JP2978020B2 - Information processing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing device such as an electronic computer having a display device, and more particularly to an information processing device connected to a display device which loses its state when the system is turned off.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer which can be driven by a battery, there is a suspend disk / resume function as a function used for the purpose of saving power. For the purpose of power saving, these functions temporarily save the state of a device that loses its state when the power supply to the information processing apparatus is cut off (hereinafter, referred to as a volatile device), This is a function for restoring the state when the power is turned off.

The suspend disk function saves the state of the system by storing the state of the volatile device in a storage area secured on a nonvolatile external storage device, and thereafter powers off the system. Function. This storage area is hereinafter referred to as an environment storage area.

[0004] The resume function is a function of restoring the system to the state before power off by setting the state of the volatile device according to the contents stored in the environment storage area when the power is turned on. The suspend disk function and the resume function are hereinafter collectively referred to as a suspend disk / resume function.

A conventional information processing apparatus having a suspend disk / resume function will be described with reference to FIGS. Referring to FIG. 5, such a conventional information processing apparatus includes a system control unit 10 having a function of controlling the entire system, and an external storage device 26 such as a hard disk device. The external storage device 26 has a role of storing data necessary for realizing the suspend disk / resume function. All the peripheral devices described below, including the external storage device 26, are connected to the system control unit 10 and managed by the system control unit 10.

This information processing apparatus further includes a keyboard,
It includes an input device 28 such as a mouse, a display device 30 including a display memory (not shown), and other peripheral devices 32 such as a printer and a floppy disk device. The display memory of the display device 30 is generally a volatile memory that is lost when the power supply to the system is cut off.

[0007] The system control unit 10 further includes a system management RAM (Random Accumulator), which is a non-volatile readable memory used to record operating conditions of the system.
essMemory) 20, a ROM (read only memory) storage unit 22 for holding various programs described later, and a volatile RAM storage unit 24. The programs stored in the ROM storage unit 22 include, in addition to a program for providing basic input / output services, a suspend disk function, a resume function, and processing for system startup including processing of the resume function. And a program to be executed (hereinafter, referred to as a suspend disk processing unit, a resume processing unit, and a system activation unit).

[0008] This information processing apparatus is provided with a suspend disk function operation switch 16 used for explicitly notifying the system that the user of the system performs the suspend disk function. LCD like type computer
(Liquid crystal display device) In a model in which a display device including a panel is used as a lid of the main body, a switch 18 for detecting that the lid of the LCD panel is closed is provided.

[0009] The factors that activate the suspend disk function include (1) a case where the system user explicitly notifies the system that the suspend disk function is to be performed by pressing the suspend disk function operation switch 16; (2) when the user does not perform any operation such as key input for a certain period of time;
The case where the system detects that the lid of the panel is closed by the switch 18 is exemplified. In the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 5, when the system control unit 10 detects the occurrence of these factors,
The control is transferred to the suspend disk processing unit of the program stored in the storage unit 22, and the operation is performed as follows.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing performed by a suspend disk processing unit in a conventional information processing apparatus. Referring to FIG. 7, when the suspend disk processing unit detects the occurrence of any of the above-described factors, the suspend disk processing unit stores the information in the environment storage area secured on external storage device 26 shown in FIG.
The state of the volatile device including the display device 30 is stored.
This process is performed in step S021 in FIG.

Subsequently, in step S022, a flag (hereinafter, referred to as a flag) indicating whether or not the suspend disk function has been performed, which has been secured on the system management RAM 20 (see FIG. 5).
A process of setting a suspend disk status flag) is performed. The suspend disk status flag is
This is for enabling the system startup unit to determine whether normal system startup should be performed or resume processing should be performed in the next system startup.

Subsequently, in step S023, a process of turning off the power of the system is performed. This completes the suspend disk processing.

FIG. 6 shows a storage area 70 of the external storage device 26.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a recording format of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6A, a storage area 70 of an external storage device such as a hard disk device has several partitions 74-1 to 74-n.
… Can be divided and managed. A disk management table 72 storing data for managing each partition is usually provided at the head of the storage area 70.

Referring to FIG. 6B, a disk management table 72 includes an area 76 for a boot loader,
A plurality of section information areas 78 for storing information such as start positions, sizes, attributes, etc. of 4-1 to 74-n.
-1 to 78-n...

In the information processing apparatus having the suspend disk / resume function described above, as shown in FIG. 6A, an area for storing the state of the volatile device is set in one section, for example, section 74-n. To secure. The suspend disk processing unit and the resume processing unit manage data stored in the section 74-n.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the processing performed by the system starting unit in the program stored in the ROM storage unit 22 when the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 5 is turned on. Referring to FIG. 8, first, in step S04
In step 1, the system activation unit performs an initialization process including checking connection states of various devices added to the system and performing initial settings.

Subsequently, in step S042, the contents of the suspended disk status flag are referred to. When the suspend disk status flag is set, the process proceeds to control step S044, and when the suspend disk status is reset, the process proceeds to control step S043.

In step S043, normal startup processing such as processing for loading an operating system is performed. When this process ends, the operation of the system activation unit ends.

On the other hand, if the suspended disk status flag has been set in step S042, a process of resetting the suspended disk status flag is performed in step S044.

Subsequently, in step S045, based on the contents of the environment storage area provided in the n-th section 74-n in FIG.
Set the status of volatile devices connected to the system. Upon completion of the process in step S045,
The system state is restored to the state when the suspend disk function was operating. When the process of step S045 is completed, the process of the system activation unit ends.

[0021]

The above-described conventional suspend disk / resume function is a function designed mainly for the power saving function of the information processing apparatus when driven by a battery. For example, consider a case in which the remaining battery power becomes low while using an application program on a battery-driven information processing apparatus. At this time, the remaining battery power may be insufficient to store a necessary data file in the external storage device. Therefore, instead of storing the data file in the external storage device, it is conceivable to temporarily hold the system state at that time by using the suspend disk function. After that, the power is turned off, and the power is turned on again when AC (AC power) driving becomes possible in the future. By doing so, the processing of the application program can be continued from the same state as when the power was turned off. The conventional suspend disk / resume function is a function designed in consideration of such a situation.

In the conventional suspend disk function, the state of the system at the time when the suspend disk function operates is temporarily stored in an external storage device, and the power is automatically turned off. Then, when the power is turned on next time, it is possible to restore the state of the system before the execution of the suspend function based on the information stored in the external storage device.

On the other hand, there may be a case where the operation is continued without turning off the power even after the state of the system at any time during the operation of the system is once saved. In that case, it is convenient to have a function of restoring the system to the state saved in the past as necessary. At this time, it is preferable that the state of the system at the time of the restoration is not lost. However, such a function has not been provided by the conventional suspend disk / resume function. For example, in the conventional suspend disk / resume function, the saved / restored state is always the entire system, and when restored, the system state at that time is destroyed. It also saves the state of only some devices, such as display devices, that are adapted for a particular use.
It would be convenient if the restoration could be performed. However, the conventional suspend disk / resume function cannot save and restore the state of only some of such devices. In particular, the display state that has been saved can be changed to an arbitrary state even after the power is turned off. It would be useful to be able to restore at a point in time. And in that case, the required resources,
For example, the storage capacity of a storage device should be as small as possible.
desirable.

Therefore, the object of the invention described in claim 1 is to
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus capable of restoring a system state including a display state at a certain point in time without losing a system state at a later point by effectively utilizing the storage capacity of the storage device . An object of the invention described in claim 2 is to provide an information processing apparatus capable of restoring a display state at an arbitrary point in time including before power-off, later.

[0025]

An information processing apparatus according to claim 1 is an information processing apparatus used in an information processing system to which a display device is connected, and holds a system state including a display state of the display device. A system management unit for managing the information processing system based on the held system state; a system state storage unit having first and second storage areas for storing a system state including a display state; Instructing means for instructing saving and restoring, and judging the non-use state of the information processing apparatus, and
The system state held by the management means is stored in a first storage area.
A first evacuation unit for evacuation to the system, and a system state for evacuation of the system state stored in the system management unit to a second storage area of the system state storage unit based on the instruction of the storage by the instruction unit. Based on the second evacuation unit and the instruction unit instructing restoration, the system state held in the system management unit is stored in the first state of the system state storage unit.
And a restoring means for restoring the system state stored in the second storage area of the system state storage means to the system management means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the system management means is a volatile one which loses storage of a system state when power supply is stopped. And the system state storage means includes a nonvolatile storage means.

[0027]

In the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the system management means holds the system state and manages the information processing system based on the held system state. Information office
When the management system is determined to be in an unused state, the first
Saving means for saving the system state in the first storage area,
For example, the minimum required to detect user operations
Power to most circuits in the system except for
You. When the instructing unit instructs the saving, the second saving unit saves the system state held in the system managing unit to the second storage area of the system state storing unit based on the instruction. After that, when the instruction means instructs the restoration,
The restoring unit saves the system state stored in the system management unit in the first storage area of the system state storage unit based on the data.
The system state saved in the second storage area is restored to the system management means.

In the information processing apparatus according to the second aspect, the system management means loses the storage of the system state when the power supply is completed. However, since the system state storage unit includes the non-volatile storage unit, the contents of the system state storage unit once stored are not lost even after the power supply to the information processing apparatus is terminated, and the system state storage unit after the power supply is restarted At any time, the saved display state can be restored.

[0029]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to this embodiment will be described, and then the operation thereof will be described using a flowchart.

Referring to FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus is different from the conventional information processing apparatus shown in FIG.
4 and that the recording format of the external storage device 26 (FIG. 2) is different from the recording format of the external storage device 26 of the conventional information processing device shown in FIG. Among the stored programs, the processing contents of the suspend disk processing unit are different from those of the related art as described later.

It should be noted that the screen saving function operation switch 12 and the screen restoration function operation switch 14 are actually operated by simultaneously pressing different specific keys and the suspend disk function operation switch 16, respectively. An increase in the number of keys on the input device 28 can be prevented.

The following three cases can be considered as factors for operating the suspend disk function as in the conventional case.

(1) When the user of the system presses the suspend disk function operation switch 16. However, in this case, when pressed simultaneously with a key for functioning as the screen save function operation switch 12 or the screen restoration function operation switch 14, the state of the display device is saved or restored, respectively.

(2) When the user does not perform any operation such as key input for a certain period of time.

(3) When the system detects that the lid of the LCD panel constituting the display device 30 has been closed by the LCD panel lid close detection switch 18.

FIG. 2 shows a recording format of a storage area of the external storage device 26 (see FIG. 1). Referring to FIG. 2A, the storage area 40 includes a disk management table 42,
Are divided into a plurality of sections 44-1 to 44-n. Each section has a size of S1 to Sn... Starting from addresses L1 to Ln.

For example, when the n-th partition is used as an environment storage area, the n-th partition 44-n includes an environment storage area management table 48, a first environment storage area 50, and a second environment storage area 50-n.
And an environment storage area 52.

The environment storage area management table 48 starts from the address Ln. The first environment storage area 50 starts from an address m1. The second environment storage area 52 also starts from the address m2. As described above, the recording format of the information processing apparatus according to this embodiment includes two environment storage areas 5.
It differs from the recording format of the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 6 in that it has 0 and 52 and includes an environment storage area management table 48 for managing these two environment storage areas. The contents of the environment storage area management table 48 will be described later.

Referring to FIG. 2B, the disk management table 42 includes a boot loader area 54 and each partition 44-.
Division information areas 56-1 to 56 for 1-44-n ...
−n... Each section information area 56-1
.., 56-n..., The start position, size, attribute, and the like of the section are recorded.

FIG. 3 (b) is a view similar to FIG. 2 (a) and FIG.
This is a more detailed format of the environment storage area management table 48 shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 3B, the environment storage area management table 48 is divided into a first environment storage area information area 60 and a second environment storage area information area 62. In each of the areas 60 and 62, information on each environment storage area such as a start position and an attribute of each of the environment storage areas 50 and 52 is recorded. Among them, the start position information is information indicating where the respective environment storage areas 50 and 52 are physically stored in the external storage device. The attribute information is stored in each environment storage area 5
This information indicates whether valid information is stored in 0 and 52, and whether the information stored in the environment storage areas 50 and 52 is information of only the display device or information of the entire system. Based on the information stored in these areas 60 and 62, the system stores the respective environment storage areas 50 and 52.
To manage

According to the present invention, information relating to two display screens, that is, a display screen to be saved by the user and a display screen at the time of switching to the saved display screen, is saved according to the recording formats shown in FIGS. , Managed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the suspended disk control unit extended as described above. The flowchart shown in FIG. 4 includes steps S001 and S001.
It differs from the conventional suspend disk processing unit shown in FIG. 7 in that processing steps 005 to S012 are added.

When the above-mentioned three factors for operating the suspend disk function occur, the system control unit interrupts the processing and excites the suspend disk processing unit shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the suspend disk processing unit, first, in step S001, a determination is made as to which factor activated the suspend disk processing unit. As described above, when it is determined that the suspend disk function operation switch is pressed in combination with each specific key in order to perform either the screen save function operation switch 12 or the screen restoration function operation switch 14 The process proceeds to step S005, and if it is determined that the suspend disk processing unit has been excited by any other method, the process proceeds to step S002. The processing after step S002 is a processing for the suspend disk function, similar to steps S021 to S023 shown in FIG. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated here.

The processing of step S005 and thereafter is processing for saving or restoring the display screen in accordance with an explicit instruction from the user. First, in step S005, it is determined which key has been pressed together with the suspend disk function operation switch, thereby determining whether saving of the display screen has been designated or restoration has been designated. If it is determined that the saving has been designated, the process proceeds to step S012, and if it is determined that the restoration has been designated, the process proceeds to step S006.

If it is determined in step S005 that saving of the display screen has been designated, a process of saving the state of the display device in the second environment storage area 52 (see FIG. 2A) is performed in step S012. Then, the processing of the suspend disk processing unit ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S005 that restoration of the display screen has been instructed, in step S006 the state of the display device to be restored is already in the second environment storage area 5.
2 (FIG. 2A) is determined. If the data has not been saved, there is no data to be restored, and the process ends.

If it is stored, step S007
Proceed to the following process. First, in step S007, the current display state of the display device is stored in the first environment storage area 50 (FIG. 2).
(See (a))).

Subsequently, in step S008, the state of the display device is set according to the information stored in the second environment storage area 52 (FIG. 2A). Thus, the state of the display device previously stored in the second environment storage area 52 in the process of step S012 can be restored on the current display device.

The processing further proceeds to step S009, and after the display screen is restored, the apparatus is in a state of waiting for key input. Step S
At 010, it is determined whether or not a key input has been made. If no key input has been made, the process returns to step S009 again, and steps S009 and S010 are repeated until a key input is made.

If there is any key input, the process proceeds to step S011. In step S011, FIG.
The state of the display device is set according to the contents stored in the first environment storage area 50 shown in (a). Thus, the display state saved in the first environment storage area in step S007 is restored on the display device again. After the processing in step S011, the processing of the suspend disk processing unit ends. After ending the processing in step S011 or S012, the system control unit shifts the control to the processing that has been interrupted due to the occurrence of a factor for operating the suspend disk processing unit.

