S1 of FIG. 3, it is determined whether to write system ID information. If step S1 is affirmed, in step S2 the IP address of the track 0, sector 1 of the disk from the floppy disk drive 13 via the BIOS storage circuits 5a and 5b.
The L program is read into a predetermined address of the main storage circuit 6. Next, in step S3, control circuit codes 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6, 7a, 7b, 8
The ID information that determines the circuits and firmware of a, 8b, 9a, 9b, and 10 is read from a keyboard or the like, and written to a predetermined address on the main storage circuit 6 corresponding to the area 101 in FIG. Subsequently, in step S4, the IPL rewritten in step S3
Write the program to disk. As a result, the ID information uniquely used in the system is written in the area 101 in the IPL program of the disk. Next, FIG. 4 shows a control procedure for starting the system using the ID information written by the procedure of FIG. The procedure in FIG. 4 is stored in the BIOS storage circuits 5a and 5b as a part of a boot loader or the like. In step S10 in FIG. 4, first, a default (default value) corresponding to a predetermined system A or B is set.
Set the control circuit and firmware configuration. Here, for example, a system having a hardware configuration and a firmware configuration at least common to the systems A and B can be determined in advance. As a result, it is possible to perform at least reading in units of sectors on any of the disks A and B. In the setting of the system in step S10, the control circuits 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, and 8b correspond to the default system using the address switching circuits 3a to 3g.
9a, 9b and 10 are appropriately selected. Next, in step S11, the floppy disk drive 1
Determine whether a disc is inserted in 3. When step S11 is affirmed, the process proceeds to step S12, and when denied, the process proceeds to step S18. In step S12, information on track 0 and sector 1 of the disk is stored in the main storage circuit 6 under the control of the BIOS boot loader.
At a predetermined address. If the disk format is different between the two systems A and B, reading may be performed a plurality of times under different operating conditions. In step S13, it is determined whether ID information has been written in the area 101 of FIG. 2 by the method shown in FIG. If step S13 is denied, step S
The process proceeds to 18 and, if affirmative, the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, it is determined whether the default system is sufficient. That is, it is determined whether the default (current) system matches the ID information read in step S12. If step S12 is affirmed, step S15 is jumped. If step S12 is denied, the control circuit 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b is different from the default in step S15. , 9a,
9b and 10 are appropriately selected. For example, if the default system is A, control circuits 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6, 7
Of the a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b and 10, the circuits indicated by 4b, 5b... At this time, the address mapping for the control circuit of each input / output device and the address mapping for the main storage circuit 6 are all appropriately rewritten so as to correspond to the system B. In step S15, the IPL is read into the main storage circuit 6 again after the new system setting. System switching is performed by the CPU 2 writing flag information to the selection circuit 1 so as to select each control circuit corresponding to the systems A and B. Thus, an appropriate control circuit is selected via each of the address selection circuits 3a to 3g. In step S16, execute the IPL program on the memory,
The system software is read from the disk, and the application software is executed on the disk S17 based on the user's system command input. On the other hand, in step S18 and subsequent steps, a process for allowing the user to manually select a system to be started up is performed. In step S18, the system A is displayed on the CRT display 12.
A menu screen for selecting B is displayed. This processing is performed using the system selected by default. In step S19, it is determined whether or not the user wants to use the default system as it is by reading the input from the keyboard or the mouse. When step S19 is affirmed, the process proceeds to step S22. If step S19 is denied, the process moves to step S20. In step S20, each control circuit different from the default is set as in step S15, and the process proceeds to step S21. Immediately before steps S21 and S22, the disk on which the desired system software has been written by the user is inserted into the floppy disk drive 13. If a disc has not been inserted, a prompt may be displayed on the CRT 12 prompting the user. In Steps S21 and S22, as in Steps S16 and S17, the IP is transferred from the disk using the selected control circuit.
Read and execute the L program, load the corresponding system software of system A or B,
Move to step S17. According to the above configuration, the system A or B is automatically selected based on the ID information previously written in the IPL area of the disk when the system is started, or the system is manually selected by the user when the disk is not inserted. Can be launched. According to the above configuration, systems A and B after startup
And the corresponding input / output device control circuit and the corresponding firmware are selected. Since each input / output device or its control circuit and the corresponding address mapping are exactly the same as in systems A and B, even if the application software has a routine that directly calls the hardware, systems A and B It can operate in exactly the same way as in. Further, since the apparatus of this embodiment is the same as the systems A and B, including the hardware and firmware, problems such as a decrease in execution speed and a memory overhead occur as in the conventional software emulation. Nothing. Although the case where the CPU and the operating system are common to the systems A and B has been described above, the switching can be performed in the same procedure even if these differ for each system. Although the example in which the system is started from a floppy disk has been described, the same technique can be implemented when the system is started using another storage medium such as a hard disk, a memory cassette, or an IC card. Further, in the above, the case where the hardware of the control circuit of the peripheral input / output device is different in each system has been described. However, even when the hardware is the same and only the firmware (for example, input / output address mapping) is different, the same applies. Technology can be implemented. Even when hardware such as a CRT display and a floppy disk drive differs for each system, if only different hardware is provided for each of the two systems, selection can be performed in the same procedure as described above. Further, it is of course possible to switch over more than two system configurations. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined system configuration is selected and activated, and after the activation in the activation step, a system configuration capable of executing the software from a storage medium storing the system software Is read, and it is determined whether the system configuration specified by the identification information read in the reading step matches the currently activated system configuration, and the identification information is specified here. When it is determined that the system configuration does not match the currently activated system configuration, the system software and the system configuration are matched by selecting and restarting the system configuration specified by the identification information. The software can be executed simply by inserting the storage medium that stores the system software to be used. There is an excellent effect that an executable system configuration can be activated without requiring a user's designation operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of an information processing apparatus adopting the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an IPL program area of a floppy disk, FIG. 3, FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure in the apparatus of FIG. 1 selection circuit 2 CPU 3a to 3f address switching circuits 4a and 4b DMA control circuits 5a and 5b BIOS storage circuit 6 main storage circuit 7a and 7b CRT control circuit 8a , 8b Floppy disk control circuits 9a, 9b Peripheral device control circuit 10 Peripheral device control circuit 12 CRT display 13 Floppy disk drive 14 Peripheral device group

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An information processing apparatus capable of using a plurality of system configurations having different input / output firmware and / or input / output control circuits with respect to the information input / output device; A reading step of reading identification information specifying a system configuration capable of executing the software from a storage medium storing the system software after the start-up, a system configuration specifying the identification information read in the reading step, A determining step of determining whether or not the system configuration matches the system configuration, and a restarting step of selecting and restarting the system configuration specified by the identification information when it is determined that the system configuration does not match in the determining step. A method for activating an information processing apparatus, comprising: 2. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a rewriting step for rewriting the identification information on the storage medium. 3. A detection step of detecting whether or not the storage medium is mounted, and requesting a user to select a currently activated system configuration or another system configuration when the storage medium is detected to be unmounted. The method according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a selection requesting step of performing the selection.