Patent Document

RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application is a Divisional Patent Application of co-pending application Serial Ser. No. 11/148,279, filed on 9 Jun. 2005. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention is related to a data transmission device and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a data transmission device connecting a chip set with storage devices inside a computer. The present invention is also applied for speedily booting the computer.  
         [0004]     2. Description of Related Art  
         [0005]     Reference is made to  FIG. 1 , which is a block diagram of a conventional computer. The central processing unit (CPU)  70  accesses data from a memory unit  74  via a North-Bridge chip  71  and communicates with peripheral devices via a South-Bridge chip  72 . The South-Bridge chip  72  connects with the external peripheral devices via a PCI interface  721 , an IDE interface  722  or an input/output chip  73 . In general, peripheral devices connected with the input/output chip  73 , such as a floppy disk, a keyboard, a mouse or a joystick, have a slow data transmission rate. Further, peripheral devices having a higher transmission rate are connected with the PCI interface  721  and the IDE interface  722 . For example, the peripheral device can be a display card or an Ethernet card connected with the PCI interface  721 , or a hard disk or optical drive connected with the IDE interface  722 .  
         [0006]     For a computer system, the main storage device is a hard disk. The hard disk has an advantage of large storage capacity. However, the access speed of the hard disk is much slower than that of the memory unit  74 . Hence, when the CPU needs to access a great quantity of data from the hard disk, it cannot achieve a sufficient access speed due to the limitations of the transmission bandwidth of the IED interface  722  and the mechanical access architecture of the hard disk. Thus, the overall operative efficiency of the computer is limited. Furthermore, the hard disk is usually used to store the necessary data for booting the computer. Due to the slow access speed of the hard disk, the booting time of the computer is very long.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     An objective of the present invention is to provide a data transmission device and a method for the same that can be used to adjust the transmission bandwidth flexibly. The present invention can be used to avoid storing data in a single storage device, and to increase the bandwidth of the interface to increase the data transmission rate and the booting speed of a computer system.  
         [0008]     For reaching the objective above, the present invention provides a data transmission device, which is applied to communicate with a chip set of a computer system. The data transmission device includes a first storage device, a second storage device and a transmission control unit. The transmission control unit is connected electrically to the first storage device and the second storage device. The transmission control unit is used to control the operation of data transfer between the chip set, the first storage device, and the second storage device. When the data transfer operation is performed between the chip set and the first storage device, the transmission control device checks whether a destination device is able to completely receive and process data sent, in which the destination device is the chip set or the first storage device. If the checking result is positive, the transmission control device immediately makes the destination device receive the data. If the checking result is negative, the transmission control device first sends a portion of the data to the destination device and temporarily stores a remaining portion of the data into the second storage device. The second storage device then sends the remaining portion of the data stored in the second storage device to the destination device. The interface of the transmission control unit and the chip set is a PCI-Express (PCI-E) interface.  
         [0009]     For reaching the objective above, the present invention provides a data transmission method, which is applied to communicate with a chip set of a computer system. The data transmission method includes the following steps. A transmission control unit is provided, and which controls the chip set to send data to a first storage device. The transmission control unit is used to receive the data sent from the chip set. The transmission control unit is used to check whether the first storage device is able to receive and process the data sent from the chip set completely. If the checking result is positive, the first storage device is used to receive the data sent from the chip set directly under the control of the transmission control unit. If the checking result is negative, a first portion of the data is temporarily stored in a second storage device, a second portion, i.e. a remaining portion, of the data is directly sent to the first storage device, and then the first portion of the data temporarily stored in the second storage device is sent to the first storage device after the first storage device finishes receiving and processing the second portion of the data.  
         [0010]     For reaching the objective above, the present invention also provides method for speedily booting a computer system. The method includes the following steps. A transmission control unit connecting a chip set with a memory unit is provided. The transmission control controls operation of data transfer between the chip set and the memory unit, in which memory unit the necessary booting data is stored. The chip set is used to access the necessary booting data from the memory unit via the transmission control unit when the computer system is switched on. When the computer system is switched off, the memory unit obtains electricity from a backup power supply. However, when the computer system is switched on, the memory unit obtains electricity from a main power supply of the computer system.  