By performing the above-described processing in the suspend disk processing unit, the display screen is temporarily stored in the second environment storage area, and the processing is further continued. The display state can be restored on the screen. In the case of this embodiment, by pressing an arbitrary key with reference to the screen restored in this way, it is possible to return to the screen before restoration and continue the processing in progress based on the referenced information. . In addition, since the environment storage area is provided on a hard disk or the like of the external storage device, the display state of the display device can be restored to the screen at any time even after the power is once turned off. Thus, the display screen can be saved or restored without depending on a specific application program or operating system. Further, in addition to the conventional suspend disk / resume function, since the display screen is saved / restored by a user's explicit instruction, the method of realizing the conventional suspend disk / resume function and the operability thereof are not impaired. Therefore, the usable aspects of the information processing apparatus can be further expanded.

As described above, according to the present invention, when a screen that is expected to be frequently referred to thereafter is displayed during execution of an application program, the display screen can be temporarily stored. Thereafter, the processing is continued, and thereafter, the stored screen can be displayed at any time as needed. As a result, it is possible to more smoothly perform a task using the application program or the like. In addition, since this function can be realized without depending on the operating system or the application program, there is no need to take any special measures on the application program side, and the above-described effects can be obtained by using any conventionally used application program. Can be obtained.

[0054]

As described above, in the information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, when it is determined that the system is in the unused state,
The system state is a first storage area of the system state storage means.
Automatically evacuated, for example, when it is suspended
There is a function called. In addition, at any time, the system state including the display information of the display device is stored in the second system state storage means.
Can be saved to the storage area. In addition, even if the system is continued to be used after the evacuation, the instruction means instructs the restoration, so that the system information can be restored from the second storage area of the system information storage means to the system management means at any time, and the system state at the time of starting can be restored. Can be restored and referenced. Further, at this time, prior to restoration from the second storage area, the system state at the time of restoration is saved in the first storage area, so that this system state can be restored later without being lost. At this time, the first storage area
Is used and the system is determined to be inactive.
Is used together with the save destination of the system status at the time of
The capacity of the device can be used effectively. Thus, according to the present invention, since the function of saving and restoring system information can be performed without depending on the operating system or the application and effectively using the capacity of the storage device, it is necessary to incorporate special processing into the application program. System status can be saved / restored freely.

In the information processing apparatus according to the second aspect, the system management means loses the storage of the system information as soon as the power supply ends. However, if the display information of the display device is saved in the system information storage unit prior to the end of the power supply, the contents stored in the system state storage unit are not lost even when the power supply is ended. By operating the signal generation means to generate a signal having the second value after the restart of the power supply, the display state saved previously from the system state storage means is restored to the system management means. Therefore, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus capable of restoring the display screen before the power is turned off even after the power is turned off.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a recording format of a storage area of the external storage device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing details of a format of an environment storage area management table.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a suspend disk processing unit of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a conventional information processing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a recording format of an external storage device of a conventional information processing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a suspend disk processing unit of a conventional information processing apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a system activation processing unit of a conventional information processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 System control part 12 Screen saving function operation switch 14 Screen restoration function operation switch 16 Suspend disk function operation switch 18 LCD panel lid close detection switch 20 System management RAM 22 ROM storage part 24 RAM storage part 26 External storage device 28 Input device 30 Display device 32 Other peripheral devices

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An information processing device used in an information processing system to which a display device is connected, wherein a system state including a display state of the display device is held,
System management means for managing the information processing system based on the held system state; system state storage means having first and second storage areas for storing a system state including a display state; Instruction means for instructing information processing and restoration, and determining whether the information processing apparatus is in an unused state.
The system state held by the
A first saving means for saving to a storage area, on the basis of said instruction means instructs to store, the system state stored in the system management unit, the second of said system state storage means To save to storage area
Second evacuation means , evacuation of the system state held in the system management means to the first storage area of the system state storage means based on the instruction of the restoration instruction by the instruction means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a restoring unit for restoring the system state held in the second storage area of the system state storage unit to the system management unit. 2. The system management means is a volatile one which loses storage of a system state when power supply is stopped, and the system state storage means includes a nonvolatile storage means.
The information processing device according to claim 1.