Electronic apparatus and electronic apparatus control method

Abstract

To make it possible to deal with a case where data cannot be transferred due to an abnormality occurring in a connection by a connector or the like when an impact such as an earthquake occurs with a simple configuration, in an electrical apparatus such as a storage device.SOLUTION: The present invention is applied to an electronic apparatus 100 to which a drive device 120 for storing data and a control board 130 arranged with a controller 131 for controlling data transfer between the drive device 120 and another device are connected via connectors 111 and 113. The electronic apparatus 100 includes an acceleration sensor 114 and a vibration detection processing unit 132 that, when the acceleration sensor 114 detects acceleration exceeding an upper-limit threshold, controls a communication state between the drive device 120 and the controller 131 to temporarily suspend the data transfer by the drive device 120 for a period during which an abnormality may be occurring in the connection via the connector or the like, and resumes the temporarily suspended data transfer when the acceleration sensor 114 detects the acceleration equal to or lower than a lower-limit threshold.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an electronic device and an electronic device control method. [Background technology]

[0002] Various storage devices capable of storing large amounts of data have been developed as electronic devices. Storage devices typically use solid state drives (SSDs) or hard disk drives (HDDs). These storage devices combine multiple drive devices such as SSDs and HDDs to ensure the necessary recording capacity, and are equipped with a controller that controls the multiple drive devices.

[0003] The drive units and controllers are connected via connectors to a board called a backboard. To ensure device redundancy, multiple controller boards may also be provided. When multiple drive devices and controller boards are connected via connectors, if an impact such as an earthquake occurs during data transfer, there is a possibility that abnormalities will occur in the data transfer via the connectors.

[0004] In other words, connectors are mechanically designed so that they will not come apart due to slight vibrations, but vibrations can cause chattering, which can make data transfer unstable.In particular, in recent years, as data transfer rates have tended to increase and connectors themselves have become more miniaturized, there has been an increase in cases where data transfer does not work properly when vibrations occur.

[0005] In a storage device, if an abnormality occurs during data transfer and the data transfer is interrupted, it is not possible to determine which data was lost, so it is necessary to check all recorded data. As a result, each storage device takes a very long time to complete the data transfer. Also, depending on the circumstances under which the abnormality occurred, it is possible that automatic recovery will not be possible. Therefore, it is preferable for storage devices to be able to withstand shocks such as earthquakes.

[0006] Patent Document 1 describes a technology that uses an acceleration sensor to detect the possibility of an information processing device being affected by a shock due to a fall or the like. The technology described in Patent Document 1 determines which sectors are being transferred that may have been affected by a shock due to a fall or the like. Then, information about those sectors is written to a register, and when the transfer is resumed, the transfer is resumed from the data stored in the register. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-182773 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0008] The technology described in Patent Document 1 detects that the device is falling and saves the data in a register before the dropped device hits the floor or other surface and receives an impact. However, the technology described in Patent Document 1 cannot handle unexpected impacts such as earthquakes. In the past, in order to cope with shocks such as earthquakes, it was considered to place a storage device via a seismic isolation device, for example, to create a structure that would prevent the storage device from shaking even when an earthquake occurs. However, the use of such a seismic isolation device has the problem of making the storage device large and expensive.

