JPH0418629A - Auxiliary storage controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To require retrieval information, which number corresponds so that of unit data, to a processing means by continuously executing the operation of transmitting requiring signals as long as successively supplying the unit data from an auxiliary storage device. CONSTITUTION:The signal to require the transmission of the retrieval information is generated by a requiring means 111 and supplied to a processing means 101, and the retrieval information is supplied from the means 101 to a retrieval processing means 112. On the other hand, identification information corresponding to a record stored in an auxiliary storage device 102 is supplied to the means 112. The means 112 decides whether the identification information is coincident with the retrieval information or not, and the result of the decision is announced to the means 101. A first counting means 113 counts the number of the unit data in the retrieval information requested by the means 111, and a second counting means 114 counts the number of the unit data in the identification information from the device 101. The counted results of the means 113 and 114 are inputted to a requirement control means 115 and according to whether the difference between these results reaches a prescribed number or not, the means 115 controls the output operation of the requiring signal by the means 111.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Table of Contents] Overview Industrial Field of Application Conventional Technology Problems to be Solved by the Invention Examples of Means and Effects for Solving the Problems ■ Correspondence between the Examples and FIG. 1 ■ , Structure of the embodiment ■, Operation of the embodiment ■, Summary of the embodiment V6 Variation of the invention Effects of the invention [Summary] Auxiliary storage control device that controls retrieval and successive retrieval of records from an auxiliary storage device such as a disk device With the aim of efficiently transmitting search information without increasing the amount of hardware, a request signal is generated that requests the transmission of each unit of data forming the search information corresponding to the record to be searched, and this request signal is requesting means for supplying a signal to the processing means; each unit of data output from the processing means in response to the request signal; and identification information corresponding to any one of the plurality of records recorded in the auxiliary storage device; a search processing means for notifying the processing means whether or not the search information and the identification information match each other; A first counting means for counting, a second counting means for counting the number of unit data supplied from the auxiliary storage device, a counting result by the first counting means and a counting result by the second counting means are input, and these counting results are inputted. and request control means for controlling the output operation of the request signal by the request means depending on whether or not the difference between the counting results reaches a predetermined number.

[Industrial application field]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an auxiliary storage control device that controls retrieval and succession of records from an auxiliary storage device such as a disk device.

For example, a channel device is connected to an auxiliary storage device such as a disk device via a file control device, and this file control device controls retrieval and succession of records from the disk device.

In such a system, the channel device supplies search information (for example, key information) corresponding to a record to be searched to the file control device in response to a request from the file control device.

Further, the disk device is configured to sequentially read records recorded at specified positions on the disk and supply identification information (for example, key information) corresponding to the records to the file control device. The file control device determines whether or not the above-mentioned search information and identification information match, and this result is returned to the channel device.

At this time, if the channel device and the file control device are installed in a separate location, in order to transmit the above-mentioned search information request and the search information corresponding to this request,
It takes time depending on the distance (hereinafter referred to as inter-device delay). For this reason, if search information is transmitted between the file control device and the channel device using the shake hand method, there will be a waiting time equivalent to the inter-device delay described above, which will reduce the transmission efficiency of search information, etc. It ends up.

On the other hand, when a channel device and a file control device are connected via an optical fiber, the distance between the channel device and the file control device exceeds the limit of connection using a normal cable (for example, 120 m). The distance between is lk
In some cases, the delay between devices tends to be large.

With the increase in inter-device delay, there is a need for a file control device that can efficiently transmit search information while preventing an increase in waiting time.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a buffer with a predetermined capacity is provided in a file control device, and the file control device continuously sends a request signal indicating a request for search information corresponding to the capacity of this buffer without waiting for a response from a channel device. and output it.

Hereinafter, outputting a request for the next search information without waiting for the search information corresponding to the request will be referred to as preempting search information.

Here, the capacity of the two consecutive buffers is determined in accordance with the inter-device delay between the file control device and the channel device. For example, at the time corresponding to the inter-device delay, the file control device and the channel If 8 bytes of search information can be transmitted via the transmission path to the device, a buffer with a capacity of 8 bytes may be provided as the buffer described above.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 5(a), a request signal indicating a request for search information for 8 hides (in the figure,
(2) to (2) are output, and the search information for 8 hides is prefetched.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 5(b), the file control device is supplied with the search information prefetched as described above (indicated by After the information is compared, a request for the next search information is made.

