CN114647295A

CN114647295A - Processor chip and display information updating method

Info

Publication number: CN114647295A
Application number: CN202111499427.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张图尹
Original assignee: Nuvoton Technology Corp
Current assignee: Nuvoton Technology Corp
Priority date: 2020-12-17
Filing date: 2021-12-09
Publication date: 2022-06-21
Anticipated expiration: 2041-12-09
Also published as: TW202225947A; TWI760974B; CN114647295B

Abstract

A processor chip and a display information updating method are provided, the processor chip is electrically connected to a display screen, the processor chip comprises: a processor; a temporary storage group; a display controller; and the lookup circuit comprises a comparison circuit and a lookup table. The search circuit obtains current report information when the processor is in a sleep mode or a low power mode. When the comparison circuit judges that the current return information is different from the previous return information, the search circuit obtains the setting column corresponding to each display block of the current return information in the display screen from the search table, generates the setting table of which the current return information corresponds to each display block, performs OR operation on each setting column of the setting table of each display block to generate a driving setting table, and writes the driving setting table into the register set. The display controller reads the drive setting table from the register set and controls each display block of the display screen to display according to the drive setting table.

Description

Processor chip and display information updating method

Technical Field

The invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly to a processor chip and a display information updating method.

Background

Electronic devices on a city surface often have a simple display screen (e.g., a seven-segment display) that can display numbers or specific symbols. However, the conventional electronic devices of this type all need to control the picture to be displayed on the display screen through the microcontroller. When the microcontroller enters the low power consumption mode or the sleep mode, if the electronic device needs to update the display (e.g. time change), the conventional electronic device needs to wake up the microcontroller to update the display, which also causes higher power consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present invention provides a processor chip and a method for updating display information thereof to solve the above problems.

The invention provides a processor chip, connect electrically to a display screen, the processor chip includes: a processor; a temporary storage set; a display controller for controlling the display of the display screen; and a lookup circuit including a comparison circuit and a lookup table. The search circuit obtains current report information from a report device in response to the processor being in a sleep mode or a low power mode. When the comparison circuit determines that the current report information is different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the search circuit obtains the setting column of each display block in the display screen corresponding to the current report information from the search table, and generates the setting table of each display block corresponding to the current report information. The search circuit performs OR operation on each set column of the setting table corresponding to each display block to generate a driving setting table, and writes the driving setting table into the register set. The display controller reads the drive setting table from the register set and controls each display block of the display screen to display according to the drive setting table.

In some embodiments, the reporting device is a real-time clock in the processor chip, and the current report message is a current time message. In other embodiments, the reporting device is a sensor external to the processor chip, and the current report information is current sensor data detected by the sensor.

In some embodiments, the processor chip further includes a flash memory for storing the set field information of the numbers or patterns displayed in each display area of the display screen, wherein when the electronic device is powered on, the processor loads the set field information of the numbers or patterns displayed in each display area of the display screen into the lookup table.

In some embodiments, when the processor is in an operating mode and it is determined that the current report information is different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the processor writes a setting value associated with the current report information to a corresponding setting field of the driving setting table in the register set.

The invention also provides a display information updating method, which is used for an electronic device, wherein the electronic device comprises a processor chip and a display screen, the processor chip comprises a processor, a display controller, a register set and a searching circuit, and the method comprises the following steps: when the processor is in a sleep mode or a low power consumption mode, the current report information is obtained from a report device by utilizing the search circuit; when the current report information is different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the search circuit is utilized to obtain the setting column of each display block corresponding to the current report information in the display screen from a search table of the search circuit, and the setting table of each display block corresponding to the current report information is generated; utilizing the search circuit to perform OR operation on each set column of the setting table corresponding to each display block to generate a driving setting table, and writing the driving setting table into the temporary storage group; and reading the drive setting table from the register group by using the display controller, and controlling each display block of the display screen to display according to the drive setting table.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2A-2C are schematic views of a driving setting table corresponding to a display screen according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3A-3B are schematic diagrams of display interfaces of a display screen according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4A-4B are schematic diagrams of display interfaces of a display screen according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for updating display information according to an embodiment of the invention.