[0009] In view of these points, the present invention aims to provide an electronic device and an electronic device control method that can deal with situations in which data transfer is not possible in electrical equipment such as storage devices when an impact such as an earthquake occurs, using a simple configuration. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] In order to solve the above problems, for example, the configurations described in the claims are adopted. The present application includes multiple means for solving the above-mentioned problems, and one example is an electronic device configured such that a drive device for storing data and a control board on which a controller for controlling data transfer between the drive device and other devices is located are connected via a connector, and the electronic device is equipped with an acceleration sensor for detecting the occurrence of vibrations, and a vibration detection processing unit that, when the acceleration sensor detects acceleration exceeding an upper threshold, the controller controls the communication state between the drive device and the controller to temporarily suspend data transfer between the drive device and the controller, and resumes the temporarily suspend data transfer when the acceleration sensor detects acceleration below a lower threshold. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to the present invention, by controlling the communication state based on the vibration state detected by the acceleration sensor, it is possible to effectively prevent data transfer failures caused by the occurrence of shocks such as earthquakes. Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the side; [Figure 2] 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from above; [Figure 3] 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the device configuration of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 4]4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a control process of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of setting a communication state according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of acceleration and characteristic impedance when vibration in the X direction is applied to a connector according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] 10A and 10B are diagrams showing examples of acceleration and characteristic impedance when vibration in the Y direction is applied to a connector according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a threshold setting screen according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration seen from the side of an electronic device according to a modified example of an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] An electronic device and an electronic device control method according to an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "this embodiment") will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0014] [Electronic device configuration] 1 and 2 show the configuration of an electronic device 100 of this example. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the electronic device 100 as seen from the side, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the electronic device 100 as seen from above. As shown in Fig. 2, the electronic device 100 is a storage device that includes a plurality of drive devices 120 inside a housing 101. In the example of Fig. 2, eight drive devices 120 are included, but eight is just an example, and the number of drive devices 120 is not limited to eight. The drive device 120 is configured with, for example, an SSD, and a large amount of data is stored in a recording medium (semiconductor memory) built into this SSD.

[0015] As shown in FIG. 1, in each drive device 120, controllers 131 and 141 arranged on control boards 130 and 140 control the recording medium of the drive device 120 and the external data transfer. 1 and 2, data d1 is exchanged between the controller 131 and the drive device 120 to control data transfer between the controller 131 and the drive device 120. The controllers 131 and 141 are configured, for example, with a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a memory.

[0016] The two controllers 131, 141 are provided to provide redundancy for the electronic device 100, with one of them controlling data transfer and the other standing by in case a situation arises where the other cannot control it. In FIG. 2, data d1 indicates the flow of data between the controller 131 and one drive device 120, but in reality the controller 131 controls all of the drive devices 120 that are arranged.

[0017] 1 and 2, the arrows indicating the data flow indicate the data flow of one control substrate 130, and omit the data flow of the other control substrate 140. Needless to say, the data flow when control substrate 140 is operating is the same as the data flow in control substrate 130.

[0018] The plurality of drive devices 120 and the two control boards 130 and 140 are connected to a backboard 110 in the housing 101 via respective connectors. That is, a connector 121 is attached to each drive device 120, and the connector 121 is fitted into a connector 113 on the backboard 110 side. Also, a connector 133 is attached to the control board 130, and the connector 133 is fitted into a connector 111 on the backboard 110 side. Similarly, a connector 143 is attached to the control board 140, and the connector 143 is fitted into a connector 112 on the backboard 110 side.

[0019] As a result, each drive device 120 is electrically connected to the controllers 131 and 141 of the two control boards 130 and 140. Furthermore, each drive device 120 and the two control boards 130 and 140 have their respective ends directly fixed to the housing 101 with screws 102. The backboard 110 is also directly fixed to the housing 101 with screws 102.

[0020] In electronic device 100 of this example, acceleration sensor 114 is attached to backboard 110. Acceleration sensor 114 is attached to, for example, an end of backboard 110, and is arranged near the point where it comes into contact with housing 101. The acceleration sensor 114 attached to the backboard 110 is a sensor that detects acceleration applied to the electronic device 100. Acceleration detection data d2 by the acceleration sensor 114 is supplied to vibration detection processing units 132 and 142 arranged on the control boards 130 and 140, respectively.

[0021] The vibration detection processing units 132, 142 arranged on the respective control substrates 130, 140 are circuits that perform vibration detection processing in the electronic device of this example, but are also chips known as microcomputers, and perform other operational control of the control substrates 130, 140. For example, the vibration detection processing units 132, 142 also perform power management for the respective control substrates 130, 140.