Normally, as described above, while a request for 8-hide search information is being made, search information is sequentially supplied from the disk device and stored in another buffer.

Therefore, when the first byte of search information is supplied from the channel device, this search information is compared.
As shown in Figure (a), the file control device requests search information without interruption, thereby improving the efficiency of transmitting search information.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional system, a buffer with a capacity corresponding to the inter-device delay is provided, and search information corresponding to the capacity of this buffer is prefetched. Therefore, when the distance between the channel device and the file control device increases, it is necessary to increase the buffer capacity of the file control device according to this distance. There was a problem that the amount of

Furthermore, if the inter-device delay between the file control device and the channel device described above becomes larger than the inter-device delay corresponding to the capacity of the buffer, as shown in FIG. No response is returned from the channel device even after the sending of the request for byte search information is completed.

Therefore, it is not possible to request the next search information, resulting in a waiting time for a response from the channel device, resulting in the problem that the search information cannot be efficiently transmitted.

The present invention was created in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an auxiliary storage control device that efficiently transmits search information without increasing the amount of hardware.

[Means to solve the problem]

FIG. 1 is a principle block diagram of the auxiliary storage control device of the present invention.

In the figure, requesting means 111 generates a request signal requesting transmission of each unit of data forming search information corresponding to a record to be searched, and supplies this request signal to processing means 101.

The search processing means 112 searches the processing means 10 in response to the request signal.
Each unit data output from 1 is supplied, and
Each unit of data forming identification information corresponding to any one of a plurality of records recorded in the auxiliary storage device 102 is supplied, and the processing means 101 is notified of whether or not the search information and the identification information match.

The first counting means 113 counts the number of unit data requested by the requesting means 111 based on the request signal.

The second counting means 114 counts the number of unit data supplied from the auxiliary storage device 102.

The request control means 115 receives the counting results by the first counting means 113 and the counting results by the second counting means 114, and controls the requesting means depending on whether the difference between these counting results reaches a predetermined number. 112 to output the request signal.

[For production]

The requesting means 111 generates a request signal requesting transmission of each unit data forming the search information corresponding to the record to be searched, and this request signal is supplied to the processing means 101. In response, the unit data described above is output from the processing means 101 and supplied to the search processing means 112. Further, each unit data forming identification information corresponding to any one of the plurality of records recorded in the auxiliary storage device 102 is supplied to the above-mentioned search processing means 112.

Further, the search processing means 112 determines whether or not the above-mentioned identification information and search information match, and notifies the processing means 101 of the result.

At this time, based on the above-mentioned request signal, the first counting means 113 counts the number of unit data of the search information requested by the requesting means 111, and the second counting means 114 counts the number of unit data of the search information requested by the requesting means 111.
Accordingly, the number of unit data of identification information supplied from the auxiliary storage device 101 described above is counted.

The counting results by the first counting means 113 and the counting results by the second counting means 114 described above are input to the request control means 115, and the request control means 115 adjusts the difference between these counting results to a predetermined number. Depending on whether you have reached
The output operation of the request signal by the request means 111 described above is controlled.

For example, when the difference between the counting results mentioned above is smaller than a predetermined number, the requesting means 111 may be allowed to output the request signal, and when the above-mentioned predetermined number is reached, the operation of outputting the request signal may be stopped. .

In the present invention, if each unit data forming the identification information is sequentially supplied from the auxiliary storage device 102, the difference between the counting results of the first counting means 113 and the second counting means 114 described above is within a predetermined range. The request control means 115 permits the request means 111 to send out a request signal. Therefore, even if the search processing means 112 does not have a buffer with a capacity corresponding to the inter-device delay between the processing means 101 and the auxiliary storage control device, the number of units of data corresponding to the number of unit data supplied from the auxiliary storage device 102 can be unit data can be requested from the processing means 101. Therefore, search information can be efficiently transmitted without increasing the amount of hardware.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a computer system to which an auxiliary storage control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

Here, the correspondence between the embodiment of the present invention and FIG. 1 will be shown.

