JP2007018177A - PROCESS STATUS MONITORING METHOD, PROCESS STATUS MONITORING PROGRAM, RECORDING MEDIUM, AND IMAGE DISPLAY DEVICE - Google Patents

Abstract

A processing state monitoring method, a processing state monitoring program, a recording medium, and an image display device capable of reliably detecting an abnormality are provided.
An image display device includes image display means for displaying an image corresponding to input image information, and control means for controlling the entire apparatus. Among these, the control means postpones the command processing unit that processes the input command, the state monitoring unit that monitors the processing state of the command processing unit depending on whether the timer has expired, and the monitoring operation of the state processing unit A monitoring operation postponement processing unit. In this control means, the processing time acquisition step for acquiring the processing time of the input command, the processing time determination step for determining whether or not the processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time of the timer, and not sufficiently short When the determination is made, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit executes monitoring operation postponement steps SC2 to SC4 that postpone the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit until at least the processing time elapses.
[Selection] Figure 4

Description

  The present invention is an image display device including an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information and a control unit that controls the entire device, and is used in the image display device. The present invention relates to a processing status monitoring method for commands processed by the control means, a processing status monitoring program, and a recording medium on which the processing status monitoring program is recorded.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an image display apparatus including an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information and a control unit that controls the entire apparatus including the image display unit. Such an image display device is used alone, or incorporated in a gaming machine such as a pachinko machine, and is also used as an image display device that displays an image corresponding to a command input from a control board of the gaming machine.

A control unit incorporated in such an electronic apparatus such as an image display apparatus executes processing according to an externally input command or an internal command such as a program. However, in such a process, an abnormality may occur in rare cases, and the device may run away. For this reason, there is known a gaming machine that detects an abnormality such as a runaway and stores the information of the device in a storage means (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In the gaming machine described in Patent Document 1, when a specific abnormality is detected in the gaming machine, abnormality determination information is generated and stored in the storage means. Then, the game state at the time of occurrence of the abnormality is stored in the storage means in correspondence with the abnormality confirmation information. Thereby, the normal operation of the gaming machine that has recovered from the abnormality can be guaranteed by performing the recovery process using the abnormality confirmation information as an index.

  By the way, a method using a watchdog timer is known for detecting an abnormality of the apparatus. The watchdog timer has an internal timer, and clears the internal timer of the watchdog timer when the control means executes one command. Here, when the control means is operating normally, the control means clears the internal timer, and the time measurement of the internal timer is restarted from “0”. However, if the control means operates abnormally due to runaway or the like and the internal timer is not cleared, the watchdog timer resets the entire device as soon as the time-up time set in advance in the watchdog timer is reached. In this way, the watchdog timer detects an abnormality of the device depending on whether the time measured by the internal timer has reached the time-up time.

However, when the control means executes a process that takes longer than the time-up time of the internal timer of the watchdog timer, the time-out of the internal timer occurs during the process, so the following two methods can be used. Is considered.
The first method is a method of temporarily stopping the watchdog timer and restarting the watchdog timer after the processing is completed. The second method is a method of dividing a long process into a plurality of processes and executing a timer clear process in the middle of the divided processes.

JP 2001-104607 A

However, the above two methods have the following problems.
In other words, the first method has a problem that abnormality detection cannot be performed if the stopped watchdog timer cannot be restarted. In addition, when an abnormality occurs during a long process, the watchdog timer is stopped, so that the abnormality cannot be detected.
Further, in the second method, it is difficult to appropriately divide a long and time-consuming process, and there is a problem that the system performance is deteriorated when the clear process is frequently performed by finely dividing the process. On the other hand, if the processing is divided to some extent, if the processing time increases due to device specification changes or irregular interrupt processing, the watchdog timer will time out before the clear processing is performed, so normal operation However, there is a problem that it is regarded as abnormal.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a processing state monitoring method, a processing state monitoring program, a recording medium, and an image display device that can reliably and appropriately detect an abnormality even in a long process.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the processing state monitoring method of the present invention is used for an image display device including an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information and a control unit that controls the entire device. And a processing state monitoring method for monitoring a processing state of a command input to the control means, wherein the control means includes a command processing unit that executes processing according to the command, and a timer, A state monitoring unit that monitors the processing state of the command processing unit based on whether or not the time-up time set in the timer has elapsed, and a monitoring operation postponing processing unit that postpones the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit And a processing time acquisition step for acquiring a processing time of the command in the command processing unit, and the acquired processing time is calculated by the control means. A processing time determination step for determining whether the time is sufficiently shorter than the time, and if it is determined that the time is not sufficiently short, at least the processing time has passed by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit for the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit. And a monitoring operation postponing step for postponing the operation until it is performed.

  According to the present invention, when the command processing time in the command processing unit is not sufficiently shorter than the time up of the timer of the state monitoring unit, the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit is postponed until the command processing time has elapsed. Thus, erroneous detection of an abnormality can be prevented. In addition, when the monitoring operation by the status monitoring unit is postponed rather than stopped, the monitoring operation by the status monitoring unit can be executed along with the expiration of the monitoring operation deferral period. The abnormality can be reliably detected.

