Arrangement for Supervising a Data Processing System

The present invention relates to an arrangement for supervising a data processing system adapted for controlling telecommunication equipment and including an address bus with the ability of transferring 2.sup.n addresses one at a time, the bus being connected to k computer elements, such as memory locations and input/output terminals, which are each accessed by an assigned binary address transferred through the bus and associated with a first category of k addresses used in data processing, there being available an address redundance consisting of 2.sup.n -k addresses of a second category, which are not used while data processing is going on.

Synchronous duplicating with comparison, multiple redundancy with majority selection, and parity checking, as well as time supervision in the form of "watch dog" and microprogrammed pointer control, are known principles for supervising a data processing system. Even if it is only partially used, duplication is very expensive in many cases. Parity checking requires a rather considerable increase in the number of components used. Pointer control and parity generation mean increased access times relative to the data processing. Time supervision results in tardy error detection.

The state of the art is dealt with, for example, in "12th Annual International Symposium on Fault-Tolerant Computing" (ISSN number 0731-3071), Session 6B On-Line Monitoring, pages 237-256.

Based on the fact that addresses transferred through an address bus are formed in a known manner with the aid of data transportation and data calculations, there is obtained in supervising addresses, in accordance with the invention, an indirect supervision of data processing in, for example, a stored-program controlled telecommunication system.

The inventive arrangement is characterized by an insignificant addition of components, more specifically at most 2.sup.n simple indication registers connected to the address bus, the outputs of the registers being connected to an error signal generator.

A condition for the inventive supervision principle is that the address bus has an excess capacity in relation to the number of computer elements connected thereto, i.e., such that 2.sup.n >k. This condition often exists, particularly in modern microprocessors, with n=16 and in applications of computer elements in which only a minor portion of the possible addresses is used, so that there can be thus obtained the above-mentioned two categories of addresses.

In accordance with the invention, the indication registers store the information as to the category affinity of their addresses. Since correct data processing only results in addresses of the first category, an error signal is generated from every indication obtained by the registers that an address transferred through the bus is included in the second category. The greater the address redundancy of the data processing system, the greater chance there is that the simple inventive supervision arrangement discovers data processing errors.

The invention will next be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which the sole FIGURE illustrates a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

The drawing illustrates an address bus 3 and computer elements 2 in a conventional data processing system 1, and a supervision arrangement which includes an error signal generator 5 and indication registers 4 connected to the address bus.

In the data processing system 1, there are indicated the computer elements 2/1, 2/2 . . . 2/k, the access inputs of which are connected to an address bus 3. The address bus is capable, with the aid of n parallel lines, of transferring 2.sup.n binary address numbers one at a time, these numbers coming in, for example, from an address calculation unit (not shown). Each of the access inputs of the computer elements is connected to its own output of a conventional address decoder (not shown) included in the bus. Access to an element is obtained when a first category address number assigned to this element is transferred through the bus. The drawing illustrates individual computer elements 2/1, 2/2 . . . 2/i-1 (e.g., input/output terminals) each with its individual address number A16, A32, A48 and series of elements 2/i, 2/i+1 . . . 2/k-a . . . 2/k (e.g.,) memory locations for storing instruction sequences, with successively increasing address numbers A64, A65 . . . , A2.sup.n -a . . . A2.sup.n. The drawing further shows address bus outputs, the associated address numbers of the second category, (e.g., A1 . . . A15, A49 . . . A63) constitute the address number redundancy of the data processing system.

The address bus is connected to a plurality of indication registers 4 for storing address category indication bits. Each of the 2.sup.n address numbers which can occur in the bus activates its own register for the reading of the same, the respective stored information being transferred to an error signal generator 5. All k registers with associated first category address numbers, e.g. A64, store a binary "zero" and all 2.sup.n -k registers with associated second category address numbers, e.g. A1 . . . A15, store a binary "one". The generator 5 generates an error signal from an instant second category address number, which does not achieve access to a computer element.

The supervision arrangement must include as many indication registers as enable a reliable indication of an instant address category association. Reliable indication is achieved by an arrangement which includes only 2.sup.n -k registers which are activated for reading each on reception of its second category address number, a binary "one" obtained from the registers indicating a data processing error. A further arrangement includes only k registers, which are each activated for reading a stored binary "one" on reception of its first category address number, the outputs of these registers being connected to an inverting AND gate input activated in its rest position. A conventional strobe signal is used, which indicates each address transferred through the bus, to activate the other AND gate input. If no register is accessed, the AND gate sends the strobe signal to the activating input of the error signal generator.