JP2008027307A - Device provided with cardbus device, and access control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To separately access each device by the form of point to multi-point regardless of the number of mounted devices even when a plurality of devices are mounted including a cardbus device. <P>SOLUTION: The device is provided with a host controller 1, wherein at least two devices to be accessed by the host controller are mounted, and at least one of the devices is a cardbus device 5, 6 that presupposes point to point. When a host controller functions as a master to access the cardbus device as a target, a control circuit 2 is provided, which outputs a frame signal only to a cardbus device to be the target. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus including a card bus device and an access control method thereof.

  One of the extended functions of personal computers is a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus standardized as a local bus. A PCI card equipped with a PCI device can be connected to the PCI bus via a PCI connector. On the other hand, there is a standardized card bus (Cardbus) for realizing a function equivalent to the PCI bus.

  Until now, many card bus devices have been connected in a one-to-one relationship, but from the demand for further expandability, it is desired to increase the number of external interfaces including a card bus. However, there has been a problem in terms of control in connecting multiple card bus devices, which are point-to-point.

  On the other hand, in the case of a PCI bus premised on Point to Multi-Point, when a plurality of PCI devices are mounted and the host controller becomes a master, the target device is specified by IDSEL (signal for specifying a target device). It was. However, when a card bus device based on Point to Point is included in a plurality of PCI devices, the card bus device does not have an IDSEL concept, and thus cannot be specified as a target device.

  Further, there is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 as a technique for realizing an extended function related to this type of PCI device. Briefly described in Patent Document 1, it is an object to provide an interface circuit that can use a general-purpose PCI device as an LSI built in a PC card for a card bus. This interface circuit is used for a card bus. A card bus PC card built in as an interface circuit is described. However, in this method, it is necessary to incorporate an interface circuit for each card card for the card bus, and it is difficult to apply to an existing PC card.

JP 11-120120 A

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enable individual access to each device in the form of Point to Multi-Point, regardless of the number of mounted devices, even when a plurality of devices including a card bus device are mounted. There is.

  According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising a host controller, wherein at least two devices accessed by the host controller are mounted, and at least one of them is a card bus device premised on Point to Point. There is provided an apparatus comprising a control circuit that outputs a FRAME signal only to a target card bus device when the controller accesses the card bus device as a target.

  In the first aspect of the apparatus, only two or more of the card bus devices are mounted as the accessed device, the host controller outputs a FRAME control signal upon access, and the control circuit outputs the FRAME control signal to the FRAME control signal. Based on this, the path is switched and the FRAME signal is output to the target card bus device. On the other hand, when the host controller does not access the card bus device, the control circuit connects the FRAME signal to all the card bus devices, and in this state, only one of the card bus devices becomes the master. Thus, the host controller can be accessed.

  In the second aspect of the present apparatus, one or more of the card bus devices and one or more PCI devices premised on Point to Multi-Point are mounted as the devices to be accessed, and the host controller is the master and When accessing the card bus device as a target, the FRAME control signal is output, and the control circuit performs path switching based on the FRAME control signal and outputs the FRAME signal to the target card bus device. To do. On the other hand, the host controller and the PCI device can be directly connected by IDSEL, and when the host controller accesses the PCI device as a master, the IDSEL corresponding to the target PCI device is activated. The control circuit is turned off by the FRAME control signal.

  According to the present invention, there is also provided a communication terminal device including any one of the above devices.

  According to the present invention, there is further provided an access control method in an apparatus comprising a host controller, wherein at least two devices accessed by the host controller are mounted, and at least one of them is a card bus device premised on Point to Point. And, when the host controller becomes a master and accesses the card bus device as a target, the FRAME signal is outputted only to the target card bus device to make it accessible. A method is provided.

  In the first aspect of the access control method, only two or more card bus devices are mounted as the devices to be accessed, and the host controller outputs a FRAME control signal upon access, and based on the FRAME control signal The FRAME signal is output to the target card bus device for access. On the other hand, when the host controller does not access the card bus device, the FRAME signal is connected to all the card bus devices. In this state, only one of the card bus devices becomes the master and the host controller Can be accessed.

  In the second aspect of the access control method, one or more card bus devices and one or more PCI devices premised on Point to Multi-Point are mounted as the devices to be accessed, and the host controller is When the master accesses the card bus device as a target, a FRAME control signal is output, and based on the FRAME control signal, the FRAME signal is output to the target card bus device to make it accessible. On the other hand, the host controller and the PCI device can be directly connected by IDSEL, and when the host controller accesses the PCI device as a master, the IDSEL corresponding to the target PCI device is activated. The FRAME signal is not input to the card bus device by the FRAME control signal.

  As can be understood from the above, the present invention aims at access control in a hardware circuit having a circuit configuration capable of mounting an existing PCI card.

  The control circuit of the present invention mainly controls on / off of only the FRAME signal. By turning on / off only the FRAME signal, the FRAME signal is input only to the target device to be accessed.

  A non-target device to which no FRAME signal is input receives a signal other than the FRAME signal. However, since the FRAME signal is not input, the address and data are not valid.

  In the present invention, one control circuit for switching the FRAME signal can be used regardless of the number of devices such as PCI devices and card bus devices to be connected.

  According to the present invention, even when a plurality of devices including a card bus device are mounted, it is possible to individually access each device in the point-to-multi-point format regardless of the number of mounted devices. Become.

  The present invention is characterized by a circuit configuration that enables control when a host controller performs configuration for a client at the same time when a plurality of devices including a card bus device that is point-to-point are mounted in a communication terminal device. .

  The basic concept of the present invention for realizing the above features will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, a plurality of PCI devices 3-1 to 3 -N (N is a positive integer) that is point-to-multi-point and a plurality of points that are point-to-point are connected to the host controller 1. Card bus devices 4-1 to 4 -N are connected via the control circuit 2. Note that both the PCI device and the card bus device are mounted in a card format, but for the sake of convenience, the form of the card, the bus, and the connector are not shown. This also applies to FIGS. 2, 5, and 6 described later.

  In FIG. 1, the host controller 1 can arbitrarily access the PCI devices 3-1 to 3 -N having IDSEL. On the other hand, the card bus devices 4-1 to 4-N are accessed by switching the FRAME signal from the host controller 1 by the control circuit 2 and sending it to the target card bus device. That is, when the host controller 1 accesses a plurality of devices including the card bus device, the FRAME signal can be input only to the target card bus device, thereby enabling control of the plurality of devices.

  As described above, in the present invention, even if the card bus device is point-to-point, a plurality of the devices can be connected, and the FRAME signal can be switched and input so that the same function as point-to-multi-point is achieved. It becomes possible to have.

[First embodiment]
FIG. 2 shows a configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment, it is assumed that two card bus devices 5 and 6 are connected to the host controller 1. In this case, the FRAME signal of the host controller 1 is connected to the card bus devices 5 and 6 via the control circuit 2. Further, the FRAME control signal of the host controller 1 is input to the control circuit 2.

  3 shows an example of the control circuit 2, and FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of access control to the card bus devices 5 and 6 by the host controller 1.

  A method for controlling access to the card bus devices 5 and 6 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  When the host controller 1 accesses the card bus device 5 in steps S1 and S2 of FIG. 4, the control circuit 2 switches the FRAME signal by the FRAME control signal. In this case, the path A for the card bus device 5 in the control circuit 2 is turned on, and the path B for the card bus device 6 is turned off (here, “ON” means the FRAME of the host controller 1 and the card bus device). This means a short circuit between the FRAMEs, and OFF means an open state) (step S3). Thereby, the FRAME signal is not transmitted to the card bus device 6 side, and communication is possible only to the card bus device 5 (step S5).

  Similarly, when the host controller 1 accesses the card bus device 6, the control circuit 2 switches the FRAME signal by the FRAME control signal. In this case, the path B is turned on and the path A is turned off in the control circuit 2 (step S4). As a result, the FRAME signal is not transmitted to the card bus device 5 side, and only the card bus device 6 can communicate (step S5).

  Thus, even when two card bus devices without IDSEL are mounted, access control can be performed with one FRAME signal.

  When the host controller 1 does not access the card bus device, all FRAME signals connected to the control circuit 2 are turned on. That is, the FRAMEs of the host controller 1 and the card bus devices 5 and 6 are all connected. At this time, when the card bus device 5 becomes the master and accesses the host controller 1, the bus use right of the competing circuit is specified by the communication of the REQ1 signal and the GNT1 signal between the card bus device 5 and the host controller 1. The Here, since the REQ1 signal and the GNT1 signal for the card bus device 5 and the REQ2 signal and the GNT2 signal for the card bus device 6 operate exclusively, the card bus device 6 that has not become the master is connected to the card bus. While device 5 is communicating, communication cannot be started. The same can be said when the card bus device 6 becomes the master. Thus, even when the FRAME signal is always input, it is possible to identify access and non-access, and there is no problem even when the card bus device side becomes the master.

  FIG. 2 shows the simplest example in which two card bus devices are mounted. The principle is the same when three or more card bus devices are mounted. Of course, the control circuit 2 executes switching control so as to select a target card bus device from among three or more card bus devices according to the FRAME control signal from the host controller 2.

  The effects of the first embodiment are as follows.

  The first effect is that even when a plurality of card bus devices are mounted, the target card bus device can be activated by controlling the control circuit with the host controller when accessing.

  The second effect is that a plurality of card bus devices can be accessed in the form of Point to Multi-Point with a single FRAME signal.

  The third effect can be applied even to an existing card bus device.

[Second Embodiment]
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The basic configuration of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the expansibility is devised.

  FIG. 5 shows an example in which one PCI device 7 having IDSEL and one card bus device 8 are mounted. The FRAME of the PCI device 7 is directly connected to the FRAME of the host controller 1, and the FRAME of the card bus device 8 is connected via the control circuit 2. Of course, the FRAME control signal is given to the control circuit 2 from the host controller 1. The IDSEL of the PCI device 7 is directly connected to the IDSEL of the host controller 1.

