JP3018437B2 - Electromagnetic coupling computer module device and computer device using the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a new module in which the basic elements of each element constituting a computer are modularized, and these elements are electromagnetically coupled to each other to form a system. The invention relates to an electromagnetic coupling computer module device.

<Conventional technology> Conventional computer components control a large amount of information, as represented by a multi-pin LSI, control multi-bit data, addresses, and control signals, and combine a large number of LSIs with each other. The computer system is constructed while interconnecting the constituent elements by physical signal lines.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> The way of constructing such a system is based on the idea that high-speed processing is performed by operating many logic elements in parallel. had.

(A) A large number of printed boards on which a large number of logic elements are mounted are required.

(B) Since the configuration on the printed board cannot be changed, it is difficult to cope with an increase or decrease in the amount of information processing.

On the other hand, in recent years, workstations and servers connected by a local area network (LAN) are independent computer systems, and these systems can add a new computer system to the network according to a load. And is configured to be able to flexibly respond to fluctuating loads.

However, these systems are large in scale and have many overlapping resources, so it cannot be said that these resources are effectively utilized, and they cannot be applied to simple applications.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and a simple and clear module constituting a computer system is prepared, and these modules are electromagnetically coupled to each other and stacked to easily create a computer system having a desired function. It is an object to provide an electromagnetically coupled computer module device that can be constructed.

<Means for Solving the Problems> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of an electromagnetically coupled computer module device according to the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a microprocessor, 2 is a memory connected to this microprocessor 1 via a bus BS, 3 is a communication medium capable of electromagnetic coupling of at least six systems connected to the bus, and 4 is a microprocessor. A battery for operating the processor 1, the memory 2, and the electromagnetically coupled communication medium 3.

The microprocessor 1, the memory 2, the electromagnetic coupling communication medium 3, and the battery 4 are all contained in a hexahedron container 5, and the six electromagnetic coupling portions 31 to 36 connected to the electromagnetic coupling communication medium 3 are hexahedrons. It is located on each side of the container.

<Effect> Each element housed in the container functions as a minimum computer module, and a plurality of these modules are stacked without gaps, and the adjacent modules are connected to each other on the surface in contact with each other. Communication is performed using an electromagnetic coupling communication medium.

As a result, necessary information processing can be performed by one computer module.
The required additional computing power is obtained by adding the required number of modules and electromagnetically coupling each other.

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

FIG. 2 is a conceptual view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, components corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a printed board, reference numeral 11 denotes an LSI in which a microprocessor, memory, and six serial I / O ports are integrated on the printed board, and reference numeral 20 denotes an electromagnetic coupling unit which is a part of the electromagnetic coupling communication medium 3. The driver / receiver 30 of the minute antenna module is an oscillator for a clock supplied to the LSI. Reference numeral 4 denotes a power supply battery for driving these elements. The electromagnetic coupling portions 31 to 36 are formed by stacking two antenna coils a and b formed in a figure eight shape so as to form an angle of 90 °, and are connected to the electromagnetic coupling communication medium 3. Here, one antenna coil a is in charge of transmission, and the other antenna coil b
Is responsible for receiving.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the hexahedral container 5 in which the parts shown in FIG. 1 are accommodated.

In this example, the container has a substantially cubic shape, and electromagnetic coupling portions (antenna coils) 31 to 36 are provided on each face body side.

The electromagnetically coupled computer module device configured as described above is configured to function as one computer device as a whole by inputting and outputting data to and from an external device via the electromagnetic coupling unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a connection state of the transmission / reception electromagnetic coupling unit composed of the two antenna coils a and b to the driver / receiver 20.

These antenna coils a and b are connected to a driver / receiver via an antenna changeover switch circuit 21, and the driver / receiver and the antenna are connected by the switch circuit 21 as shown in FIGS. The connection between the coils a and b can be freely switched, and signals can be transmitted and received with other modules.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration in which a large computer device CD is constructed using such a computer module device.

As shown in the figure, a plurality of the electromagnetic coupling computer module devices CM accommodated in the hexahedral container 5 are stacked without gaps, and communication between the electromagnetic coupling computer module devices adjacent to each other on the contact surface is performed by an electromagnetic coupling unit. It is to be performed using.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a connection state of the computer device thus configured to the outside.

Serial I / O adapter 6,1 that contacts one side of one computer module CM for computer device CD
Parallel I / O touching each side of multiple modules in a row
An adapter 7 and an image display (input) adapter 8 in contact with each surface of a plurality of modules arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions are prepared.

The I / O adapter 6 is used when connecting to a data input / output terminal device TTY equipped with a CRT and a keyboard, a printer PRT, a system control adapter 60, and the like. here,
The system control adapter 60 is provided for inputting a system reset signal, inputting a power-on signal, or connecting to an external storage device such as a disk via this.

Each of these I / O adapters exchanges information in the same manner as that used for communication between the individual computer modules CM.