[ reference numerals ] A

100 electronic device

110 processor chip

111 processor

112 real-time clock

113 power supply control circuit

114 lookup circuit

115 multiplexer

116 temporary storage unit

117 display controller

118 flash memory

120 display screen

1121 digital signal

1151. 1152 Signal

1153 select signal

1154 output signal

1141 comparison circuit

1142 look-up table

301, 401, 402 digital bits

S510-S550 steps

Detailed Description

The following description is of the best mode for carrying out the invention and is intended to illustrate the general spirit of the invention and not to limit the invention. Reference must be made to the following claims for their true scope of the invention.

It will be understood that the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising," when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of further features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Use of the terms first, second, third and the like in the claims is used for modifying elements in the claims, and is not intended to distinguish between elements having the same name, priority, or other relationship, whether one element precedes another element, or is a chronological order in which method steps are performed.

In one embodiment, the electronic device 100 includes a processor chip 110 and a display screen 120. The display screen 120 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, or may be referred to as a seven-segment display (7-segment display). The processor chip 110 can control the display of the display screen 120. The processor chip 110 includes a processor 111, a real-time clock (RTC) 112, a power control circuit 113, a lookup circuit 114, a multiplexer 115, a register set 116, a display controller 117, and a flash memory 118.

The power control circuit 113 may receive external power and convert it to a suitable operating voltage to provide to internal components in the processor chip 110. In addition, the power control circuit 113 may control the processor 111 to switch between an operating mode or a sleep mode/low power mode, and may control the flash memory 118 to be powered on or powered off. The processor 111 may be, for example, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), or a microcontroller (microcontroller), but the invention is not limited thereto. The flash memory 118 is used for storing firmware (not shown) for the processor 111 to execute to control the operation of the electronic device 100. In some embodiments, the flash memory 118 further stores a lookup table corresponding to the display screen 120 collocated with the processor chip 110, such as setting field information of numbers or patterns displayed by each display block of the display screen 120.

In one embodiment, the display screen 120 continuously displays information, such as time, temperature, air pressure, humidity, weight, etc., when the electronic device 100 is turned on, depending on the specifications of the electronic device 100 and the display screen 120, due to the application requirements of the electronic device 100. In this case, the power control circuit 113 can continuously provide power to the real-time clock 112, the search circuit 114, the multiplexer 115, the register set 116 and the display controller 117, so that the display screen 120 can continuously display the related information. For convenience of explanation, in the embodiments described below, the display screen 120 is described as continuously displaying and updating the time.

For example, a seven-segment display may be used, and the specification of the connection pin interface is usually defined by the port (COM) and segment/pin (SEG), such as 8COM × 28SEG, 6COM × 28SEG, 4COM × 36SEG, and so on. In detail, the setting value of the setting field of each port and segment can determine whether the corresponding display block is displayed, and the setting values of the setting fields of the ports and segments are stored in the driving setting table of the register set 116. In some embodiments, the driving setting tables corresponding to the display screens 120 of 4COM × 32SEG, 6COM × 32SEG, and 8COM × 32SEG are respectively as shown in fig. 2A, 2B, and 2C.

The display controller 117 reads the value of each setting field in the driving setting table from the register set 116, and converts the value of each setting field into a corresponding analog driving signal to drive a corresponding display block. For example, each number in the seven-segment display is composed of 8 display blocks, and each display block of each number has one or more corresponding setting fields in the driving setting table. If the setting value of one or more specific setting fields is filled in to 1, the display controller 117 drives the display block corresponding to the one or more specific setting fields for displaying. If the setting value of the one or more specific setting fields is filled with 0, the display controller 117 does not drive the display block corresponding to the one or more specific setting fields. When the time (e.g., hour/minute/second, HH/MM/SS) is to be displayed on the display screen 120, the display controller 117 needs to read the driving setting table related to the current time from the register set 116 and drive the display block corresponding to the setting field with the setting value of 1.

When the processor 111 is in the operating mode (or referred to as the normal mode), the power control circuit 113 sends a selection signal 1153 to the multiplexer 115, for example, to a low logic state, so that the multiplexer 115 selects the signal 1151 from the processor 111. For example, the processor 111 may receive the current time information from the real-time clock 112 during the operation mode and determine whether the current time information is different from the previous time information. If the current time information is different from the previous time information, the processor 111 may send a signal 1151 to the multiplexer 115, and the multiplexer 115 may select the signal 1151 from the processor as the output signal 1154 according to the selection signal 1153, so that the processor 111 may use the signal 1151 (including the value and address of the setting field of the data to be updated) to write the setting value associated with the current time information into the corresponding setting field in the driving setting table in the register set 116.

