JP2008090723A - Portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal, requiring no reading part exclusive for data rewrite. <P>SOLUTION: The portable terminal comprises a flash memory 7 storing a terminal control program; a RAM 8; a reading part 11 reading a terminal control program to be updated stored in an external storage medium 10, and storing it in the RAM 8; a writing part 12 writing the terminal control program stored in the RAM 8 to the flash memory 7; and a control part 6 controlling operations of the reading part 11 and the writing part 12. The control part 6 performs control to shift, upon receipt of a specific mode transition command, the portable terminal T to a mode in which terminal control program can be rewritten, and to read and store, upon receipt of a rewrite command during this mode, the terminal control program to be updated stored in the external storage medium 10 in the RAM 8, and then rewrite the terminal control program stored in the flash memory 7 by the terminal control program stored in the RAM 8. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

 The present invention relates to a mobile terminal, and more particularly to a mobile terminal capable of exchanging data with a storage medium detachably attached to the mobile terminal.

For example, in Patent Document 1 below, a program in a communication terminal apparatus can be easily updated without using a dedicated program writing tool, and security for unauthorized updating is improved. On the other hand, the control program for update is stored in a removable secondary storage device (external storage medium), and the control program for the secondary storage device is stored in the flash memory in the terminal only when it is determined that the update is possible. A technique for storing and rewriting a control program stored in the flash memory is disclosed.
JP 2002-99441 A

  The above prior art requires a program for performing a program rewrite process, and it is necessary to create and save both the program for this process and the program data that is the content to be rewritten, which requires a lot of memory. It was. In the prior art, if a communication operation or the like is performed during rewriting of a program, there is a possibility that a problem occurs in rewriting of the program. Further, in the prior art, when an error occurs in the program rewriting process, it is difficult to identify what kind of error has occurred.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal that does not require a read unit dedicated to program rewriting. Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable terminal that can suppress the occurrence of problems during program rewriting and that can identify the contents of errors that occur during the program rewriting process.

 In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, as a first solution means for a mobile terminal, a first storage unit storing a terminal control program for controlling the function of the mobile terminal, and a detachable attachment to the mobile terminal A storage medium storing a terminal control program to be updated, a second storage unit, and the terminal control program to be updated stored in the storage medium are read out and stored in the second storage unit And a read unit capable of reading data other than the terminal control program stored in the storage medium, and the terminal control program stored in the second storage unit. And a control unit that controls operations of the reading unit and the writing unit, and the control unit receives the first information, and the terminal control program When the mobile terminal is shifted to a mode in which rewriting can be performed and the second information is received while the mobile terminal is in the mode, the terminal control program to be updated stored in the storage medium is read out Control is performed so that the terminal control program stored in the second storage unit and then the terminal control program stored in the first storage unit is rewritten with the terminal control program to be updated stored in the second storage unit. And

  In the present invention, as the second solving means relating to the portable terminal, in the first solving means, at least one of the first information and the second information is from an external device connected to the portable terminal. Input.

 In the present invention, as the third solving means relating to the portable terminal, in the first or second solving means, the control unit is not required for the rewriting control before performing the control for rewriting the terminal control program. The function of the portable terminal is stopped.

 Further, in the present invention, as a fourth solving means relating to the portable terminal, in the third solving means, functions unnecessary for the storage operation are a data transmission / reception function, a program activation function, and a key in the portable terminal. It includes at least one of the input functions.

 Further, in the present invention, as the fifth solving means relating to the mobile terminal, in any one of the first to fourth solving means, the control unit is performing rewriting processing of the terminal control program, When a rewrite processing error occurs, the content of the error is stored in the storage medium.

  In the present invention, as a sixth solving means relating to the mobile terminal, in any one of the first to fifth solving means, the first storage unit is a NAND flash memory, and the second storage The unit is a RAM.

 According to the portable terminal of the present invention, a read unit dedicated to program rewriting is not necessary. In addition, according to the portable terminal of the present invention, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of problems during the rewriting of the program and to identify the contents of errors that have occurred during the rewriting process of the program.

 Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of the mobile terminal T in the present embodiment. A mobile phone will be described as an example of the mobile terminal T.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the portable terminal T includes a wireless communication unit 1, an operation unit 2, a voice input / output unit 3, a display unit 4, an external interface unit 5, a control unit 6, a flash memory 7, and a RAM (Random Access Memory). ) 8 is provided.

  Under the control of the control unit 6, the wireless communication unit 1 performs error correction encoding, modulation, and frequency conversion to the RF frequency band of the transmission baseband signal input from the control unit 6, and then illustrated as a transmission signal Do not send to the base station. Further, the radio communication unit 1 frequency-converts the signal received from the base station to the IF frequency band, and then performs demodulation and error correction decoding, and outputs the received baseband signal to the control unit 6. The operation unit 2 includes operation keys such as a power key, various function keys, and a numeric keypad. The operation unit 2 outputs an operation signal based on an operation input using these operation keys to the control unit 6.

  The voice input / output unit 3 is composed of a microphone and a speaker. The voice input from the outside is converted into a digital signal and output to the control unit 6 as an input voice signal, while the output voice signal input from the control unit 6 is converted into a voice. Output to the outside. The display unit 4 is, for example, a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display, and displays an image based on an image display signal input from the control unit 6.

  The external interface unit 5 is electrically connected to the control unit 6 so as to be able to read and write data to a slot (not shown) for holding the external storage medium 10 detachably in the main body of the portable terminal T and the external storage medium 10. And a connector (not shown) for connecting to the mobile terminal T and an interface for connecting the mobile terminal T to an external device such as a personal computer. Specific examples of the external storage medium 10 include various card-type storage devices using a flash memory as a storage medium, such as a compact flash card (registered trademark), a smart media (registered trademark), a memory stick (registered trademark), Examples thereof include an SD card (registered trademark) and a small magnetic disk device. The portable terminal T is connected to a personal computer as an external device via the external interface unit 5 by a universal serial bus (hereinafter referred to as USB) cable.

  The control unit 6 includes a terminal control program and other application programs stored in the flash memory 7, a reception baseband signal input from the wireless communication unit 1, an operation signal input from the operation unit 2, and a voice input / output unit 3. The overall operation of the portable terminal T is controlled on the basis of an input audio signal input from the terminal and a data signal input from the external storage medium 10 via the external interface unit 5. The control unit 6 includes a reading unit 11 that reads data from the external storage medium 10 and a writing unit 12 that writes data on the RAM 8 to the flash memory 7.

  The flash memory 7 is, for example, a NAND flash memory, which handles a plurality of addresses as one block, and writes and erases data in units of blocks. The flash memory 7 stores a code (check code) necessary for starting the mobile terminal T, a terminal control program used by the control unit 6, other application programs, and various data. The RAM 8 is a memory used as a buffer for temporarily storing data when the control unit 6 executes various processes. Here, the terminal control program includes basic software that provides basic functions commonly used by various applications such as input / output functions such as key input and memory management, and manages the mobile terminal T main body. .

  Next, the operation in the case of updating the terminal control program stored in the flash memory 7 in the portable terminal T configured as described above will be described. In this specification, rewriting data, programs, and the like is also referred to as updating.

  FIG. 2 is an internal format diagram of the external storage medium 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the external storage medium 10 stores a boot file, a terminal control program for update, and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code of the terminal control program for update. When updating the terminal control program stored in the flash memory 7, such an external storage medium 10 is attached to the external interface unit 5.

  FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the control unit 6 when the terminal control program stored in the flash memory 7 is updated.

  First, the control unit 6 performs a command input waiting process in a standby state after activation (step S1). Then, when an operation signal is input from the personal computer connected via the external interface unit 5, the control unit 6 determines whether or not the operation signal is a signal indicating a special mode transition command (step S2). Here, the special mode is, for example, an operation mode used when maintenance of the mobile terminal T is performed.

  In step S2, if the control unit 6 determines that a special mode transition command has not been received ("NO"), the control unit 6 returns to the process of step S1 and determines that a special mode transition command has been received ( “YES”), transition to the special mode (step S3). Then, the control unit 6 performs a command input waiting process (step S4), and determines whether or not a signal indicating a rewrite command is input from a personal computer connected via the external interface unit 5 (step S5).