The processing means 101 corresponds to the channel device 202.

The auxiliary storage device 101 corresponds to the disk device 204.

The requesting means 111 corresponds to the synchronization signal generation section 238.

The search processing means 112 stores the buffer 231. buffer 23
2. It corresponds to the comparison circuit 233.

The first counting means 113 corresponds to an up/down counter (counter) 234.

The second counting means 114 corresponds to the counter 235.

The request control means 115 includes a subtraction circuit 236. Comparison circuit 23
Corresponds to 7.

The auxiliary storage control device corresponds to the file control device 230.

Examples of the present invention will be described below assuming that the correspondence relationship as described above exists.

1-1111 Enoki Captive In FIG. 2, 202 represents a channel device, 230 represents a file control device, and 204 represents a disk device.
0 is connected via a transmission line 205, and this transmission line 2
Data is exchanged via 05.

In response to a request from the file control device 230, the channel device 202 outputs search information specifying a record to be searched via a synchronization signal S. 1. It is configured to transmit in synchronization with SO2. For example, key information for n hides of a record may be sequentially transmitted one hide at a time.

Further, in the file control device 230, 231.23
2 is the buffer, 233.237 is the comparison circuit, 234
, 235 is an up/down counter (counter), 23
Reference numeral 6 indicates a subtraction circuit, and 238 indicates a synchronization signal generation unit that generates manual synchronization signals S, , S, □ representing the above-mentioned requests. For example, the synchronization signal generation unit 238 may have the input synchronization signal S Il, 312 as
Alternate positive pulses may be output and each of these pulses may request each hide forming the search information.

The buffer 231 has a capacity of 8 bytes, and the search information supplied one by one from the channel device 202 described above is held in this buffer 231. Hereinafter, each byte of search information supplied from the channel device 202 will be referred to as channel-side search information. Further, the buffer 232 has a capacity of 512 bytes, and the key information of n hides included in the record read by the disk device 204 is sequentially supplied, for example, one byte at a time, and each of these bytes is is retained as search information on the disk side.

The search information held in these buffers 231 and 232 is sequentially supplied to a comparison circuit 233 for comparison. Furthermore, the file control device 230 notifies the channel device 202 whether or not the above-mentioned channel-side search information and disk-side search information all match based on the comparison result by the comparison circuit 233. It has become.

Further, the counter 234 is connected to the synchronization signal generation section 23 described above.
Manual synchronization signals S++, S+ indicating a request for search information from 8
. The count value is added each time a pulse is outputted, and the count value is subtracted each time a comparison is performed by the comparator circuit 233. Therefore, this counter 23
The count value 4 indicates the number of search information requested by the synchronization signal generation section 238 described above minus the number of search information for which comparison by the comparison circuit 233 has been completed. Hereinafter, this number will be referred to as the number of prefetched search information.

The counter 235 is configured to add a count value each time new disk-side search information is written to the buffer 232, and subtract the count value each time the above-described comparison circuit 233 performs a comparison. Therefore, the count value of the counter 235 indicates the number of disk-side search information held in the buffer 232.

Further, the count value of the counter 234 mentioned above is calculated by the subtraction circuit 2
36, and the subtraction circuit 236 calculates a value corresponding to the capacity of the buffer 231 (for example, l'8J
) is subtracted, and this subtraction circuit 2
36 is supplied to a comparison circuit 237. This comparison circuit 237 compares the count value of the counter 235 with the result of subtraction by the subtraction circuit 236 described above, and if the count value of the counter 235 is larger, the logic "'0" is applied.
In the opposite case, logic "'1" is output as a request permission signal.

Therefore, the request permission signal indicates whether the difference between the number of prefetched search information and the number of disk-side search information held in the buffer 232 is larger than the number F8J corresponding to the capacity of the buffer 231. ing.

This request permission signal is supplied to the above-mentioned synchronization signal generation section 238, and when the logic "0" is supplied as the request permission signal, this synchronization signal generation section 238 generates the input synchronization signals Sz, S+□ is output to request search information, and when a logic "1" is supplied, the output of the input synchronization signals S++ and St□ is stopped.

Figure 3 is a timing diagram showing the operation of transmitting search information according to the embodiment.

In the initial state, the 84 values of the counters 234 and 235 are both FQj. Therefore, the comparison circuit 23
7, the subtraction result "-8" by the subtraction circuit 236 and the count value foj of the counter 235 are compared, so a logic "0 par" is supplied to the synchronization signal generation section 238 as a request permission signal.

In response, the synchronization signal generation unit 238 starts outputting the input synchronization signals S, , S, □ (Fig. 3(a)
), (b)), and the third figure), the count value of the counter 234 is added up.

Further, normally, as described above, while eight hides of search information corresponding to the capacity of the buffer 231 are being prefetched, the disk device 204 starts reading records recorded on the disk. Ru. In response to this, as shown in FIG. 3(g), the search information on the disk side is supplied and stored in the buffer 232, and in response, as shown in FIG. 3(h), the counter 235 is The count value is added.

Therefore, in this case, even after prefetching the 8-byte search information, the request permission signal output from the comparator circuit 237 (see FIG. 3(i)) is a logic "'0.°".
Therefore, the synchronization signal generating section 238 continuously generates the input synchronization signals S11. s+□ is output, and a request for search information to channel device 202 is subsequently made.

Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 3(g), the supply of search information on the disk side starts at the point of the arrow, and is supplied sequentially from the first byte (in the figure, (1), (2), ...).

On the other hand, as shown by arrow B in FIG. 3(e), each byte of search information on the channel side (■, ■ in the figure).

) is the output synchronization signal after a time corresponding to the inter-device delay (indicated by the symbol τ in the figure) after the pulses of the input synchronization signals S++ and Sr□ requesting these search information are output. S. It is supplied in synchronization with I+SO2 (see FIGS. 3(C), (d), and (e)). Therefore, when these pieces of search information are supplied, they can be immediately compared with the corresponding pieces of search information on the disk as described in 1.

In this way, when the search information from the disk device 204 is sequentially supplied, the corresponding disk-side search information is always stored in the buffer 232 when channel-side search information is supplied. Therefore, even if the synchronization signal generation unit 238 prefetches search information exceeding the capacity of the buffer 231, the search information held in the buffer 231 that has not been compared will not be updated, and as described above, the search information will not be updated continuously. You can request search information by

Also, for example, due to a failure of the disk device 204, etc.
As shown in FIG. 3(h), if the m-th byte and subsequent keys of the key information are not supplied from the disk device 204, the count value of the counter 235 decreases each time the comparison circuit 233 performs a comparison.

On the other hand, while the search information on the channel side is being supplied, new search information is requested and the search information held in the buffer 231 is compared, so the count value of the counter 234 does not change (the count value of the counter 234 does not change). (See Figure 3 (f))
. Therefore, when the difference between the count values of the counter 234 and the counter 235 increases and the result of subtraction by the subtraction circuit 236 becomes equal to the count value of the counter 235, the comparison circuit 2
37 outputs a logic "'1" as a request permission signal. In response, the output of the input synchronization signals S++ and St□ by the synchronization signal generation unit 238 is stopped, so that No request is made for search information after the m+8th byte.Therefore, 8 bytes of search information from the mth byte to the m+7th byte are held in the buffer 231.

Furthermore, if search information is supplied again from the disk device 204, the comparator circuit 237 outputs logic "'0" as a request permission signal, and the synchronization signal generation section 23
8, the output of the input synchronizing signal S11°S1□ is restarted.

−■−MiυYabu and 1ζGin As mentioned above, the count value of counter 235 and counter 2
Based on the count value of 34, the subtraction circuit 236 and the comparison circuit 237 determine that the difference between the number of prefetched search information and the number of disk-side search information held in the buffer 232 is larger than the numerical value vB1. A request permission signal indicating whether the input synchronization signal SIl, St is generated by the synchronization signal generation section 238 is generated by the request permission signal. Controls the output operation of.

This allows channel device 202. Disk device 204
If it is operating normally, it is possible to continuously prefetch search information regardless of the capacity of the buffer 231 provided in the file control device 230.

Therefore, for example, if an optical fiber is used as the above-mentioned transmission line 205, the channel device 202 and the file control device 23
0, it is not necessary to provide a buffer with a capacity equivalent to the inter-device delay.