         [0011]     In the data transmission device and method of the present invention, when data are transferred between the chip set and the first storage device, the transmission control unit checks the data receiving speed of the destination device in advance and then flexibly stores a portion of the data in the second storage device. Hence, even though the data receiving speed of the destination device is not sufficient, the overall transmission efficiency of the computer system is not affected. In addition, since the interface of the transmission control interface and the chip set is a PCI-Express (PCI-E) interface, the transmission bandwidth is increased. Moreover, since the necessary booting device can be stored in the second storage device, i.e. a memory unit, it is not necessary to access the booting data from the hard disk but directly from the memory unit connected to the transmission control unit. Thus, the booting speed of the computer system is increased.  
         [0012]     Numerous additional features, benefits and details of the present invention are described in the detailed description, which follows. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]     The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0014]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a conventional computer;  
         [0015]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart showing a data transfer procedure in accordance with the present invention;  
         [0017]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart showing another data transfer procedure in accordance with the present invention; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart showing a procedure for switching on/off a computer system in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0019]     Reference is made to  FIG. 2 , which is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention. A chip set  10  provided in the present invention includes a PCI-Express (PCI-E) interface and a South-Bridge or North-Bridge chip set. The chip set  10  is connected electrically to a transmission control unit  20 . The transmission interface between the transmission control unit  20  and the chip set  10  is the PCI-E interface. Furthermore, the transmission control unit  20  integrates multiple PCI-E lanes to increase transmission bandwidth and data processing speed. The transmission control unit  20  is a chip in this embodiment.  
         [0020]     The transmission control unit  20  is connected respectively to a first storage device  21  and a second storage device  22  and used to control the data transfer among the chip set  10 , the first storage device  21  and the second storage device  22 . For example, via the transmission control unit  20 , the data may be transferred from the chip set  10  to the first storage device  21  or from the first storage device  21  to the chip set  10 . The second storage device  22  provides storage space to store temporarily the data when the data transfer is performed. Thus, via the second storage device  22 , the transmission control unit  20  can adjust the transmission bandwidth flexibly during the data transfer.  
         [0021]     In this embodiment, the first storage device  21  can be a hard disk with an IDE, SATA, 1394 or SCSI interface. The second storage device  22  is a memory unit having an access speed larger than the hard disk has. During data transfer, the transmission control unit  20  checks the condition of the data reception. If the destination device is busy or cannot provide a sufficient receiving rate, the transmission control unit  20  temporarily stores the data in the second storage device  22 , i.e. the memory unit. The destination device mentioned in this embodiment is the chip set  10  or the first storage device  21 .  
         [0022]     Therefore, via the transmission control unit  20 , the present invention can connect with a hard disk that has a large storage capacity and a memory unit that has a higher data access rate. The hard disk and the memory unit are the first storage device  21  and the second storage device  22  mentioned in this embodiment, respectively. The second storage device  22  of this embodiment is a memory unit plugged in a memory socket of a motherboard extended for and connected to the transmission control unit  20 . In accordance with the quantity of data requiring transmission, this embodiment can have multiple first storage devices  21  and multiple second storage devices  22  to increase the data transmission rate.  
         [0023]     In this embodiment, the interface between the chip set  10  and the transmission control unit  20  is a PCI-E interface; PCI-Ex1 means that the interface has a transmission lane having a transmission rate of 250 MB/S. The PCI-E interface has various standards, such as PCI-Ex1, PCI-Ex2, PCI-Ex4, PCI-Ex8, PCI-Ex16 and PCI-Ex32. In a duplex transmission mode, for example, the PCI-Ex16 interface has a transmission rate of 8 GB/S, which is much higher than the access speed of a common memory unit or hard disk. Based on this fact, in this embodiment, the basic input/output system (BIOS) of a computer system can be set to use the second storage unit  22  for booting. The necessary data for booting can be stored in the second storage unit  22  in advance. In this way, the computer system can have a faster booting operation. In order to prevent the data stored in the second storage unit  22  from being removed when the computer system is turned off, this embodiment has a backup power supply to provide electricity for the second storage unit  22  when the computer system is turned off. The necessary data for booting can be multiple booting files, multiple registration files, multiple executive files or multiple associated files of an operating system (OS), such as the Windows system, the OS2 system or the Linux system. The necessary data for booting can also be a booting image file.  
