JP2000222080A - Information device and method for managing pcmcia card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce power consumption on a PCMCIA card. SOLUTION: Even when a PCMCIA(personal computer memory card international association) card 7 is inserted, the power supply of the PCMCIA card 7 is not turned on, and only when an access request comes to the card 7, the power supply is turned on. And, the card 7 can be accessed when a prescribed times passes after the power supply is turned on. When an access request to the card 7 comes when access to the card 7 is made impossible, a RAM 2 which partially stores the memory contents of the card 7 is made to be accessed. And, when the power of the card 7 is turned on and the card 7 also becomes accessible, the contents of the RAM 2 are written to the card 7. When a prescribed time passes since the access comes to the card 7, the power of the card 7 is turned off.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a small portable information device driven by a battery such as a notebook PC or a handy terminal, and more particularly to an information device which can use a PCMCIA card and a PCMCIA card management method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a notebook PC (personal computer) or the like, PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card In) is used.
(Alternative association) If the power of the card is always on, the current consumption will be large and the battery life will be shortened. Therefore, when the PCMCIA card is inserted, the power is turned on, and when the card is removed, the power is turned off. It is supposed to be. The power is also turned off at the time of suspension.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, PCM
Even if the CIA card is inserted and the power is turned on, the PC
In some cases, there is no access to the MCIA card, and while there is no access, power is wasted and the battery life is shortened.

In an ATA (AT Attachment) card or the like,
If the power is turned on at the time of access, a wait time is required until the ATA card can be stably accessed after the power is turned on, so that there is a problem that the access cannot be performed immediately.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an information device capable of reducing the power consumption of a PCMCIA card and a PCMCIA card management method.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a personal computer (PC) is provided.
Even if the MCIA card is inserted, the power of the PCMCIA card is not turned on, and every time an access request is made to the PCMCIA card, the power of the PCMCIA card is turned on for a predetermined time after the access request, and the PCMCIA card is turned on for the predetermined time. Power supply on / off control means for turning off the power when the power supply of the PCMCIA card is turned on by the power on / off control means.
Access control means for disabling access to the CMCIA card and enabling the access when the predetermined time has elapsed, wherein the access control means enables access to the PCMCIA card while access to the PCMCIA card is disabled. When requested, the PCMC responds to the access request.
Access control means for accessing a predetermined memory which partially stores the memory content of the IA card; and when the access control means enables access to the PCMCIA card, the content of the another memory is changed. The PCMC
Write control means for writing to the IA card.

In the first aspect, the predetermined other memory may be a RAM in the information device.

[0008] In claim 1, the predetermined other memory may be a flash disk.

In the first aspect, the power on / off control means measures a time period during which there is no access to the PCMCIA card, is set when there is access to the PCMCIA card, and is counted down by an interrupt routine of an interval timer. When the count value of the counter becomes 0, the power of the PCMCIA card can be turned off.

[0010] The power on / off control means according to claim 1, wherein the PCMIA card is removed when the PCMCIA card is removed.
The power of the CIA card can be turned off.

[0011] According to the present invention, even if a PCMCIA card is inserted, the power of the PCMCIA card is not turned on.
A power on / off control step of turning on the power of the PCMCIA card for a predetermined time from the time of the access request every time an access request is made to the PCMCIA card and turning off the power supply when the predetermined time has elapsed; , Said P
An access control step of disabling access to the PCMCIA card during a predetermined time after the power of the CMCIA card is turned on, and enabling the access when the predetermined time has elapsed. When the access request to the PCMCIA card is made while the access to the PCMCIA card is disabled, a predetermined other memory partly storing the memory contents of the PCMCIA card in response to the access request. An access control step of accessing a memory; and, when access to the PCMCIA card is enabled, the contents of the another memory are stored in the PCMCIA card.
And a write control step of writing to the IA card.

[0012] In claim 6, the predetermined other memory may be a RAM in the information device.

[0013] In claim 6, the predetermined another memory may be a flash disk.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the power on / off control step is performed when the PCMCIA card is removed.
The power of the IA card can be turned off.

[0015] The program recorded on the computer-readable recording medium according to claim 10 is:
Even if the PCMCIA card is inserted, the power of the PCMCIA card is not turned on, and every time there is an access request to the PCMCIA card, the power of the PCMCIA card is turned on for a predetermined time after the access request, and A power on / off control procedure for turning off the power when the time has elapsed; and
Disable access to the PCMCIA card for a predetermined time after the power of the IA card is turned on,
An access control procedure for enabling when the predetermined time has elapsed, wherein the access request is issued when an access request to the PCMCIA card is made while access to the PCMCIA card is disabled. In response to the access control procedure to access another predetermined memory partially storing the memory contents of the PCMCIA card;
When access to the PCMCIA card is enabled by the access control procedure, a write control procedure of writing the contents of the another memory to the PCMCIA card is executed.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the power on / off control procedure is performed when the PCMCIA card is removed.
The power of the A card can be turned off.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
An embodiment will be described. In FIG. 1, 2 is a RAM (rand
omaccess memory) for storing data. Reference numeral 3 denotes a ROM (read only memory) in which a control program is stored. 5 is a CPU (central pr
Ocessing unit), which controls each unit according to the control program of the ROM 3.

Reference numeral 1 denotes an LCD (liquid crystal display), which performs display. An LCD controller 4 controls the LCD 1.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a PCMCIA controller.
The CCMIA card 7 is controlled. A keyboard controller 8 controls the keyboard 9.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a flash disk controller, which is a flash disk 1 which is a nonvolatile memory.
3 is controlled.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a timer for measuring time. 12
Is an interrupt controller which generates an interrupt and controls the interrupt.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hierarchy of software used in the information device. There is hardware at the bottom, PCMCIA card driver on it, PC
Controls the MCIA card hardware. O on it
The S (operating system) manages data stored in the PCMCIA card using a PCMCIA card driver. The top application program is OS
It is created using various application program interfaces provided by.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of an interrupt routine of the interval timer. When the timer 11 counts the set timer value, it notifies the interrupt controller 12. Upon receiving this notification, the interrupt controller 12 causes the CPU 5 to generate an interrupt, and this interrupt starts the interrupt routine of the interval timer.

Here, the CtA counter is set to PCMCIA.
This is a counter for counting the time during which there is no access to the card. The counter is set when there is access, is decremented by the interrupt routine of the interval timer, and turns off the power of the PCMCIA card 7 when it becomes 0. Has become.

In S1, it is determined whether or not the count value of CtA is 0. If the count value is 0, since the power of the PCMCIA card 7 has been already turned off, this processing is terminated without any operation.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the count value of CtA is not 0, CtA is decremented in S2 and S3
Then, it is determined whether or not the count value of CtA is 0. If it is determined that the value is not 0, the process is terminated. If it is determined that the value is 0, the power of the PCMCIA card 7 is turned off via the PCMCIA controller 6 in S4.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a control procedure when the OS issues a write request to the PCMCIA card 7. In S6, it is checked whether the power of the PCMCIA card 7 is on or not.
7, the power is turned on, and in S8, the PCMCIA card 7
Configuration. Check which PCMCIA card 7 has been inserted, and check that PCMCIA card 7
The configuration of the PCMCIA card 7 is performed on the basis of the tuple information.

In S9, a write wait flag for the PCMCIA card 7 is set. The write wait flag indicates that data is written to the temporary storage RAM without actually writing to the PCMCIA card 7 and that there is data waiting to be written to the PCMCIA card 7. A part of the RAM 2 is used as the temporary storage RAM.

Then, in S10, a flag for writing to the temporary storage RAM is set. This writing flag is a flag that stands during the writing process to the temporary storage RAM.
Data in RAM for temporary storage in PC by timer interrupt processing
The data is written to the MCIA card 7, but when the flag is set, the data is not written. By doing so, the processing for the write request from the OS to the PCMCIA card 7 can be completed quickly.

Then, in S11, it is checked whether or not there is free space in the temporary storage RAM.
Then, the data is written to the temporary storage RAM. S16
Then, since the write processing to the temporary storage RAM has been completed,
The flag during writing to the temporary storage RAM is cleared. Next, since access to the PCMCIA card 7 (access to the temporary storage RAM) was performed, the CtA
Set the counter.

On the other hand, if the result of the check in S6 indicates that the switch is on, the flow proceeds to S9.

On the other hand, as a result of the examination in S11, the temporary storage R
If there is no free space in the AM, it is checked in S12 whether the status of the PCMCIA card 7 is OK. If OK, writing to the PCMCIA card 7 is possible, so in step S15, data waiting to be written to the PCMCIA card 7 is written to the PCMCIA card 7 and the temporary storage R
Make room in AM. After that, the processing after S14 is performed in the same manner as in the case where the temporary storage RAM has a free space.

As a result of the check in S12, if the status of the PCMCIA card 7 is not OK, a wait is made in S13, and thereafter, the process returns to S12, and the PCM is again executed in S12.
Check the status of the CIA card 7. That is, PCM
Wait until the status of the CIA card 7 becomes OK.

FIG. 5 shows that 1 MB of temporary storage RAM is 64K.
B shows the configuration divided into 16 parts. Write processing is performed in units of 64 KB.