  In step S5, when it is determined that the rewrite command has not been received ("NO"), the control unit 6 returns to the process of step S4 and when it is determined that the rewrite command has been received ("YES"). Transition to the rewrite mode (step S6). When the control unit 6 transitions to the rewrite mode, the control unit 6 stops functions that are not necessary for the rewrite process (step S7). Here, for example, the data transmission / reception function with the base station, the activation function of other programs (applications, etc.), the key input function of the operation unit 2, etc. are stopped. Thus, by stopping the functions that are not necessary for the rewriting process, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of problems during the rewriting process.

  Then, the control unit 6 starts a data writing process (step S8). FIG. 4 shows a detailed flowchart of the data writing process. As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 6 first erases the check code stored in the flash memory 7 (step S100). As described above, the check code necessary for the activation of the portable terminal T is erased in advance so that the reactivation is not erroneously restarted when the rewriting is terminated abnormally.

  Subsequently, the reading unit 11 of the control unit 6 initializes a buffer area for temporarily storing data in the RAM 8 (step S101), and updates one block of the flash memory 7 from the external storage medium 10. Data of the control program is read and stored in the buffer area (step S102). Then, the writing unit 12 of the control unit 6 performs a process of writing data for one block stored in the buffer area to the flash memory 7 (step S103). When reading data from the external storage medium 10, the reading unit 11 reads data using a general-purpose program for reading data from the external storage medium 10 stored in the flash memory 7. This general-purpose program can read image data and the like stored in the external storage medium 10 in addition to the data of the terminal control program for update.

  FIG. 5 shows a detailed flowchart of a process of writing data for one block to the flash memory 7. As shown in FIG. 5, the writing unit 12 of the control unit 6 first checks the size of one block of data stored in the buffer area in the RAM 8, and the size of the data is the size of one block of the flash memory 7. It is determined whether or not the size is the above (step S200). In this step S200, when the size of the data is larger than the size of one block of the flash memory 7 (“YES”), the data of the size of one block is stored in a predetermined block in the flash memory 7. Writing (step S201), on the other hand, if the size of the data is less than the size of one block of the flash memory 7 ("NO"), the fractional data is stored in a predetermined block in the flash memory 7. (Step S202). Note that, since data cannot be overwritten in the NAND flash memory, when data for update is written, the data stored in advance in the block to be written is erased before writing.

  Then, the writing unit 12 of the control unit 6 completes the writing process of the data of the update terminal control program for one block, and the writing source data stored in the buffer area and the data written in the flash memory 7 (Step S203). After the verification check is completed, the process proceeds to step S104 in FIG. 4 (step S204).

  Returning to FIG. 4, the control unit 6 determines whether or not writing of all data of the terminal control program for update has been completed (step S <b> 104), and when writing of all data has not been completed (“ NO ”), returning to the process of step S101, and when writing of all the data is completed (“ YES ”), a CRC check is performed to check whether the terminal control program for updating is correctly written (step S105). Specifically, the control unit 6 calculates the CRC value of the terminal control program data for update written in the flash memory 7, and calculates the calculated CRC value and the CRC code stored in the external storage medium 10. By comparing, it is checked whether the terminal control program for update is written correctly.

  Then, the control unit 6 determines whether or not the calculated CRC value is correct (that is, whether or not it matches the CRC code stored in the external storage medium 10) (step S106), and when the CRC value is correct ("YES"), a check code is written in the flash memory 7 (step S107), the update terminal control program data writing process ends normally, and the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG. 3 (step S108). On the other hand, if the CRC value is not correct in step S106 ("NO"), the data writing process of the update terminal control program is terminated abnormally and the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG. 3 (step S109).

  Returning to FIG. 3, the control unit 6 determines whether or not the data writing process of the terminal control program for update is normally completed (step S <b> 9), and when it is determined that the writing process is normally completed ( “YES”), the portable terminal T is rebooted (restarted) (step S10). On the other hand, in step S9, when it is determined that the writing process has ended abnormally ("NO"), the control unit 6 performs an error process (step S11).