         [0024]     Reference is made to  FIG. 3 , which is a flow chart showing a data transfer procedure in accordance with the present invention.  FIG. 3  shows the procedure of the data transfer from the chip set  10  to the first storage device  21  controlled by the transmission control unit  20 . The data transfer procedure has the following steps. At the beginning, the chip set  10  starts to transmit data for the first storage device  21  (S 301 ). Then, the transmission control unit  20  receives the data transmitted from the chip set  20  (S 303 ). The transmission control unit  20  determines whether the first storage device  21  can receive and process all of the data immediately (S 305 ); in other words, the transmission control unit  20  checks whether the data quantity that can be received and processed by the first storage device  21  exceeds that of the data transmitted from the chip set  10 .  
         [0025]     If the result of the determination is yes, the first storage device  21  immediately receives the data transmitted from the chip set  10  (S 307 ). Otherwise, the transmission control unit  20  temporarily stores a portion of the data transmitted from the chip set  10  into the second storage unit  22  (S 309 ) and directly sends the remaining portion to the first storage device  21  (S 311 ). After the first storage device  21  finishes receiving the portion of data sent from the transmission control unit  20  (S 313 ), the portion of data temporarily stored in the second storage unit  22  is then sent to the first storage device  21  (S 315 ).  
         [0026]     Reference is made to  FIG. 4 , which is a flow chart showing another data transfer procedure in accordance with the present invention.  FIG. 4  shows the procedure of the data transfer from the first storage device  21  to the chip set  10  controlled by the transmission control unit  20 . The data transfer procedure has the following steps. At the beginning, the first storage device  21  starts to transmit data for the chip set  10  (S 401 ). Then, the transmission control unit  20  receives the data transmitted from the first storage device  21  (S 403 ). The transmission control unit  20  determines whether the chip set  10  can immediately receive and process all of the data (S 405 ); in other words, the transmission control unit  20  checks whether the data quantity that can be received and processed by the chip set  10  exceeds that of the data transmitted from the first storage device  21 , and whether the chip set  10  is not busy.  
         [0027]     If the result of the determination is yes, the chip set  10  immediately receives the data transmitted from the first storage device  21  (S 407 ). Otherwise, the transmission control unit  20  temporarily stores a portion of the data transmitted from the first storage device  21  into the second storage unit  22  (S 409 ) and directly sends the remaining portion to the chip set  10  (S 411 ). After the chip set  10  finishes receiving the portion of data sent from the transmission control unit  20  (S 413 ), the portion of data temporarily stored in the second storage unit  22  is then sent to the chip set  10  (S 415 ).  
         [0028]     Accordingly, the transmission control unit  20  provided in this embodiment can control the data transfer between the chip set  10  and the first storage device  21  according to the quantity of data transmitted. When the quantity of data is smaller than that able be received and processed by the destination device, the destination device directly receives the transmitted data. Otherwise, when the quantity of data is larger than that able be received and processed by the destination device, only a portion of the data that can be received and processed by the destination device is transmitted. The remaining portion of the data is temporarily stored in the second storage device  22 . After the destination device finishes receiving and processing the data sent from the transmission control unit  20 , the remaining portion of the data is sent from the second storage device  22  to the destination device. Since the second storage device is provided to store the data temporarily, thus providing a function similar to that of a cache memory, the transmission rate of the data transferred between the chip set  10  and the first storage device  21  is improved.  
         [0029]     Reference is made to  FIG. 5 , which is a flow chart showing a procedure for switching on/off a computer system in accordance with the present invention. The second storage device  22  stores necessary booting data in advance. Hence, when the computer system is switched on, the chip set  10  accesses the necessary booting data stored in the second storage device.  22  via the transmission control unit  20  (S 501 ). Thus, the necessary booting data can be accessed speedily. According to the data, the computer system is activated (S 503 ). The method for booting the computer system provided in this embodiment is faster than the conventional method where the booting data must be acquired from a hard disk. When the computer needs to be switched off or enter a sleeping mode, the booting data are stored in the second storage device in advance (S 505 ). Hence, the next time the computer system is switched on, the booting data can be accessed from the second storage device  22  directly.  
         [0030]     Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and other will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Technology Category: g