The present invention does not require waking up the processor 111 to update the time information displayed on the display screen 120 when the processor 111 is in the sleep mode/low power mode. For example, when the processor 111 is in the sleep/low power mode, the selection signal 1153 sent by the power control circuit 113 to the multiplexer 115 is in a high logic state, for example, to make the multiplexer 115 select the signal 1152 from the lookup circuit 114. In addition, the real-time clock 112 continuously updates the current time at a predetermined frequency and outputs a digital signal 1121 of current time information (e.g., hour/minute/second) to the lookup circuit 114.

The lookup circuit 114 includes a comparison circuit 1141 and a lookup table 1142. The look-up table 1142 records the setting fields corresponding to the numbers or patterns displayed by each display block in the display screen 112 in the driving setting table. The lookup table 1142 can be implemented by, for example, a register or a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), but the invention is not limited thereto.

The comparison circuit 1141 may record the time information transmitted by the real time clock 112 last time by using a register (not shown), and compare the last time information stored in the register with the current time information transmitted by the real time clock 112. If the time information stored in the register is the same as the current time information transmitted by the real-time clock 112, it indicates that the driving schedule table in the register set 116 does not need to be updated yet, and the display controller 117 can still control the display screen 120 to display according to the driving schedule table in the register set 116. If the time information stored in the register is different from the current time information transmitted by the real-time clock 112, it indicates that the driving configuration table in the register set 116 needs to be updated. At this time, the lookup circuit 114 searches the lookup table 1142 for a corresponding setting field of each digit (i.e., display block) in the current time information in the driving setting table.

For example, taking the display screen 112 of 8COM × 32SEG of manufacturer A as an example, the display interface is as shown in FIG. 3A, and the corresponding driving setting table is as shown in FIG. 2C, wherein the digital bit 301 corresponds to column 23 (SEG 23) in the driving setting table, and the digital bit 302 corresponds to column 24 (SEG 24) in the driving setting table, for example. If the

digits

302 and 301 of the display screen 120 are to be updated to be 3 and 2 (i.e. to display "32"), the look-up circuit 114 obtains the pattern of the driving setting table for displaying 3 of the digits 302 of the display screen 112 from the look-up table 1142, for example, the setting fields of COM2, COM4, COM5, COM7 and COM8 in the 24 th column of the driving setting table are filled with 1. Then, the lookup circuit 114 generates a first setting table, wherein the setting field of the first setting table corresponds to the setting field of the driving setting table. The lookup circuit 114 then fills in 1 in the COM2, COM4, COM5, COM7, and COM8 setting fields in column 24 of the first setting table, and fills in 0 in all other fields of the first setting table.

Similarly, the look-up circuit 114 obtains the pattern of the driving setting table of which the digit 301 of the display screen 112 is to display 2 from the look-up table 1142, for example, the COM2, COM3, COM5, COM7 and COM8 setting fields in column 23 of the driving setting table are filled with 1. Then, the look-up circuit 114 generates a second setting table, wherein the setting field of the second setting table also corresponds to the setting field of the driving setting table. The lookup circuit 114 fills in 1 in the COM2, COM3, COM5, COM7, and COM8 setting fields in column 23 of the second setting table, and fills in 0 in all other setting fields of the second setting table. It should be noted that the

digital bits

302 and 301 are used as an example in this embodiment, and the lookup circuit 114 generates the corresponding setting table for each other number or pattern on the display screen 112.

In detail, since the function of the lookup circuit 114 is simple, the processor 111 cannot directly write the setting value to the setting field to be updated in the driving setting table by using the address. In addition, the corresponding setting fields of the numbers or patterns of the display screen 112 in the driving setting table are not repeated. Therefore, the look-up circuit 114 performs a field-to-field OR (OR) operation on each generated setting table to obtain a driving setting table corresponding to the information to be finally displayed on the display screen 112, and accordingly updates the entire driving setting table originally stored in the register set 116. In other words, the field setting field with 1 is filled in the first setting table and the second setting table, and the value of the setting field is not changed after the OR (OR) operation. Therefore, the display controller 117 can control the display screen 120 to display the current time information according to the updated driving schedule in the register set 116, such as displaying the number 32 on the display screen 112 as shown in fig. 3B. That is, the present invention can utilize the hardware circuit to automatically update the display information to be displayed on the display screen 112 without waking up the processor 111, so as to greatly reduce the power consumption of the processor chip 110.