[0022] When acceleration detection data d2 from the acceleration sensor 114 exceeds a set threshold, the vibration detection processing units 132, 142 issue a notification d3 to the controllers 131, 141. Upon receiving this notification, the controllers 131, 141 change the communication state of each drive device 120. Details of the control processing based on this acceleration detection will be described later.

[0023] [Configuration for control based on acceleration detection] 3 shows a configuration for performing processing on the control board 130 based on acceleration detection data from the acceleration sensor 114. Note that the following explanation shows the configuration and processing of one control board 130, but the other control board 140 has a similar configuration.

[0024] The vibration detection processing unit 132 includes a sensor information acquisition unit 132a, a threshold determination processing unit 132b, a log processing unit 132c, and a vibration detection transmission unit 132d. The controller 131 includes a drive interface (drive I / F) 131a and an interrupt processing unit 131b. A memory 131c is also connected to the controller 131. For example, a memory module called a DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module), which is a memory module having multiple semiconductor memory chips mounted on a printed circuit board, is used as the memory 131c. The memory 131c is used as a cache memory. The drive devices 120-1 to 120-N (N is an integer: the number of drive devices installed in the electronic device 100) include storage units 122-1 to 122-N, respectively.

[0025] The sensor information acquisition unit 132 a of the vibration detection processing unit 132 performs processing for acquiring detection data of acceleration from the acceleration sensor 114 . The threshold determination processing unit 132b performs threshold determination processing to determine whether the acceleration acquired by the sensor information acquisition unit 132a exceeds a threshold. The thresholds to be determined include an upper threshold and a lower threshold. Appropriate values ​​are set as the upper threshold and the lower threshold in advance, but they can be changed by a threshold setting processing described later.

[0026] The log processor 132c executes log processing for controlling data transfer from the controller 131 to the drive device 120. When the threshold value is exceeded by the threshold value determination processing unit 132b, the vibration detection transmission unit 132d transmits a vibration detection notification based on the log processing by the log processing unit 132c to the interrupt processing unit 131b of the controller 131.

[0027] When the interrupt processing unit 131b of the controller 131 receives the vibration detection notification from the vibration detection transmission unit 132d, the interrupt processing unit 131b changes the communication state of the controller 131 with each of the drive devices 120-1 to 120-N. The drive I / F 131a of the controller 131 is in a communication state set by the controller 131, and executes communication with each of the drive devices 120-1 to 120-N. The data written to the storage units 122-1 to 122-N of the drive devices 120-1 to 120-N and the data read from the storage units 122-1 to 122-N can be temporarily stored in a memory 131c connected to the controller 131.

[0028] [Control process when vibration occurs] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing control based on acceleration detection by the vibration detection processing unit 132. When the threshold value determination processing unit 132b determines that the acceleration has exceeded the upper limit threshold value, the vibration detection processing unit 132 starts processing when vibration occurs (step S11). When the process for vibration occurrence is started, the vibration detection transmission unit 132d starts log acquisition by the log processing unit 132c, and notifies the controller 131 of a transmission stop event (step S12).

[0029] The controller 131, which has received the transmission stop event in step S11, transitions the link state between the controller 131 and the drive device 120, and performs processing to temporarily stop data transfer (temporary suspension processing) (step S13). Then, the vibration detection processing unit 132 determines whether the acceleration has become smaller than the lower limit threshold value in the threshold value determination processing unit 132b (step S14). In step S14, if the acceleration becomes smaller than the lower limit threshold (YES in step S14), the vibration detection processing unit 132 ends log acquisition by the log processing unit 132c and notifies the controller 131 of a transmission resume event (step S15).

[0030] Upon receiving the transmission resume event, the controller 131 transitions the link state between the controller 131 and the drive device 120 to resume data transfer (step S16). This ends the processing when vibration occurs. Ending the processing after the restart in step S16 is the same as ending in normal cases. Note that the data to be transferred from when the data transfer is stopped in step S13 until when it is resumed in step S16 is temporarily stored in memory 131c connected to controller 131. Therefore, when the data transfer is resumed in step S16, the data transfer is performed using the data cached in this memory 131c.