That is, when it is determined by the processing time determination step that the command processing time acquired in the processing time determination step is not sufficiently shorter than the time-up time of the timer of the state monitoring unit, the state monitoring unit performs the monitoring operation postponement step. The monitoring operation of the command processing unit is postponed until at least the command processing time has elapsed. According to this, since the state monitoring operation of the command processing unit by the state monitoring unit is not performed until the command processing time elapses, an abnormality such as a time-up of the timer of the state monitoring unit is detected erroneously. Can be prevented. In addition, after the command processing time has elapsed, that is, after the postponement time has elapsed, the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit is automatically resumed, so that there is an abnormality in the processing state of the command processing unit The abnormality can be reliably detected.
Therefore, even in command processing with a long processing time, an abnormality can be detected reliably and appropriately.

In the present invention, the control means includes a timer reset unit that resets the timer, and the monitoring operation suspension step includes a counter reset step that resets a counter that indicates the number of times the timer is reset, and the counter is preset. And a timer reset step for resetting the timer at a cycle shorter than the time-up time until the set number of times is reached.
According to the present invention, the postponement period for postponing the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit can be adjusted by changing the number of times the counter is set.
That is, until the counter reset in the counter reset step reaches a preset number of times, the timer of the state monitoring unit is reset at a cycle shorter than the time-up time of the timer in the timer reset step. Here, by setting the set number of times in advance in accordance with the command processing time, it is possible to execute the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit in accordance with the completion of processing of the input command. Therefore, the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit can be resumed promptly after the command processing is completed, and when there is an abnormality in the processing state, the abnormality can be detected quickly.

In the present invention, the timer reset step includes a determination procedure for determining whether or not the counter has reached the set number of times, a reset procedure for resetting the timer when it is determined that the counter has not been reached, and the counter And a count-up procedure that is advanced.
According to the present invention, it is determined whether the counter has reached the set number in the determination procedure. If it is determined that the counter has not been reached, the timer is reset in the reset procedure and the counter is repeated in the count-up procedure. Go up. According to this, it can be reliably determined whether or not the counter has reached the set number of times, and the timer can be reset in accordance with the counter. Therefore, it is possible to reliably postpone the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the period shorter than the time-up time is substantially the same as the period of the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display means.
Here, in the image display device, interrupt processing such as switching of the display buffer is always executed in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display means. For this reason, in the present invention, by including the timer reset process of the state monitoring unit described above in the interrupt process synchronized with the period of the vertical synchronization frequency, the timer can be reliably reset.
Further, by including the timer reset of the state monitoring unit in the interrupt process accompanying the input of the vertical synchronization signal, it is not necessary to execute the timer reset process at a new cycle. According to this, it is possible to prevent a decrease in processing performance of the entire apparatus due to the overhead of the processing. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a decrease in performance due to the addition of the timer reset process.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the control means execute a counter setting step for setting the counter to the set number or more after the command processing.
According to the present invention, since the postponement of the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit by the monitoring operation postponing processing unit is canceled after performing the command processing that requires a processing time that is not sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time described above, the state monitoring The monitoring operation by the section can be executed immediately.
That is, after the command processing is performed, the counter setting step sets the counter to the above set number of times or more, thereby immediately restricting the execution of the counter reset step. According to this, since the timer of the state monitoring unit is not reset by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit after the execution of the command processing is completed, the state monitoring unit monitors the time measured by the timer, thereby causing an abnormality in the device. In this case, the abnormality can be detected quickly.

  The processing state monitoring program of the present invention is used in an image display device including an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information and a control unit that controls the entire device, and is input to the control unit. In order to monitor the processing state of the command, a processing state monitoring program that can be executed on the control unit, the control unit includes a command processing unit that executes processing according to the command, and a timer A time monitoring unit that monitors a processing state of the command processing unit based on whether or not a time-up time set in the timer has elapsed, and a monitoring that postpones the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit An operation postponement processing unit, a processing time acquisition step for acquiring the processing time of the command in the command processing unit in the control means, and the acquired processing The processing time determination step for determining whether or not the time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time, and when it is determined that the time is not sufficiently short, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit, the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit, A monitoring operation postponement step for postponing at least the processing time elapses is executed.

According to the present invention, it is possible to achieve the same effect as the processing state monitoring method described above.
That is, if it is determined in the processing time determination step that the processing time of the command acquired in the processing time acquisition step is not sufficiently shorter than the time-up time of the timer of the state monitoring unit, the command processing unit The monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit that monitors the processing state is postponed until at least the processing time elapses. According to this, it can be considered that an abnormality has occurred due to the elapse of the time-up time despite the normal processing of the command, that is, erroneous detection of the abnormality can be prevented. In addition, even if an error such as runaway occurs in command processing, the monitoring operation of the status monitoring unit that has been postponed automatically resumes after the command processing time has elapsed. Can be detected.
Therefore, it is not necessary to divide the command as in the conventional case, and the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit is not stopped, so that it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of an abnormality and to ensure that when there is an abnormality Abnormalities can be detected.

The recording medium of the present invention is characterized in that the processing state monitoring program described above is recorded so as to be readable by a computer.
According to the present invention, by reading and executing the processing state monitoring program recorded on the recording medium, it is possible to achieve the same effect as the processing state monitoring program described above.
As recording media, magnetic tapes such as DAT (Digital Audio Tape), magnetic disks such as FD (Flexible Disc), optical disks such as CD (Compact Disc) and DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), magneto-optical disks, hard disk devices, In addition, a semiconductor memory or the like can be used, and by using these, the processing state monitoring program described above can be installed, executed, and distributed.

  The image display device of the present invention is an image display device including an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information, and a control unit that controls the entire device. A command processing unit that executes processing according to a command and a timer, and monitors the processing state of the command processing unit based on whether or not the time measured by the timer exceeds the time-up time set in the timer And a monitoring operation postponement processing unit that postpones the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit, the command processing unit acquiring a processing time of the command, and the acquired processing time However, a processing time determination unit that determines whether or not the time-up time is sufficiently shorter and a counter that indicates the number of times the timer is reset are determined when it is determined that the time is not sufficiently short. A counter reset unit configured to receive the counter value, and the monitoring operation postponement processing unit determines whether the counter value acquired by the counter has reached a preset number of times. A counter determining unit for determining, a timer reset unit for resetting the timer when it is determined that the value of the counter is less than the set number of times, and a count-up unit for incrementing the value of the counter. And

According to the present invention, it is possible to achieve the same effect as the processing state monitoring method described above.
That is, when the processing time determination unit determines that the processing time of the command input to the control means is not sufficiently shorter than the time-up time set in the timer of the state monitoring unit, the counter reset unit Is reset. This counter is acquired by the counter acquisition unit of the monitoring operation postponement processing unit. When the counter determination unit determines that the value of the counter has not reached the set number of times, the timer reset unit and the count up unit reset the timer. The counter is incremented. By repeating this timer reset and count-up operation, the monitoring operation of the command processing unit by the state monitoring unit is postponed until the counter reaches the set number of times.

  According to this, when the processing time of the input command is not sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time of the timer, the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit can be postponed until the counter reaches the set number of times or more. . Therefore, since the timer does not reach the time-up time while the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit is postponed, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of abnormality in command processing, and after the monitoring operation is resumed. Can reliably detect an abnormality.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(1) Schematic Configuration FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the image display apparatus of this embodiment.
The image display device 1 according to the present embodiment is an image display device incorporated in a game machine such as a pachinko machine, and executes processing according to a command input from an external control device 9. Specifically, an image designated by an input command is displayed. When the control device 9 is an inspection machine that inspects the data in the ROM provided in the image display device 1, the inspection command input from the inspection machine is processed and the inspection result is the inspection machine. Output to the control device 9.
As shown in FIG. 1, such an image display device 1 includes a control board 2 and an image display unit 3.

Among these, although not shown, the image display unit 3 includes a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal driving circuit that drives the liquid crystal panel, and the liquid crystal driving circuit is a liquid crystal according to image information input from the control board 2. By driving the panel, an image corresponding to the image information is formed and displayed on the liquid crystal panel.
In the present embodiment, the image display unit 3 includes the liquid crystal panel. However, the image display unit 3 may be an image display unit having an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) element, or may be a plasma display. Furthermore, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) may be provided.

(2) Configuration of Control Board 2 The control board 2 corresponds to the control means of the present invention, and is configured as a circuit board that processes a command input from the control device 9 and controls the entire device including the image display unit 3. ing.
The control board 2 includes an arithmetic processing unit 21, a state monitoring unit 22, a monitoring operation postponing processing unit 23, a ROM 24, a RAM 25, a display control unit 26, a CGROM 27, and a VRAM 28.

Among these, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 24 is composed of a flash memory capable of updating data, and stores setting data of the image display device 1 and programs such as a control program executed by the arithmetic processing unit 21 and the like. .
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 25 temporarily stores part or all of the data and program when the setting data and program stored in the ROM 24 are processed by the arithmetic processing unit 21. Further, the RAM 25 stores a counter in a processing state monitoring process S described later.

  The display control unit 26 generates image information corresponding to the control information input from the arithmetic processing unit 21. Specifically, image information is generated based on character information such as characters and designs stored in a CGROM (Character Generator ROM) 27 and background image information, and the image information is output to a VRAM (Video RAM) 28. To do. The VRAM 28 is a buffer that temporarily stores image information to be output to the image display unit 3, and the display control unit 26 outputs the image information stored in the VRAM 28 to the image display unit 3.

(3) Configuration of Arithmetic Processing Unit 21 The arithmetic processing unit 21 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the like, and controls the entire control board 2. The arithmetic processing unit 21 includes a command processing unit 211 that processes a command input from the control device 9 and an output port 212 that communicates with a state monitoring unit 22 described later.
Among these, the output port 212 is configured such that the signal level can be inverted, and the signal level can be referred to from a state monitoring unit 22 described later, and from the command processing unit 211 and the monitoring operation postponing processing unit 23. It is configured to be inverted by the input control signal.

The command processing unit 211 includes a command detection unit 2111, a level setting unit 2112, a processing time acquisition unit 2113, a processing time determination unit 2114, a counter reset unit 2115, a counter setting unit 2116, and a command execution unit 2117.
Among these, the command detection unit 2111 is connected to the control device 9 and detects a command input from the control device 9. When a command input is detected, the command detection unit 2111 outputs a control signal including the type of the command to the level setting unit 2112, the processing time acquisition unit 2113, the counter setting unit 2116, and the command execution unit 2117. .
The level setting unit 2112 sets the signal level of the output port 212. Specifically, the level setting unit 2112 inverts the signal level of the output port 212 at a cycle shorter than the time-up time set in the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 described later.

The processing time acquisition unit 2113 acquires the processing time of the command input from the control device 9 from the control signal input from the command detection unit 2111. The acquired processing time is transferred to the processing time determination unit 2114.
The processing time determination unit 2114 determines whether the processing time acquired by the processing time acquisition unit 2113 is sufficiently shorter than a time-up time set in a timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 described later. In this determination, when it is determined that the processing time is not sufficiently shorter than the time-up time, the processing time determination unit 2114 outputs a control signal to the counter reset unit 2115.
The counter reset unit 2115 initializes a counter counted up by a count up unit 233 of the monitoring operation postponing processing unit 23 described later. Specifically, when the control signal is input from the processing time determination unit 2114, the counter reset unit 2115 sets the counter value stored in the RAM 25 to “0”.

When the control signal from the command detection unit 2111 is input, the counter setting unit 2116 sets the counter value stored in the RAM 25 to a preset number of times. Here, in this embodiment, since the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 described later operates together with the input of the vertical synchronization signal, when the frequency of the vertical synchronization signal is 60 Hz, the set number of times is the extended time (seconds). It is set to 60 times the value.
When the control signal from the command detection unit 2111 is input, the command execution unit 2117 executes processing according to the control signal including the command.

(4) Configuration of the state monitoring unit 22 The state monitoring unit 22 monitors the processing state of the command in the arithmetic processing unit 21, and when an abnormality occurs in the processing state, detects the abnormality and forces the device. Reset it.
The state monitoring unit 22 includes a level determination unit 221, a timer reset unit 222, a timer 223, a timer determination unit 224, and a reset processing unit 225.

The level determination unit 221 monitors the signal level of the output port 212 of the arithmetic processing unit 21 and determines whether or not the signal level of the output port 212 has been inverted. When the inversion of the signal level occurs, a control signal that causes the timer reset unit 222 to reset the timer 223 is output.
The timer reset unit 222 resets the timer 223 when the control signal is input from the level determination unit 221. By this process, the time count of the timer 223 is restarted from “0”.

The timer determination unit 224 monitors the time count of the timer 223 and determines whether or not the time count of the timer 223 has reached the time-up time. In this embodiment, the timer determination unit 224 determines whether or not the time measured by the timer 223 has reached 1 second set as the time-up time. In this determination process, when it is determined that the time count of the timer 223 has reached 1 second, the timer determination unit 224 considers that an abnormality has occurred in the command processing in the command execution unit 2117 of the arithmetic processing unit 21, and the timer determination unit 224 A control signal is output to the reset processing unit 225.
When the control signal from the timer determination unit 224 is input, the reset processing unit 225 executes a reset process for resetting the entire image display device 1. Specifically, the reset processing unit 225 outputs a reset signal to reset the entire apparatus.

(5) Configuration of Monitoring Operation Postponement Processing Unit 23 The monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 resets the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 at a predetermined cycle when the counter value stored in the RAM 25 is less than the set number of times. Thus, the time measured by the timer 223 is prevented from reaching the time-up time. That is, by resetting the timer 223 at a predetermined period until the counter value reaches the set number of times, the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit 22, that is, the reset process due to the time-up of the timer 223 is postponed. . In this embodiment, the process of the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 is performed in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency (60 Hz) of the image display unit 3.
The monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 includes a counter determination unit 231, a level setting unit 232, and a count up unit 233.

  The counter determination unit 231 corresponds to the counter acquisition unit and the counter determination unit of the present invention. The counter determination unit 231 acquires a counter value stored in the RAM 25 and determines whether the counter value is equal to or greater than a preset number of times. Determine whether. In this determination, when the counter determination unit 231 determines that the counter value is equal to or greater than the set number of times, the counter determination unit 231 outputs a control signal to the level setting unit 232 and the count up unit 233. It should be noted that the set number of times as a determination criterion in the counter determination unit 231 can be set according to a command input to the command processing unit 211.

When the control signal is input from the counter determination unit 231, the level setting unit 232 inverts the signal level of the output port 212 of the arithmetic processing unit 21. As a result, the level determination unit 221 of the state monitoring unit 22 detects a change in the signal level of the output port 212 and the timer reset unit 222 resets the timer 223.
The count-up unit 233 increments the counter value stored in the RAM 25 by “1” in accordance with the signal level inversion of the output port 212 by the level setting unit 232. That is, the counter indicates the number of signal level inversions by the level setting unit 232 and corresponds to the number of resets of the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 accompanying the inversion of the signal level.

(6) Process status monitoring process S
2 to 4 are diagrams illustrating a processing flow of the processing state monitoring processing S. Specifically, FIGS. 2 to 4 are flowcharts showing the command execution process SA, the monitoring process SB, and the monitoring operation postponing process SC that constitute the processing state monitoring process S, respectively.
As described above, whether or not an abnormality has occurred in the command processing by the command processing unit 211 of the arithmetic processing unit 21 is determined whether or not the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 has reached the time-up time without being reset. When the timer determination unit 224 determines that there is an abnormality, that is, when the timer 223 reaches the time-up time, a reset process is executed. This processing state monitoring process S is performed by combining a command execution process SA by the command processing unit 211, a monitoring process SB by the state monitoring unit 22, and a monitoring operation postponement process SC by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23.
Below, the process state monitoring process S is demonstrated based on FIGS.

(6-1) Command execution process SA
First, the command execution process SA by the command processing unit 211 will be described.
In the command execution process SA, as shown in FIG. 2, when a command is input from the control device 9, the command detection unit 2111 of the command processing unit 211 detects the input of the command. Then, a control signal is output from the command detection unit 2111 to the level setting unit 2112, the processing time acquisition unit 2113, the counter setting unit 2116, and the command execution unit 2117. Among these, the signal level of the output port 212 is inverted by the level setting unit 2112 to which the control signal is input (processing SA1).
After this process SA1, the counter setting unit 2116, to which the control signal from the command detection unit 2111 has been input, sets the counter value stored in the RAM 25 to the set number of times described above (process SA2).

When the counter value is set to the set number of times by the processing SA2, the processing time acquisition unit 2113 acquires the time required to process the input command (processing time acquisition step SA3). The command processing time can be acquired from the number of processes included in the command, the type of command, and the like.
Thereafter, the processing time determination unit 2114 determines whether or not the acquired processing time is sufficiently shorter than 1 second, which is the time-up time of the timer 223 (processing time determination step SA4). Specifically, the processing time determination unit 2114 determines whether or not the acquired processing time is 0.7 seconds or less.

If it is determined that the acquired processing time is sufficiently shorter than the above time-up time, specifically 0.7 seconds or less, the command execution unit 2117 executes processing according to the input command. (Processing SA5).
On the other hand, when it is determined that the acquired processing time is not sufficiently shorter than the above-described time-up time, that is, longer than 0.7 seconds, the processing time determination unit 2114 outputs a control signal to the counter reset unit 2115. Then, the counter reset unit 2115 to which the control signal is input initializes the counter stored in the RAM 25 and sets the value of the counter to an initial value, that is, “0” (counter reset step SA6). Thereafter, the command execution unit 2117 executes processing according to the input command (command execution step SA7).

  Here, if the command processing time in which the command execution step SA7 is executed is not sufficiently short with respect to 1 second, which is the time-up time of the timer 223, and the time-up of the timer 223 occurs during the command processing, Even during normal processing, it is regarded as abnormal. On the other hand, in the monitoring operation postponement process SC described later, the signal level of the port signal is inverted until the counter value reaches the set number of times, so that the timer 223 is reset in the monitoring process SB according to the inversion. Therefore, it is possible to prevent an abnormality from being erroneously detected during normal processing.

After this processing SA7, the command execution unit 2117 outputs a control signal to the counter setting unit 2116, and the counter setting unit 2116 to which the control signal is input sets the counter value stored in the RAM 25 to the set number of times described above. (Counter setting step SA8).
Thereafter, the command processing unit 211 returns to the process SA1, and the inversion of the port signal is executed every time the process SA5 or SA7 is completed as described above. The process SA1 is executed at a cycle shorter than the time-up time of the timer 223 even if no command is input from the control device 9.

(6-2) Monitoring process SB
Next, the monitoring process SB by the state monitoring unit 22 will be described.
This monitoring process SB is started when the apparatus is started, monitors the signal level of the output port 212 of the arithmetic processing unit 21, resets the timer 223 when the signal level is inverted, and inverts the signal level. This is a process of resetting the entire apparatus of the image display apparatus 1 assuming that an abnormality has occurred in the command processing in the command processing unit 211 when the timer 223 has timed up without being reset.
In this monitoring process SB, as shown in FIG. 3, first, the timer 223 is reset by the timer reset unit 222 of the state monitoring unit 22 (process SB1, reset procedure), and subsequently, the time count by the timer 223 is “0”. (Step SB2).

Here, the level determination unit 221 of the state monitoring unit 22 monitors the signal level of the output port 212 of the arithmetic processing unit 21, acquires the signal level of the output port 212 (processing SB3), and the signal level. It is determined whether or not is reversed (processing SB4).
If it is determined in the determination process SB4 that the signal level is inverted, the state monitoring unit 22 returns to the process SB1, resets the timer 223 again, and restarts the timer 223 from “0”. To do.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the signal level is not inverted, the timer determination unit 224 determines whether the time measured by the timer 223 has reached the time-up time (processing SB5).
In this determination process SB5, when the timer determination unit 224 determines that the time measured by the timer 223 has not reached 1 second, which is the time-up time, the state monitoring unit 22 returns to the process SB3 and outputs the output port. Continue monitoring 212 signal levels.

When the timer determination unit 224 determines that the time measured by the timer 223 has reached the time-up time or more, the timer determination unit 224 outputs a control signal to the reset processing unit 225, and the control signal is input. The reset processing unit 225 executes a reset process (process SB6).
By such monitoring processing SB, when the reset of the timer 223 after the command processing in the command processing unit 211 described above is executed, the timer 223 does not time out, so the command processing in the command processing unit 211 is normal. The reset process is not performed on the assumption that this is done. On the other hand, if the timer 223 reaches the time-up time without resetting the timer 223, the command processing unit 211 detects that there is an abnormality in the command processing by detecting the time-up of the timer 223. Can be detected. When an abnormality is detected, the reset processing unit 225 outputs a reset signal, so that the image display device 1 can be forcibly reset.

(6-3) Monitoring operation postponement processing SC
Next, the monitoring operation postponement process SC by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 will be described.
The monitoring operation postponement process SC is executed as part of a vertical synchronization interrupt process that is executed in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display unit 3. Then, this monitoring operation postponement process SC acquires the value of the counter stored in the RAM 25, and inverts the signal level of the output port 212 if the counter is less than the preset number of times, and indirectly This process is to postpone the monitoring operation of the command processing unit 211 by the state monitoring unit 22 by resetting the timer 223 of the monitoring unit 22.
That is, in the monitoring operation postponement processing SC, as shown in FIG. 4, first, the counter value stored in the RAM 25 is acquired by the counter determination unit 231 of the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 (processing SC1). It is determined whether or not the value is less than the set number of times described above (processing SC2, determination procedure).

If the counter determination unit 231 determines that the counter value is equal to or greater than the set number of times, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 ends the monitoring operation postponement processing SC.
On the other hand, when the counter determination unit 231 determines that the counter value is less than the set number of times, the counter determination unit 231 outputs a control signal to the level setting unit 232 and the count-up unit 233. Then, the level setting unit 232 to which the control signal is input inverts the signal level of the output port (processing SC3, reset procedure). Thereby, in the above-described monitoring process SB, the level determination unit 221 detects the inversion of the signal level, and the timer 223 is reset by the timer reset unit 222.
In addition, the count-up unit 233 to which the control signal is input increments the counter value stored in the RAM 25 by “1” (processing SC4, count-up procedure). Thereafter, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 ends the monitoring operation postponement processing SC.
That is, the processes SC2 to SC4 correspond to the timer reset step of the present invention, and the timer reset step and the counter reset step SA6 described above correspond to the monitoring operation postponement step of the present invention.

  By repeatedly executing the monitoring operation postponement process SC as described above in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency, the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 is indirectly reset until the counter value reaches a preset number of times. The monitoring operation of the command processing unit 211 in the original state monitoring unit 22 can be temporarily postponed. When the counter value is equal to or greater than the set number of times, the signal level inversion of the output port by the level setting unit 232 is not performed, so that the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit 22 can be performed as usual, and the command processing unit It is possible to detect the normal / abnormal processing state in 211.

The following effects can be achieved by the processing state monitoring process S of the present embodiment as described above.
That is, when a command is input from the control device 9 to the arithmetic processing unit 21 constituting the control board 2 of the image display device 1, the level setting unit 2112 inverts the signal level of the output port 212 and sets the counter in processing SA1. In process SA2, the unit 2116 sets the counter value stored in the RAM 25 to the set number of times. Then, the processing time acquired by the processing time acquisition unit 2113 in processing SA3 is determined by the processing time determination unit 2114 in processing SA4, and the processing time relative to the time-up time of the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 Is sufficiently short, the command input to the command processing unit 211 is executed by the command execution unit 2117 as it is.
At this time, since the processing time of the command is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time of the timer 223, after the processing of the command, the signal level is inverted by the processing SA1, and the timer 223 is reset (processing) Since SB1) is performed before the time is up, the reset process is not executed.

  At this time, since the counter value is set to the set number of times, the inversion of the signal level of the output port in the process SC3 of the monitoring operation postponement process SC and the reset of the timer 223 associated therewith are not executed. The state monitoring operation of the command processing unit 211 by the monitoring unit 22 is executed as usual. Thereby, even when the command processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time of the timer 223, an abnormality in the command processing can be detected appropriately.

On the other hand, when the processing time determination unit 2114 determines in processing SA4 that the processing time of the input command is not sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time, the counter reset unit 2115 performs counter counting in processing SA6. Set the value to “0”. Then, the command execution unit 2117 executes a process corresponding to the command input in process SA7.
Here, the monitoring operation postponement processing SC by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 is executed in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display unit 3. That is, the monitoring operation postponement process SC is repeatedly executed at a cycle shorter than 0.7 seconds, which is a criterion for determining whether or not the command process is sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time. In the monitoring operation postponement process SC, the counter value is acquired and determined by the counter determination unit 231 in the processes SC1 and SC2.

  At this time, since the counter value is initialized by the process SA6 and is less than the set number, the inversion of the signal level of the output port and the counter of the counter in the processes SC3 and SC4 until the counter value becomes the set number or more. Count up is repeated. For this reason, the timer 223 of the state monitoring unit 22 continues to be reset until the counter value reaches the set number of times or more with the inversion of the signal level, so that the timer 223 does not time out and an error in command processing occurs. False detection can be prevented.

Further, when the command processing is completed, the counter value is set to the set number of times by the processing SA8, so that the suspension of the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit 22 by the monitoring operation suspension processing SC is canceled and the timer 223 is indirectly reset. Will not be executed. For this reason, after the command processing is completed, the timer determination unit 224 performs the time measurement determination of the timer 223 in the process SB5, so that the monitoring operation of the command processing unit 211 by the state monitoring unit 22 can be surely executed. Thereby, normality / abnormality of command processing in the command processing unit 211 can be detected.
Therefore, even in command processing that requires a time that is not sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time, the abnormality detection operation by the state monitoring unit 22 can be postponed for a predetermined period without stopping the timer 223. And the like, and the abnormality in the command processing of the command processing unit 211 can be detected appropriately and reliably as the postponement period expires.

  Further, as described above, after the command processing of the command execution unit 2117 in processing SA7, the counter setting unit 2116 executes processing SA8 for setting the counter value to the set number of times. According to this, since the value of the counter is set to the set number of times after the completion of command processing that requires a time that is not sufficiently short with respect to the time-up time, the monitoring operation postponement processing executed by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23 is postponed. Processes SC3 and SC4 of process SC are avoided, and process SB5, which is the original abnormality detection operation for determining the elapsed time of timer 223, is quickly performed. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs during command processing in the command processing unit 211, the abnormality can be detected quickly.

(7) Modifications of Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but includes modifications and improvements as long as the object of the present invention can be achieved.
In the embodiment, the time-up time of the timer 223 is 1 second, the determination reference time for determining whether or not the command processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time in processing SA4 is 0.7 seconds, Although the execution cycle of the monitoring operation postponement process SC is synchronized with the vertical synchronization frequency (60 Hz) of the image display unit 3 and is performed at a cycle of 1/60 seconds, the present invention is not limited to these, and the magnitude relationship As long as it matches. Specifically, the judgment reference time of the command processing time relative to the time-up time is larger than the reset period of the timer 223 by the monitoring operation postponement processing unit 23, and the time-up time of the timer 223 is larger than the judgment reference time. May be appropriately set if there is a margin in the magnitude relationship between the two.
Note that the reset process of the timer 223 accompanying the signal level inversion in the process SC3 of the monitoring operation postponement process SC is performed in synchronization with the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display unit 3 as in the above embodiment. Not only can the timer 223 reset process be executed reliably, but there is no need to execute a new interrupt process, so that the overall performance of the apparatus can be suppressed.

  In the embodiment, the command processing unit 211 and the level setting units 2112 and 232 of the monitoring operation postponing processing unit 23 invert the signal level of the output port 212 of the arithmetic processing unit 21 and invert the signal level of the state monitoring unit 22. Although the level determination unit 221 detects and the timer reset unit 222 resets the timer 223, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a pulse-like signal may be given as a signal that is input to the state monitoring unit 22 and prompts the timer 223 to be reset, and signal levels having two different absolute values may be used as an index. Further, a value may be set directly in the timer 223. In other words, the reset signal of the timer 223 may be in a format suitable for the elements constituting the device.

  In the embodiment, the command processing unit 211 that executes processing according to the input command, the state monitoring unit 22 that monitors the processing state of the command processing unit 211, and the monitoring that postpones the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit 22 Although the operation postponement processing unit 23 is provided separately, it may be configured by one arithmetic processing unit including these functions. In such a case, the processing state monitoring process S composed of the command execution process SA, the monitoring process SB, and the monitoring operation postponement process SC may be executed on one arithmetic processing unit. That is, the command execution process SA may be executed on one arithmetic processing unit, and the monitoring process SB and the monitoring operation postponement process SC may be executed by interrupting the command execution process SA at a predetermined timing.

In the above-described embodiment, the processing state monitoring program S is stored in the ROM 24 or the like as a processing state monitoring program, and the processing state monitoring program is read and executed when the command is executed or when the image display device 1 is started. It may be configured.
Further, when the processing state monitoring program is executed, the processing state monitoring program may be recorded on a recording medium such as an optical disk, and the program may be read and executed as appropriate.