  In FIG. 5, when the host controller 1 accesses the PCI device 7, the target device, that is, the PCI device 7 is activated by IDSEL. At this time, the host controller 1 turns off the control circuit 2 by the FRAME control signal in order to make the card bus device 8 inactive so that the FRAME signal is not input to the card bus device 8.

  On the other hand, when the host controller 1 accesses the card bus device 8, it can be accessed by turning on the control circuit 2 by the FRAME control signal and inputting the FRAME signal to the card bus device 8. At this time, the IDSEL of the PCI device 7 is inactive.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, even when a PCI device and a card bus device are mounted, the access can be made in the form of Point to Multi-Point.

[Third embodiment]
A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The basic configuration of the third embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the expansibility is devised.

  FIG. 6 shows an example in which a plurality of PCI devices 3-1 to 3-N having IDSEL and a plurality of card bus devices 4-1 to 4-N are mounted. The FRAMEs of the PCI devices 3-1 to 3 -N are directly connected to the FRAME of the host controller 1, and the FRAMEs of the card bus devices 4-1 to 4 -N are connected via the control circuit 2. Of course, the FRAME control signal is given to the control circuit 2 from the host controller 1. Further, IDSEL_A to IDSEL_N of the PCI devices 3-1 to 3-N are directly connected to IDSEL_A to IDSEL_N of the host controller 1, respectively.

  In FIG. 6, when the target of the host controller 1 is a PCI device, for example, the PCI device 3-1, a specific PCI device can be selected by outputting an IDSEL signal (IDSEL_A) assigned to the PCI device 3-1. At this time, the control circuit 2 is turned off.

  On the other hand, when the target is a card bus device, for example, the card bus device 4-1, IDSEL_A to IDSEL_N are inactive, and only the target device 4-1 is selected by the switching function of the control circuit 2 based on the FRAME control signal from the host controller 1. It becomes active when the FRAME signal is connected to.

  In this way, according to the third embodiment, any number of PCI devices and card bus devices can be accessed in the form of Point to Multi-Point.

  The technology according to the present invention is suitable for application to communication terminal equipment in the field of information communication in addition to personal computers.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining the basic concept of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an apparatus configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the control circuit used in the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an apparatus configuration according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an apparatus configuration according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host controller 2 Control circuit 3-1 to 3-N, 7 PCI device 4-1 to 4-N 5, 6, 8 Card bus device

Claims (11)

An apparatus comprising a host controller, wherein at least two devices accessed by the host controller are mounted, and at least one of them is a card bus device based on Point to Point,
An apparatus comprising: a control circuit that outputs a FRAME signal only to a target card bus device when the host controller becomes a master and accesses the card bus device as a target.   Only two or more of the card bus devices are mounted as the devices to be accessed, the host controller outputs a FRAME control signal at the time of access, and the control circuit performs path switching based on the FRAME control signal, and the FRAME The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a signal is output to the target card bus device.   When the host controller does not access the card bus device, the control circuit connects the FRAME signal to all the card bus devices, and in this state, only one card bus device becomes the master. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the apparatus is accessible to a host controller.   One or more card bus devices as the devices to be accessed and one or more PCI devices based on Point to Multi-Point are mounted, and the host controller serves as a master to access the card bus device as a target. 2. The FRAME control signal is output at the time, and the control circuit performs path switching based on the FRAME control signal and outputs the FRAME signal to the target card bus device. The device described.   The host controller and the PCI device can be directly connected by IDSEL, and when the host controller accesses the PCI device as a master, the IDSEL corresponding to the target PCI device is activated. 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the control circuit is turned off by the FRAME control signal.   A communication terminal device comprising the apparatus according to claim 1. An access control method in an apparatus comprising a host controller, wherein at least two devices accessed by the host controller are mounted, and at least one of them is a card bus device based on Point to Point,
An access control method characterized in that, when the host controller becomes a master and accesses the card bus device as a target, the FRAME signal is output only to the target card bus device for access.   Only two or more card bus devices are mounted as the devices to be accessed, and the host controller outputs a FRAME control signal upon access, and the FRAME signal is sent to the target card bus device based on the FRAME control signal. The access control method according to claim 7, wherein the access is enabled by outputting.   When the host controller does not access the card bus device, the FRAME signal is connected to all card bus devices. In this state, only one of the card bus devices becomes the master and accesses the host controller. 9. The access control method according to claim 8, wherein the access control method is enabled.   One or more card bus devices as the devices to be accessed and one or more PCI devices based on Point to Multi-Point are mounted, and the host controller serves as a master to access the card bus device as a target. 8. The access control method according to claim 7, further comprising: outputting a FRAME control signal to enable access by outputting the FRAME signal to the target card bus device based on the FRAME control signal. . The host controller and the PCI device can be directly connected by IDSEL, and when the host controller accesses the PCI device as a master, the IDSEL corresponding to the target PCI device is activated. 11. The access control method according to claim 10, wherein the FRAME signal is not input to the card bus device by the FRAME control signal.

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