  Here, the control unit 6 records the error content in the external storage medium 10 as error processing. Specifically, the control unit 6 creates an error file for recording error contents in the external storage medium 10. In this error file, for example, (1) the terminal control program for update does not exist in the external storage medium 10, and (2) a file required for update such as a boot file does not exist or exists in the external storage medium 10. (3) After opening a file necessary for updating, data in the file cannot be read. (4) Data stored in the flash memory 7 in advance before data is written. The details of these errors that occurred, such as failure to erase data, failure to write to the flash memory 7 itself, (5) detection of an abnormality in the CRC check after completion of the write processing to the flash memory 7, etc. An error code is recorded. If the error log file originally exists in the external storage medium 10, the error log file may be deleted and a new error file may be created before starting the update process.

  Then, after recording the error content in the external storage medium 10 as described above, the control unit 6 blinks a red LED (not shown) provided in the portable terminal T or displays an error message on the display unit 4. Is displayed, or a warning sound is output from the speaker of the voice input / output unit 3 to notify the user that the update of the terminal control program has failed.

As described above, according to the mobile terminal T of the present embodiment, since a general-purpose program is used to read the terminal control program stored in the external storage medium 10, it is possible to rewrite the program as in the past. A dedicated program is not required, and during the terminal control program rewriting process, functions that are not necessary for the terminal control program rewriting process are stopped, thereby suppressing the occurrence of problems during the terminal control program rewriting process. By recording the content of the error that occurred during the rewriting process of the terminal control program in the external storage medium 10, it is possible to identify what kind of error has occurred.
In addition, according to the mobile terminal T of the present embodiment, after the transition to the special mode, and after the rewrite command is received, the transition to the rewrite mode is performed and the data writing process is performed. The risk of transition to the rewrite mode can be reduced, and the risk of erroneous writing can be reduced.

Moreover, although the terminal control program was illustrated and demonstrated in the said embodiment as a program to update, it is not limited to this, This invention is applicable also to update of another application, data, etc. In the above-described embodiment, a mobile phone is exemplified as the mobile terminal. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to other mobile terminals.
The external device connected to the portable terminal T via the external interface unit 5 is not limited to a personal computer, and any device such as a server can be used.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a mobile terminal T in an embodiment of the present invention. It is an internal format figure of the external storage medium 10 in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a 1st operation | movement flowchart figure of the portable terminal T in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a 2nd operation | movement flowchart figure of the portable terminal T in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a 3rd operation | movement flowchart figure of the portable terminal T in one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

 T: mobile terminal, 1 ... wireless communication unit, 2 ... operation unit, 3 ... voice input / output unit, 4 ... display unit, 5 ... external interface unit, 6 ... control unit, 7 ... flash memory (first storage unit) , 8 ... RAM, 10 ... external storage medium (storage medium), 11 ... reading unit, 12 ... writing unit

Claims (6)

A first storage unit storing a terminal control program for controlling the function of the mobile terminal;
A storage medium that is detachable from the portable terminal and stores a terminal control program to be updated;
A second storage unit;
Reading that allows the terminal control program to be updated stored in the storage medium to be read and stored in the second storage unit, and that data other than the terminal control program stored in the storage medium can also be read And
A writing unit that writes the terminal control program stored in the second storage unit to the first storage unit;
A control unit for controlling operations of the reading unit and the writing unit,
The controller is
When the first information is received, the mobile terminal is changed to a mode in which the terminal control program can be rewritten,
When the second information is received while the portable terminal is in the mode, the terminal control program to be updated stored in the storage medium is read out and stored in the second storage unit, and then the first information is stored in the second storage unit. Control to rewrite the terminal control program stored in the storage unit of the terminal control program to be updated stored in the second storage unit,
A portable terminal characterized by that.   The portable terminal according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first information and the second information is an input from an external device connected to the portable terminal. The controller is
Before performing control to rewrite the terminal control program, stop the function of the mobile terminal unnecessary for the rewrite control,
The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal is a mobile terminal. Functions unnecessary for the memory operation
Including at least one of a data transmission / reception function, a program activation function, and a key input function in the portable terminal;
The mobile terminal according to claim 3. The controller is
When rewriting processing error occurs during rewriting processing of the terminal control program, the content of the error is stored in the storage medium.
The portable terminal as described in any one of Claims 1-4 characterized by the above-mentioned. The first storage unit is a NAND flash memory;
The second storage unit is a RAM;
The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal is a mobile terminal.

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