Important information such as a system reset signal and power on / off is input via the system control adapter 60 and broadcast to each computer module group as needed.

Only when the system configuration is changed, that is, when the arrangement and the number of each computer module, the I / O adapter is changed, etc., the connection between the computer modules is reconstructed.

In the computer device configured as described above, each computer module has six communication channels on each surface of a hexahedron. Each communication channel is connected between adjacent computer modules at a point-to-point, and performs two-way communication with carrier-assisted start-stop synchronization by electromagnetic coupling using two antennas.

Point-to-point communication links are multi-
It has the following advantages over the processor bus. That is, there is no contention for the communication mechanism, regardless of the number of computer modules in the system. When a computer module is added to the system, there is no loss due to capacitive loading. The communication bandwidth is not saturated even when the size of the system increases.

The point-to-point communication protocol is a handshake by transmitting one byte and receiving an acknowledgment code known as an INMOS link, and has no communication buffer.

This INMOS link is composed of two channels, input direction and output direction, and synchronizes communication on a byte-by-byte basis, so that data and link control information between computer modules of different speeds can be transmitted with high reliability. It can be transmitted while maintaining.

 Next, the construction of the system will be described.

The system is booted up, for example, from the system control adapter 60 connected via the serial I / O adapter 6.

First, the system control adapter 60 initializes the computer modules by broadcasting a message for initializing all the computer modules according to a boot-up sequence stored therein.

The computer module connected to the system control adapter 60 reads the boot-up program from the system controller adapter 60 and
Send it to another computer module with a destination and put it on standby.

After loading all programs, the system controller adapter 60 broadcasts a start message.

After receiving the system reset, each computer module sets all the antenna coils to the receiving side as shown in FIG. 5 (c), waits for the transmission / reception antenna decision information to be notified from the upstream, and thereby sets the transmission / reception. Determine the alignment and communicate this downstream as instructed.

Note that the above procedure is necessary at the time of initialization and disassembly because the orientation of the antenna coil changes when the arrangement changes because the computer modules are completely symmetric.

FIG. 8 is a signal flow in a case where the computer device CD performs an operation as a computer that performs a specified operation and outputs a signal to a specified I / O device according to an instruction from the terminal device TTY as a man-machine interface. FIG.

The instruction from the terminal device TTY is first transmitted to the computer module CM1 via the serial I / O adapter 6.
The computer module CM1 receiving this instruction instructs the computer module group CMm to perform the specified operation in parallel. Computer Module County CMm
Performs parallel processing with a three-stage × 3 pipeline here, and sends the result to the computer module CM3. The computer module CM3 outputs a processing result to the I / O device via the serial I / O adapter 6.

Although the above description has been made on the assumption that a normal computer operates, a neural network or the like may be implemented using the uniformity that all computer modules have the same structure.

<Effects of the Invention> As described in detail above, according to the present invention, since there is no restriction such as a printed board, the hardware configuration can be freely changed, and the type and number of I / Os can be increased or decreased depending on the purpose. Can be easily handled. Also, an increase or decrease in the amount of data processing can be handled by increasing or decreasing the number of computer modules. Also, it is possible to easily construct a dedicated device.

Furthermore, since there is no mechanism or contacts, there is a remarkable effect that the reliability is high, and since it is sufficient to produce computer modules of the same standard, mass production is possible and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of an electromagnetically coupled computer module device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Face container 5
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a connection state of a transmission / reception electromagnetic coupling unit composed of two antenna coils to a driver / receiver, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a driver / receiver and an antenna driven by a switch circuit. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a connection relationship between coils, FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration in which a large computer device is constructed using the computer module device according to the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a computer configured as shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a connection state of the device with the outside, and FIG. 8 is an operation conceptual diagram showing a signal flow when the computer device shown in FIG. 7 operates as a computer. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Microprocessor 2 ... Memory 3 ... Communication medium 4 ... Battery 5 ... Hexahedral container 31-36 ... Electromagnetic coupling part (antenna coil) 6 ... Serial I / O adapter 60 ... System / Control adapter 7 Parallel I / O adapter 8 Image display adapter

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A microprocessor, a memory connected to the microprocessor via a bus, a communication medium capable of electromagnetic coupling of at least six systems connected to the bus, the microprocessor and the memory And a battery for operating the electromagnetically coupled communication medium. Six sets each including the microprocessor, the memory, the electromagnetically coupled communication medium, and the battery housed in a hexahedral container and connected to the electromagnetically coupled communication medium. An electromagnetically coupled computer module device, wherein the electromagnetically coupled portions are disposed on each surface of a hexahedral container. A plurality of electromagnetically coupled computer module devices according to claim (1) are stacked without gaps, and communication between adjacent electromagnetically coupled computer module devices on their mutual contact surfaces is performed using an electromagnetically coupled portion. A computer device, comprising: