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Intermediate communication controller that sends transmission data in a predetermined order to a corresponding slave unit upon request from a master controller

  • US 6,011,921 A
  • Filed: 01/15/1997
  • Issued: 01/04/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A communication control apparatus comprising:

  • a master communication control unit for performing communication control for a plurality of slave units; and

    an intermediate communication control unit for performing the communication control for said slave units instead of said master communication control unit in response to a communication processing request from said master communication control unit,wherein said intermediate communication control unit comprises;

    a memory section for storing transmission data which are necessary to perform slave unit communication processing, and for storing response data, which are a response to the transmission data, for each type of communication;

    a transmission/reception section for sending the transmission data to, or receiving the response data from, said slave unit; and

    a communication processing control section which upon reception of a communication processing request from said master communication control unit, sends transmission data corresponding to the type of the communication processing request to a corresponding slave unit in a predetermined order through said transmission/reception section and writes the response data, which are received as a response to the transmission data in a predetermined order from said slave unit through said transmission/reception section, into said memory section, thereby executing the slave unit communication processing, and which notifies said master communication control unit of completion of the slave unit communication processing through an interruption signal when the communication processing has been completed;

    wherein said memory section is configured so as to store notification data for notifying execution of connection/operation status examination processing, command data for executing the connection/operation status examination processing, and transmission end data which represent the end of the transmission data, as the transmission data necessary to execute the connection/operation status examination processing among a plurality of kinds of the slave unit communication processing,said transmission/reception section comprises;

    a transmission data processing section which reads the transmission data from said memory section in order of the notification data, the command data, and the transmission end data in response to a control signal from said communication processing control section, and which sends the transmission data to the corresponding slave unit through said transmission/reception section; and

    a reception data processing section which sequentially writes reception acknowledgement data, connection/operation status examination result data and reception end data, which are received from said slave unit in that order as a response to the transmission data, into said memory section in response to a control signal from said communication processing control section;

    said communication processing control section comprises;

    a control signal generating section which generates a control signal for said transmission/reception section upon reception of a connection/operation status examination processing request from said master communication unit, said connection/operation status examination processing request requesting said slave unit to execute the connection/operation status examination processing for said slave unit;

    a data monitoring section which monitors the state of the transmission and reception of the transmission data and response data, and which detects whether or not the reception end data have been written into said memory section after the transmission end data have been transmitted; and

    an interruption control section which outputs an interruption signal to said master communication control unit after said data monitoring section has detected that the reception end data have been written into said memory section.

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