  In the embodiment, the counter is incremented by “1” by the process SB4 every time the process SB3 is executed. However, the counter may be decremented by “1” from the set number of times. That is, as long as the number of executions of the process SC3 can be grasped, the increase / decrease of the counter value and the increase / decrease number may be set as appropriate.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used not only for image display devices in general, but also particularly suitably for image display devices incorporated in electronic devices such as gaming machines that receive an external command and form and display an image corresponding to the command. be able to.

1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an image display device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the processing flow of the process status monitoring process in the said embodiment. The figure which shows the processing flow of the process status monitoring process in the said embodiment. The figure which shows the processing flow of the process status monitoring process in the said embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image display apparatus, 2 ... Control board (control means), 3 ... Image display part (image display means), 22 ... State monitoring part, 23 ... Monitoring operation postponement processing part, 211 ... Command processing part, 222 ... Timer reset 223 ... counter determination unit (counter acquisition unit), 233 ... count up unit, 2113 ... processing time acquisition unit, 2114 ... processing time determination unit, 2115 ... counter reset unit, SA3 ... processing time acquisition step, SA4 ... processing time determination step, SA6 ... counter reset step (monitoring operation postponement step), SA8 ... counter setting step, SC2 ... determination procedure (timer reset step, monitoring operation postponement step), SC3 ... reset procedure (timer reset step, monitoring) Operation postponement step), SC4 ... Count-up procedure (timer reset step) Up, monitoring operation postponed step).

Claims (8)

Processing state monitoring used in an image display device comprising an image display means for displaying an image according to input image information and a control means for controlling the entire apparatus, and for monitoring the processing state of a command input to the control means A method,
The control means includes
A command processing unit for executing processing according to the command;
A state monitoring unit that has a timer and monitors the processing state of the command processing unit based on whether the time measured by the timer has passed the time-up time set in the timer;
A monitoring operation postponement processing unit for postponing the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit,
In the control means,
A processing time acquisition step of acquiring a processing time of the command in the command processing unit;
A processing time determination step for determining whether or not the acquired processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time;
When it is determined that the monitoring operation is not sufficiently short, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit executes a monitoring operation postponement step for postponing the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit until at least the processing time elapses. Processing status monitoring method. In the processing state monitoring method according to claim 1,
The control means includes
A timer reset unit for resetting the timer;
The monitoring operation postponement step includes:
A counter reset step for resetting a counter indicating the number of times to reset the timer;
And a timer reset step for resetting the timer at a cycle shorter than the time-up time until the counter reaches a preset number of times. In the processing state monitoring method according to claim 2,
The timer reset step includes:
A determination procedure for determining whether the counter has reached the set number of times;
If it is determined that the timer has not been reached, a reset procedure for resetting the timer;
And a count-up procedure for incrementing the counter. In the processing state monitoring method according to claim 2 or claim 3,
The processing state monitoring method characterized in that the cycle shorter than the time-up time is substantially the same as the cycle of the vertical synchronization frequency of the image display means. In the processing state monitoring method according to any one of claims 2 to 4,
In the control means,
A processing state monitoring method, comprising: executing a counter setting step for setting the counter to the set number of times or more after processing of the command. In order to monitor the processing state of a command input to the control unit, the image display unit includes an image display unit that displays an image according to input image information and a control unit that controls the entire apparatus. A processing state monitoring program executable on the control means,
The control means includes
A command processing unit for executing processing according to the command;
A state monitoring unit that has a timer and monitors the processing state of the command processing unit based on whether the time measured by the timer has passed the time-up time set in the timer;
A monitoring operation postponement processing unit for postponing the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit,
In the control means section,
A processing time acquisition step of acquiring a processing time of the command in the command processing unit;
A processing time determination step for determining whether or not the acquired processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time;
When it is determined that the monitoring operation is not sufficiently short, the monitoring operation postponement processing unit executes a monitoring operation postponement step for postponing the monitoring operation of the state monitoring unit until at least the processing time elapses. Processing status monitoring program.   A recording medium in which the processing state monitoring program according to claim 6 is recorded so as to be readable by a computer. An image display device comprising image display means for displaying an image according to input image information, and control means for controlling the entire device,
The control means includes
A command processing unit for executing processing according to the command;
A state monitoring unit that has a timer and monitors the processing state of the command processing unit according to whether the time measured by the timer exceeds the time-up time set in the timer;
A monitoring operation postponement processing unit for postponing the monitoring operation by the state monitoring unit,
The command processing unit
A processing time acquisition unit for acquiring the processing time of the command;
A processing time determination unit that determines whether the acquired processing time is sufficiently shorter than the time-up time;
A counter reset unit that resets a counter indicating the number of resets of the timer when it is determined that the timer is not sufficiently short;
The monitoring operation postponement processing unit
A counter acquisition unit for acquiring the value of the counter;
A counter determination unit for determining whether or not the acquired value of the counter has reached a preset number of times;
An image display device comprising: a timer reset unit that resets the timer when it is determined that the value of the counter is less than the set number of times, and a count-up unit that increments the value of the counter.

Images