In this way, search information can be transmitted efficiently without increasing the amount of hardware.

! Note that in the embodiment of the present invention described above, the comparator circuit 2
37, the subtraction result by the subtraction circuit 236 and the count value of the counter 235 are compared, but the difference between the count value of the counter 234 and the count value of the counter 235 is compared with a value corresponding to the capacity of the buffer 231, and this The synchronization signal generation section 238 may be controlled according to the comparison result.

Further, the counter 234 counts the number of search information requested to the channel device 202, and the counter 235 counts the number of search information requested to the channel device 202.
Accordingly, the number of pieces of search information supplied from the disk device 204 may be counted.

Further, as means for controlling the synchronization signal generation section 23B,
The present invention is not limited to the comparison circuit and the subtraction circuit, but can be applied to any device that generates a request permission signal by comparing the count value of the counter 234 and the count value of the counter 235 in consideration of the capacity of the buffer 231.

For example, when the above-mentioned search information on the disk side is supplied to the buffer 232 in units of 4 bytes, and from this buffer 232 is supplied to the comparison circuit 233 in units of 4 bytes,
The count value of the counter 235 is expressed as a multiple of four. In this case, the subtraction circuit 236 and comparison circuit 237 shown in FIG.
Instead, the above-mentioned request permission signal may be generated by a determination circuit as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, the determination circuit includes k AND gates 41
1. , . . . , 411 and an OR gate 412. Further, in the figure, symbols S+, S2.
S3. ..., SK are the counters 23 mentioned above, respectively.
The count value of 5 is 'OJ, '4J.

vB), . . . indicates a signal that becomes logic 1 when 4X(k-1)J, and the symbols T+, Tz, T!
.

..., T, the count value of the counter 234 is F8.
", I'12Jl, F16a, =-, I'8+4x (
k-1) shows a signal that becomes logic "1" when A.

The above-mentioned signals S+, Sz, and S are connected to one of the input terminals of the anime game 1-411, . . . , 411.

..., Sx, and the signals T, , T2 . T3
.

, TK are input. Therefore, these AND gates 411. , . The request permission signal outputted from the output becomes logic "'1", and the operation of requesting search information by the synchronization signal generation section 238 described above is stopped.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, as long as the unit data from the auxiliary storage device is sequentially supplied, the requesting means continues to send the request signal, and the search processing means Requesting a number of search information from the processing child stage corresponding to the unit data supplied from the auxiliary storage device without having to provide a buffer with a capacity equivalent to the inter-device delay between the processing means and the auxiliary storage control means. This is extremely useful in practice, since search information can be efficiently transmitted without increasing the amount of hardware.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a principle block diagram of the auxiliary storage control device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a configuration diagram of a computer system to which the auxiliary storage control device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and Fig. 3 is a search according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a determination circuit according to another embodiment. FIG. 5, FIG. 5, and 6 are timing diagrams showing a conventional search information transmission operation. In the figure, 101 is a processing means, 102 is an auxiliary storage device, 111 is a requesting means, 112 is a search processing means, 113 is a first counting means, 114 is a second counting means, 115 is a request control means, 202 is a channel device, 204 is a disk device, 205 is a transmission path, 230 is a file control device, 231 and 232 are buffers, 233 and 237 are comparison circuits, 234 and 235 are up/down counters), 236 is a subtraction circuit, 238 is a synchronization signal generation section, 411 is an AND gate, and 412 is an OR gate. (Coun.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A requesting means (1) that generates a request signal requesting transmission of each unit data forming the search information corresponding to the record to be searched, and supplies this request signal to the processing means (101).
11), each of the unit data output from the processing means (101) in response to the request signal is supplied, and an identification corresponding to any one of the plurality of records recorded in the auxiliary storage device (102) is provided. search processing means (112) to which each unit data forming the information is supplied and notifying the processing means (101) whether or not the search information and the identification information match;
), and the requesting means (111
); a second counting means (114) that counts the number of unit data supplied from the auxiliary storage device (102); The counting result by the first counting means (113) and the second
The counting results from the counting means (114) are input, and depending on whether the difference between these counting results reaches a predetermined number,
An auxiliary storage control device comprising: request control means (115) for controlling the output operation of the request signal by the request means (112).