[0031] If the acceleration does not become smaller than the lower limit threshold in step S14 (NO in step S14), the vibration detection processing unit 132 determines whether the time elapsed since the transmission stop event was notified in step S12 exceeds a preset maximum stop time (step S17). This maximum stop time is set based on the amount of data that can be cached in the memory 131c, and is, for example, a few seconds.

[0032] If the maximum stop time has not been exceeded in step S17 (NO in step S17), the vibration detection processing unit 132 returns to the determination in step S14. If the maximum stop time is exceeded in step S17 (YES in step S17), the vibration detection processing unit 132 performs a stop process for the drive device 120 (step S18) and ends the process when vibration occurs. Ending the process when the stop process has been performed in step S18 is an end in the event of an abnormality. In step S18, the drive device 120 may be stopped by the controller 131 instead of the vibration detection processing unit 132. In this case, the vibration detection processing unit 132 notifies the controller 131 of a stop process event, and the controller 131, upon receiving the event, stops the drive device 120.

[0033] 5 is a sequence diagram showing an example of setting the communication state. Here, it is assumed that the acceleration sensor 114 detects strong vibrations due to the occurrence of an earthquake or the like. When the acceleration sensor 114 detects strong vibration (step S101) and the acceleration detected by the vibration detection processing unit 132 exceeds an upper threshold (step S102), the vibration detection processing unit 132 notifies the controller 131 (step S103). The controller 131 receives this notification that the acceleration has exceeded the upper threshold (step S104), and issues an instruction to transition the communication state (step S105).

[0034] In response to the instruction to transition the communication state in step S105, the controller 131 changes the communication state of the drive device 120 from the normal state (S111) to the stop state (S112). At this time, there is a possibility that, after a slight delay, strong vibrations such as those caused by an earthquake may be transmitted to the connectors 121 and 113, changing the contact state of the connectors and causing abnormalities such as fluctuations in characteristic impedance or chattering, which may prevent normal data transfer. During the stop state in step S112, data transfer between the controller 131 and the drive device 120 is temporarily stopped. Data during this stop state is cached in the memory 131c connected to the controller 131.

[0035] Then, as the vibration converges, acceleration sensor 114 detects a weakening of the vibration (step S121), and when the acceleration detected by vibration detection processing unit 132 becomes smaller than the lower limit threshold (step S122), vibration detection processing unit 132 notifies controller 131 (step S123). Receiving this notification, controller 131 is notified that the acceleration is smaller than the lower limit threshold (step S124), and issues an instruction to transition the communication state (step S125).

[0036] In response to the instruction to transition the communication state in step S125, the controller 131 changes the communication state of the drive device 120 from the stop state (S112) to the normal state (S113). With this change to the normal state, data transfer by the drive device 120 resumes.

[0037] As described above, in the electronic device 100 of this example, when temporary vibrations such as an earthquake occur, data transfer in the drive device 120 is automatically stopped upon detection of the vibrations, and is automatically resumed when the vibrations subside. Note that if the termination process in the event of an abnormality in step S18 of the flowchart in Figure 4 is performed, a resume process similar to that of the past is required. However, even in this case, the extent of data transfer can be determined by analyzing the data cached in memory 131c connected to the controller 131, enabling a more appropriate and shorter resume process than before.

[0038] [Example of setting upper and lower thresholds] Next, an example of setting the upper and lower thresholds when vibration occurs will be described. FIG. 6 shows an example in which vibration is applied in the X direction to the connection between the connector 111 attached to the backboard 110 of the electronic device 100 of this example and the connector 133 on the control board 130 side. 7 shows an example in which vibration is applied to the same connection point in the Y direction, which is perpendicular to the X direction by 90 degrees. The X and Y directions are shown in FIGS. 6D and 7D.

[0039] 6A and 7A, the vertical axes represent the acceleration of the vibration applied to electronic device 100, and the horizontal axes represent time. Also, in Fig. 6B and 7B, the vertical axes represent the displacement (mm) in the X and Y directions when vibration is applied to electronic device 100, and the horizontal axes represent time. As shown in FIGS. 6B and 7B, it can be seen that as the acceleration increases, the amount of displacement in each direction increases.

[0040] In Figures 6A and 7A, the upper threshold is indicated as TH1 and the lower threshold is indicated as TH2. The upper threshold TH1 in Figures 6A and 7A corresponds to the value α2 when the amount of displacement in each direction in Figures 6B and 7B is relatively large. The lower threshold TH2 in Figures 6A and 7A corresponds to the value α1 when the amount of displacement in each direction in Figures 6B and 7B is relatively small.

[0041] 6C and 7C show the relationship between the amount of displacement in each direction (horizontal axis) and the characteristic impedance of the connector (vertical axis), with the characteristic impedance increasing as the amount of displacement increases to α2, α3, etc. The value of the amount of displacement α3 is the amount of displacement at which the connector becomes disengaged. Here, the values ​​of the displacements α1 and α2 are set so that the characteristic impedance value β1 corresponds to the displacement α2 when a change of up to a predetermined N% is allowed for the characteristic impedance value when there is no displacement. The impedance N% when there is no displacement is the upper limit of the displacement at which transmission performance can be guaranteed by transmission analysis. This allows the vibration detection processing unit 132 to appropriately set the upper and lower thresholds to a level that will prevent errors in data transfer due to vibrations caused by an earthquake.

[0042] [Example of upper and lower threshold setting screen] It is preferable that the upper and lower threshold values ​​are set to appropriate values ​​in advance in the above-described process, but they may also be changeable on the setting screen of the electronic device 100 or the like. FIG. 8 shows an example of a screen for setting the upper and lower thresholds. As shown in FIG. 8, the setting screen allows the user to input a detection threshold (start) which is an upper limit threshold and a detection threshold (end) which is a lower limit threshold.

[0043] In the example of Fig. 8, the detection threshold (start), which is the upper limit threshold, is set to 3 G (G is a unit of gravitational acceleration), and the detection threshold (end), which is the lower limit threshold, is set to 0.1 G. Since the upper and lower limit thresholds may vary depending on the installation position of the acceleration sensor 114, the setting screen of Fig. 8 also displays the installation position of the acceleration sensor. In other words, the setting screen displays "Installation position: backboard".

[0044] This setting screen also allows the user to change the maximum elapsed time, which is the maximum stop time determined in step S17 of the flowchart in Fig. 4 and is determined by the storage capacity of the memory 131c, etc. In this way, the upper and lower acceleration thresholds can be changed, allowing the electronic device of this example to accommodate various installation conditions. Also, the maximum elapsed time (maximum stop time) can be changed, making it possible to set an appropriate stop time depending on conditions such as memory capacity and data transfer speed.

[0045] [Another example of the installation location of the acceleration sensor] 1 and 2, the acceleration sensor 114 is attached to the backboard 110. Providing the acceleration sensor 114 on the backboard 110 allows the acceleration sensor 114 to be shared by a plurality of control boards 130, 140, and has the effect of enabling appropriate detection of vibrations applied to the housing 101 from the outside, but the acceleration sensor may be installed in another position. FIG. 9 shows an example in which the acceleration sensor is attached to the control boards 130 and 140. In FIG. In the example of FIG. 9, one control board 130 is provided with an acceleration sensor 134 , and the other control board 140 is provided with an acceleration sensor 144 . The acceleration sensors 134 and 144 are preferably located near the locations where the control boards 130 and 140 are fixed to the housing 101 with screws 102, where external vibrations are easily transmitted.

[0046] This allows the vibration detection processing units 132, 142 arranged on the respective control boards 130, 140 to directly detect vibrations from the acceleration sensors 134, 144 within the respective boards. The other configurations of the electronic device 100 in Figure 9 are configured in the same way as the electronic device 100 shown in Figures 1 and 2.

[0047] 9, the acceleration sensors 134, 144 are attached to the control boards 130, 140, respectively, eliminating the need for processing to attach the acceleration sensors to the backboard 110. Furthermore, the measured values ​​of the acceleration sensors are supplied directly to the vibration detection processing units 132, 142 without going through a connector, allowing for more appropriate determination of the acceleration values.

[0048] [Other variations] The embodiments described above have been described in detail to make the present invention easier to understand, and are not necessarily limited to those having all of the configurations described. For example, the above-described embodiments show an example in which the present invention is applied to a storage device having multiple drive devices, but the present invention may also be applied to other electronic devices.

[0049] In addition, the configuration diagram shown in Figure 3 shows only the control lines and information lines that are considered necessary for explanation, and does not necessarily show all the control lines and information lines in the product. In reality, it can be assumed that almost all components are interconnected. Furthermore, the flow of processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4 is also an example, and as long as the processing results are the same, the order of some of the processing may be changed or multiple processes may be executed simultaneously.

[0050] 4 is executed by a program installed in the vibration detection processing unit 132, and the vibration detection processing unit can be made to function by installing the corresponding program in a general-purpose information processing device (microcomputer). In this case, the program may be prepared in a memory within the information processing device serving as the vibration detection processing unit 132, or may be stored and transferred on a recording medium such as an external memory, an IC card, an SD card, or an optical disk. Furthermore, a part or all of the vibration detection processing unit may be realized by dedicated hardware such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). [Explanation of symbols]

[0051] 100...electronic device, 101...casing, 102...screw 110...backboard, 111, 112, 113...connectors, 114...acceleration sensor, 120, 120-1, 120-N...drive device, 121...connectors, 122-1, 122-N...storage unit, 130...control board, 131...controller, 131a...drive interface, 131b...interrupt processing unit, 131c...memory, 132...vibration detection processing unit, 132a...sensor information acquisition unit, 132b...threshold value judgment processing unit, 132c...log processing unit, 132d...vibration detection transmission unit, 133...connectors, 134...acceleration sensor, 140...control board, 141...controller, 143...connectors, 144...acceleration sensor

Claims

1. An electronic device in which a drive device for storing data and a control board on which a controller for controlling data transfer between the drive device and other devices is arranged are connected via a connector, an acceleration sensor that detects the occurrence of vibration; a vibration detection processing unit that controls a communication state between the drive device and the controller when the acceleration sensor detects acceleration exceeding an upper threshold, to temporarily suspend data transfer by the drive device, and that resumes the temporarily suspended data transfer when the acceleration sensor detects acceleration equal to or lower than a lower threshold. electronic equipment.

2. The vibration detection processing unit causes the controller to change the state of communication with the drive device from a normal state to a state in which data transfer is stopped, and when data transfer is resumed, causes the controller to change the state to the normal state. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

3. During the state in which the data transfer is stopped, a memory arranged on the control board stores the data being transferred, and after the data transfer that was temporarily stopped is resumed, the data stored in the memory is transferred to the drive device. The electronic device according to claim 2 .

4. When the memory is no longer able to store data, the electronic device is shut down. The electronic device according to claim 3 .

5. the drive device and the control board are mounted on a backboard attached to a housing; The acceleration sensor is disposed on the backboard. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

6. the drive device and the control board are mounted on a backboard attached to a housing, and a part of the control board is attached to the housing with screws; The acceleration sensor is disposed near the location where the screw is attached to the control board. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

7. The vibration detection processing unit is configured so that the upper limit threshold and the lower limit threshold can be changed by an external instruction. The electronic device according to claim 1 .

8. An electronic device control method applied to an electronic device in which a drive device for storing data and a control board on which a controller for controlling data transfer between the drive device and another device is arranged are connected via a connector, a pause process for temporarily stopping data transfer by the drive device when acceleration detected by an acceleration sensor that detects the occurrence of vibration exceeds an upper limit threshold; and a resuming process for resuming the data transfer that was paused when the acceleration sensor detects an acceleration equal to or lower than a lower limit threshold value after the pause process is performed. Electronic device control method.

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