It is noted that the processor chip 110 can be used with display screens 120 of different manufacturers. However, the pin interfaces (COM and SEG), the corresponding driving configuration tables of numbers and patterns, and the corresponding setting fields of the lookup tables of the display screens 120 of different manufacturers may be different. The manufacturer of the electronic device 100 can, for example, pre-program a lookup table corresponding to the display screen 120 collocated with the processor chip 110 into the flash memory 118. When the electronic device 100 is booted, the lookup table 1142 in the lookup circuit 114 can be loaded by the firmware executed by the processor 111 from the flash memory 118, thereby increasing the flexibility of the electronic device 100 in design.

For example, fig. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams of a display screen according to another embodiment of the invention. The display screen 120 in fig. 4A is, for example, a seven-segment display of 6COM × 28SEG produced by manufacturer B, and its driving schedule is, for example, as shown in fig. 2B. Similarly, when the

digits

402 and 401 on the display screen 120 are to display the number "32" respectively, the COM5 setting field in the 21 st column, the COM3 and COM6 setting field in the 22 nd column, and the COM3, COM4 and COM5 setting fields in the 24 th column in the driving setting table of fig. 2B need to be set to have a value of 1 to enable the digit 402 on the display screen 120 to correctly represent "3", and the COM5 and COM6 setting field in the 25 th column, the COM3 and COM6 setting field in the 26 th column, and the COM3 and COM4 setting fields in the driving setting table need to be set to enable the digit 401 on the display screen 120 to correctly represent "2", as shown in fig. 4B.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 100 may include one or more types of sensors (not shown in fig. 1) to detect information such as temperature, pressure, humidity, weight, etc., and the sensors may transmit sensor data to the processor 111 and the lookup circuit 114. When the processor 111 is in the operating mode, the processor 111 may determine whether the sensor information displayed on the display screen 120 needs to be updated. When the processor 111 determines that the displayed sensor information needs to be updated, the processor 111 may actively update the values of the relevant setting fields in the driving setting table, so as to update the sensor information displayed on the display screen 120. When the processor 111 enters the sleep mode or the low power mode, the search circuit 114 may update information to be displayed on the display screen 120 through a similar mechanism.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for updating display information according to an embodiment of the invention. Please refer to fig. 1 and fig. 5.

In step S510, the lookup circuit 114 is utilized to obtain the current reward information from a reward device in response to the processor 111 being in the sleep mode or the low power mode. In one embodiment, the reporting device may be, for example, a real-time clock 112 in the processor chip 110, and the currently reported information is, for example, current time information. In another embodiment, the reporting device may be a sensor external to the processor chip 110, and the current report information may be current sensor data detected by the sensor.

In step S520, the comparing circuit 1141 of the searching circuit 114 determines whether the current report information is the same as the previous report information. If the current report message is the same as the previous report message, go back to step S510. If the current report message is different from the previous report message, step S530 is performed. The comparing circuit 1141 may record the previous report of the reporting device by using a register (not shown), and compare the previous report stored in the register with the current report. If the previous report information is the same as the current report information, it indicates that the driving schedule in the register set 116 does not need to be updated yet, and the display controller 117 can still control the display screen 120 to display according to the driving schedule in the register set 116. If the previous report is different from the current report, it indicates that the driver configuration table in the register set 116 needs to be updated. At this time, the look-up circuit 114 looks up the corresponding setting field of each display block in the current report information in the driving setting table from the look-up table 1142.

In step S530, the look-up circuit 114 obtains the setting fields of each display block in the display screen 112 corresponding to the current report information from the look-up table 1142, and generates the setting table of each display block corresponding to the current report information.

In step S540, the look-up circuit 114 performs an or operation on each setting field of the setting table corresponding to each generated display block to generate a driving setting table, and writes the driving setting table into the register set 116. For example, the corresponding setting fields of the numbers or patterns of the display screen 112 in the driving setting table are not repeated. Therefore, the look-up circuit 114 performs a set-field-to-set-field OR (OR) operation on each generated setting table to obtain a driving setting table corresponding to the information to be finally displayed on the display screen 112, and accordingly updates the entire driving setting table originally stored in the register set 116. In other words, the setting field with 1 is filled in each setting table, and the value of the field is not changed after the OR operation.

In step S550, the display controller 117 reads the driving setting table from the register set 116, and controls each display block of the display screen 112 to display according to the driving setting table. For example, the display controller 117 reads the value of each setting field in the driving setting table from the register set 116, and converts the value of each setting field into a corresponding analog driving signal to drive the corresponding display block. For example, each number in the seven-segment display is composed of 8 display blocks, and each display block of each number has one or more corresponding setting fields in the driving setting table. If the setting value of one or more specific setting fields is filled in to 1, the display controller 117 drives the display block corresponding to the one or more specific setting fields for displaying. If the setting value of the one or more specific setting fields is filled with 0, the display controller 117 does not drive the display block corresponding to the one or more specific setting fields. When the time (e.g., hour/minute/second, expressed as HH/MM/SS) is to be displayed on the display screen 120, the display controller 117 needs to read the driving setting table related to the current time from the register set 116 and drive the display block corresponding to the setting field with the setting value of 1.

In summary, the present invention provides a processor chip and a display information updating method, which can greatly reduce the power consumption of the processor chip by not waking up the processor and automatically updating the display information to be displayed on the display screen by using a hardware circuit when the processor of the processor chip is in a sleep mode or a low power consumption mode.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A processor chip electrically connected to a display screen, the processor chip comprising:

a processor;

a temporary storage set;

a display controller for controlling the display of the display screen; and

a lookup circuit including a comparison circuit and a lookup table;

wherein the search circuit obtains current report information from a report device in response to the processor being in a sleep mode or a low power mode;

when the comparison circuit determines that the current report information is different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the search circuit obtains a setting column corresponding to each display block of the current report information in the display screen from the search table and generates a setting table corresponding to each display block of the current report information;

the search circuit performs OR operation on each set column of the set table corresponding to each display block to generate a drive set table, and writes the drive set table into the register set;

the display controller reads the drive setting table from the register set and controls each display block of the display screen to display according to the drive setting table.

2. The processor chip according to claim 1, wherein the report back device is a real-time clock in the processor chip, and the current report back information is current time information.

3. The processor chip according to claim 1, wherein the report device is a sensor external to the processor chip, and the current report information is current sensor data detected by the sensor.

4. The processor chip according to claim 1, further comprising a flash memory for storing set field information of the numbers or patterns displayed in each display area of the display screen, wherein when the electronic device configured by the processor chip is powered on, the processor loads the set field information of the numbers or patterns displayed in each display area of the display screen into the lookup table.

5. The processor chip of claim 1, wherein when the processor is in an operating mode and the current report information is determined to be different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the processor writes a setting value associated with the current report information to a corresponding setting field of the driving setting table in the register set.

6. A method for updating display information is used for an electronic device, wherein the electronic device comprises a processor chip and a display screen, and the processor chip comprises a processor, a display controller, a register set and a search circuit, the method comprising:

when the processor is in a sleep mode or a low power consumption mode, the searching circuit is utilized to obtain current report information from a report device;

when the current report information is different from the previous report information of the reporting device, the search circuit is used for obtaining a setting column corresponding to each display block of the current report information in the display screen from a search table of the search circuit, and generating a setting table of the current report information corresponding to each display block;

utilizing the search circuit to perform OR operation on each set column of the set table corresponding to each display block to generate a drive set table, and writing the drive set table into the register set; and

and reading the driving setting table from the temporary storage group by using the display controller, and controlling each display block of the display screen to display according to the driving setting table.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reporting device is a real-time clock in the processor chip, and the current report is current time information.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the reporting device is a sensor external to the processor chip, and the current report is current sensor data detected by the sensor.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the processor chip further comprises a flash memory for storing setting field information of the number or pattern displayed in each display block of the display screen, and the method further comprises:

when the electronic device is started, the processor is used for loading the set column information of the numbers or the patterns displayed by each display block of the display screen into the lookup table.

10. The display information updating method according to claim 6, further comprising:

when the processor is in a working mode and the current report information is judged to be different from the previous report information of the report device, writing a set value related to the current report information into a corresponding set column of the driving set table in the register set by using the processor.