1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an art for high speed startup of an information processing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an information processing device scans hardware resources at the time of startup in order to identify hardware configuration of the device. To the hardware resources detected in scanning, arbitrary hardware resource definition information should be assigned. Therefore, the hardware resources are scanned by one CPU. The time necessary for hardware resource scanning increases in proportion to the number of hardware resources installed in the device. Therefore, a large-scale information processing device having much hardware resources suffers from a problem of prolonged startup time.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 7(1995)-13928 discloses an art to dynamically change the terminal configuration in distributed processors by an instruction from a host computer. In this art, a maximum number of physical terminals which can be accommodated is defined as dummy information in terminal configuration information (static configuration information) fixedly loaded as a part of OS, and this static configuration information is mapped to terminal configuration information files received by download from a host computer after startup to define a terminal for operation in the distributed processors. When the terminal configuration information is altered or added, terminal configuration information file stored in a host computer is updated and downloaded to a distributed processor, then the distributed processor maps the altered terminal configuration information to the physical terminal configuration to dynamically change the terminal configuration during operation of the distributed processor.
However, an information processing device having a function to automatically detect hardware resources connected thereto scans hardware resource at the time of startup in order to identify its own device hardware configuration. To the hardware resources detected by scanning, hardware resource definition information (e.g., a device file in UNIX (trade mark) OS) should be assigned in order to discriminate it from other hardware resources.
In a conventional information processing device, because the hardware resource definition information is exclusively assigned to a hardware resource, the hardware resources are scanned by one CPU even if the processing device has plural CPUs.
Therefore, the hardware resource cannot be scanned efficiently, and in a large scale information processing device having a lot of hardware resources, startup takes a long time.
This is because when one CPU scans all hardware resources, the time necessary for scanning increases in proportion to the number of the hardware resources installed in the device.
In order to solve above problem, the object of the invention is to reduce the time necessary for hardware resource scanning, thus to reduce startup time of an information processing device.
According to one aspect of the invention, an information processing device is provided wherein a region to be scanned is divided and assigned into as many parts as there are CPUs installed in the information processing device, each CPU scans the hardware resources under its control, and a main CPU integrates the scanning result.
According to another aspect of the invention, a CPU is provided wherein a region to be scanned is divided and assigned into as many parts as there are CPUs installed in an information processing device including the CPU itself, and the CPU and other CPUs scan the hardware resources under its control, and the CPU integrates the scanning result at the end.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a method is provided wherein a region to be scanned is divided and assigned into as many parts as there are CPUs installed in an information processing device, each CPU scans the hardware resources under its control, and a main CPU integrates the scanning result.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a program is provided which, when executed in a computer, makes the computer divide and assign a region to be scanned into as many parts as there are CPUs installed in the computer, makes each CPU scan hardware resources under its control, and makes the main CPU integrate the scanning result.
The invention has an advantage in that the time necessary for hardware resource scanning is reduced, thus, the startup time of the information processing device is reduced.
Next, an embodiment of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
CPU1201 is a main CPU, and has a function to divide the region to be scanned, a function to integrate the scanning result, and a function to reassign hardware resource definition information.
Example of information processing device 101 is a personal computer operating under control of a program. The device may have a known configuration including operation input unit, ROM (Read only memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), communication interface, HD (Hard Disk), CPU (Central Processing Unit), and these components may be connected via buses.
CPU bus 401 and a local bus 501 which has LBA1601, LBAZ 602 (Local Bus Adapter. Z is any positive integer) are connected via chip set 701. LBA and a host bus which has one or more HBA (Host Bus Adapter) are connected. LBA1601 and host bus 801 which has HBA11901, . . . , HBA1L 902 (L is any positive integer) are connected. LBAZ 602 and host bus 802 which has HBAZ1903, . . . , HBAZK 904 (K is any positive integer) are connected.
Each CPU respectively stores a divided scanning table which designates the region to be scanned by the CPU in the RAM. In the divided scanning table, all HBAs and their corresponding IDs under LBA to be scanned by the CPU are stored.
Main CPU 201 stores an integrated scanning table in the RAM in addition to a divided scanning table designating the region to be scanned by main CPU 201. The integrated scanning table stores all HBAs and their corresponding IDs installed in information processing device 101.
Next, the operation flow of the hardware resource scanning according to the embodiment will be described with reference to
First, the main CPU (CPU1201) divides the region to be scanned by the number of CPUs installed in the information processing device (S201). Here, N CPUs are installed in the device. Particularly, the main CPU assigns Z LBAs detected in local bus scanning to one of N CPUs, and sends information on LBAs to be scanned by the CPU, to CPUL 201 to CPUZ 204.
For example as shown in
Each CPU (CPU1201-CPUN 203) scans hardware resources under its control (resource1301-resourceM 306, that is, HBA11901-HBAZK 904), and assigns hardware resources definition information to each hardware resource (resource1301-resourceM 306, that is, HBA11901-HBAZK 904) (S202). Particularly, CPU scans HBAs under LBA to be scanned by the CPU according to the information received from main CPU. The CPU stores detected HBA and its corresponding ID in the divided scanning table. As shown in
And the main CPU (CPU1201) integrates the scanning result (S203). The main CPU merges the divided scanning tables received from CPUs to generate integrated scanning table 1101.
Finally, the main CPU (CPU1201) re-assigns the hardware resource definition information (S204). That is, the main CPU not only integrates the information of hardware resources under its control, but also carries out exclusive assignment of hardware resource definition information in order to explicitly discriminate the resource. As shown in
Unlike conventional configuration in which only one CPU scans all the hardware resources, in the device according to the embodiment, plural CPUs scan hardware resources in parallel. Therefore, the time necessary for hardware resource scanning can be reduced, thus, the startup time of the information processing device can also be reduced.
Furthermore, the information processing device has a configuration in which plural CPUs have plural hardware resources under respective control. When a terminal group to be scanned by each distributed processor is predefined by physical connection, which CPU scans which hardware resource is unknown. Having the main processor assign hardware resources to each CPU makes high-speed startup possible.
The above embodiment is described only for illustrative purpose. Many alterations are possible without departing from the true spirit of the invention. For example, in order to achieve the function of information processing device in the above embodiment, a program describing steps of the function can be executed by the device. The program can be transmitted to other computer systems using a computer readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a magneto-optical disk, or on a carrier wave via transmission medium such as Internet or telephone lines.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-225897 | Aug 2005 | JP | national |