Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Intrasystem connection – Bus expansion or extension
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-02
2002-08-20
Wong, Peter (Department: 2181)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Intrasystem connection
Bus expansion or extension
C710S304000, C713S152000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06438640
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. P10-154641, filed Jun. 30, 1998, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a computer system and its control method and, more particularly, to a computer system with a wakeup function that allows the computer system to return from a stop or sleep state to an operative state in response to a specific packet received from a network, and a wakeup function control method.
In recent years, personal computers (PCs) have been used as information tools for companies. However, an increase in TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) required for system maintenance/management of the entire company is pointed out since PCs have too high a degree of freedom to be used as standardized tools in the company.
In order to reduce the TCO, the IS department of the company must be able to easily integrally control PCs in the company without any troublesome processes. For this purpose, development of a system for remote-controlling PCs from a server is underway. As a method of implementing such system, a desktop PC based on standard interface specifications called DMI (Desktop Management Interface) has been developed.
Recently, IBM Japan has released desktop PCs having functions called “Wake_on_LAN (WOL)” for turning on desktop PCs under the remote control from a server, and “Alert_on_LAN (AOL)” for automatically informing the server of abnormality of each desktop PC.
A typical remote management pattern using the WOL is as follows.
In an environment in which desktop PCs are set on the desks of individual employees as information tools in a company and are connected to a server via a LAN, when software programs installed in the respective desktop PCs are to be upgraded or when data are acquired from the respective desktop PCs, the IS department asks the employees to set their desktop PCs in a WOL enable state when they leave the company on a specific day. At midnight on that day, the server sends a special packet to the desktop PCs to automatically start up OFF or sleeping desktop PCs, thus upgrading the software program or acquiring data therefrom.
In this fashion, when desktop PCs in the company are integrally remote-controlled by a server, the PC maintenance/management cost can be reduced.
However, as the aforementioned WOL function is an automatic wakeup function dedicated to a desktop PC that stores a CPU and LAN controller in a single housing, if that function is directly applied to a note PC, the following problems are posed.
That is, in case of a note PC, it is preferable that a LAN controller be accommodated not in the PC main body but in an expansion unit called a docking station or docking base, and that expansion unit be permanently connected to a LAN in an office. In this way, when the note PC is docked with the expansion unit in the office, it can be used as a desktop PC. On the other hand, when the user leaves the office, he or she can undock the note PC from the expansion unit and can carry it.
However, in such environment in which a CPU and LAN controller can be disconnected from each other, a person other than a given employee may dock his or her own note PC to an expansion unit placed on the desk of that employee and may use it. In such case, the setup state of the LAN controller with the WOL function enabled may be inadvertently initialized by another PC. On the other hand, when a remote access is made by the WOL function, a note PC other than the note PC which is to be accessed is accessed. When this happens, wrong data is acquired from that note PC by a server or data in that note PC is accidentally rewritten.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system which grants use of a LAN controller only in a specific combination of an expansion unit that mounts a LAN controller and a note PC, and can implement highly reliable remote management even in an environment in which a CPU and LAN controller can be disconnected from each other, and a control method of that system.
According to the present invention, a computer comprises: a collating section for, when the computer is connected to an expansion unit having a network control unit, collating an ID peculiar to the computer and an ID peculiar to the expansion unit; and a section for permitting the computer to use the network control unit when the ID peculiar to the computer coincides with the ID peculiar to expansion unit.
According to the present invention, a computer system removably dockable to an expansion unit provided with a network control unit, comprises: a collating section for collating destination unit ID registered in one of the computer system and the expansion unit to which the computer system is docked, with ID peculiar to the other unit; and a section for permitting the computer system to use the network control unit when the destination unit ID registered in one of the computer system and the expansion unit coincides with the ID peculiar to the other unit.
In this computer system, a collation process using registered IDS is made between the computer system and the expansion unit to which the computer system is currently docked. Only when a coincidence between the two IDs is detected by this collation process, the computer system is granted use of the network control unit. Hence, since the network control unit can be used only in a specific combination of the expansion unit and computer main body, highly reliable remote management can be implemented even in an environment in which a CPU and LAN controller can be disconnected from each other.
The collating section executes the ID collation process in response to a wakeup signal generated from the network control unit, and the computer system is set in an operative state accessible from the network when the destination unit ID registered in one of the computer system and the expansion unit coincides with the ID peculiar to the other unit. In this fashion, the computer system can be set in the operative state only when a coincidence between the two IDs is detected. When the two IDs do not coincide with each other, control for returning the computer system to a stop or sleep state before generation of the wakeup signal can be made.
ID registration is implemented by ID registration section for registering an ID peculiar to the expansion unit in the computer main body, or registering an ID peculiar to the computer system in the expansion unit, when the wakeup signal generation function of the network control unit is enabled.
In the computer system of the present invention, first identification data is held in the expansion unit, which indicates whether or not ID registration process by the ID registration section has already been executed between the expansion unit and the computer system, and the ID registration section is provided with a section for determining whether or not the expansion unit has already been made correspondent with other computer system for implementing the wakeup function, by referring to the first identification data held in the expansion unit to which the computer system is docked, and when the expansion unit is made correspondent with other computer system, the ID registration process between the expansion unit and the other computer system is inhibited.
In this way, by determining whether or not the expansion unit has already been made correspondent with the other computer system by the ID registration process, a given expansion unit can be prevented from being made correspondent with a large number of computer systems, or vice versa, i.e., one-to-many combinations can be avoided, and a one-to-one correspondence between the computer systems and expansion units can be maintained.
Note that the computer system main body may hold second identification information indicating whether or not the ID registration process by the ID registration section has already been made, thus also preventing one-to-many combinations.
In the computer system according to the present invent
Hanada Toru
Miyamoto Tomofumi
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Vo Tim
Wong Peter
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