FIG. 6 shows a management table of the temporary storage RAM for managing how areas 0 to 15 are used. In this table, the area where the write waiting flag is 1 indicates an area in which writing to the PCMCIA card 7 is waiting. The head address of the PCMCIA card 7 in that case indicates the head address of the PCMCIA card 7 to be written. The area where the write wait flag is 0 is the P of the actual PCMCIA card 7.
64 KB of data from the address indicated by the head address of the CMCIA card 7 is stored. That is, the area is the same as the data of the PCMCIA card 7.

Accordingly, in S11 of FIG. 4, when the write waiting flags are all 1, there is no free space in the temporary storage RAM.

In S14 of FIG. 4, the write wait flag is set to 0.
The data is written in the area, and the head address of the PCMCIA card 7 in the RAM management table for temporary storage is set, and the write waiting flag is set to 1.

At S15 in FIG. 4, the write wait flag is set to 1
Is written from the address of the PCMCIA card 7 indicated by the head address of the PCMCIA card 7,
Set the write wait flag to 0.

FIG. 7 shows the data stored in the temporary storage RAM in the interrupt routine of the interval timer.
It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of writing to the CMCIA card 7. In S18, it is checked whether or not the write wait flag for the PCMCIA card 7 has been set. If not set, there is no data to be written, so no processing is performed, and this processing ends. On the other hand, PCM
If the write waiting flag for the CIA card 7 has been set, it is checked in step S19 whether or not the processing flag in the temporary storage RAM has been cleared. If not, refer to FIG. Since the write process to the temporary storage RAM described above is being executed, nothing is done and this process ends.

On the other hand, if the in-process flag for the temporary storage RAM is cleared, it is checked in S20 whether the status of the PCMCIA card 7 is OK. If it is not OK, nothing is done, and this processing ends. in this case,
Since the status is confirmed again at the next timer interval, the PCMCIA card 7 status will eventually become OK. On the other hand, if the PCMCIA card 7 status is OK, the data waiting to be written to the PCMCIA card 7 is written to the PCMCIA card 7 in S21. And
In S22, the write waiting flag for the PCMCIA card 7 is cleared. The processing in S21 is performed in exactly the same manner as in S15 in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a control procedure when the OS issues a read request to the PCMCIA card 7. In S23, it is checked whether the power of the PCMCIA card 7 is on or not.
To turn on the power, and at S25, the PCMCIA card 7
Perform the configuration of Then, in S26,
It is checked whether or not there is data for which a read request has been made from the OS in the temporary storage RAM.
In step S33, data is read from the temporary storage RAM.
To access the PCMCIA card 7 (R for temporary storage)
Access to the AM), the CtA counter is set.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S23 that the switch is on, the process proceeds to step S26.

On the other hand, as a result of the examination in S26, the temporary storage R
If there is no data in the AM, it is checked in step S28 whether the status of the PCMCIA card 7 is OK.
If the status of the card 7 is not OK, the process waits in step S30, and then returns to step S28.
Check the CMCIA card 7 status. On the other hand, PCM
If the status of the CIA card 7 is OK, S29
Then, the data requested by the OS is directly read from the PCMCIA card 7. Then, in S31, it is determined whether or not there is a free space in the temporary storage RAM.
In S32, the read data is written to the temporary storage RAM, and then the process proceeds to S33. On the other hand, as a result of checking in S31, if there is no free space in the temporary storage RAM, the process proceeds to S33 without writing to the temporary storage RAM.

Here, in S26 of FIG. 8, the address of the PCMCIA card 7 for which a read request was made from the OS is stored in the address of FIG.
Of the PCMCIA card 7 within 64 KB from the start address. If there is, in S27 of FIG. 8, data is read from that area of the temporary storage RAM.

Step S31 in FIG. 8 is the same as step S11 in FIG. 4, and a description thereof will be omitted.

In S32 of FIG. 8, the RA for temporary storage of FIG.
This is performed by writing the read data to the area where the write wait flag of the M management table is 0.

Next, the PCMCI described in this embodiment will be described.
Processing for turning on the power of the A card 7 and PCMCI
The difference from the processing when the A card 7 is inserted and the power is turned on (insertion processing) will be described. PCMCIA
When the card 7 is inserted, first, the power of the PCMCIA is turned on, the PCMCIA card 7 is configured, and the OS is notified that the PCMCIA card 7 has been inserted. In the form
The difference is that the OS is not notified when turned on.

Also, the PCMCI described in the present embodiment
Processing when PC A is powered off and PCMCIA
The difference from the processing when the card 7 is removed and the power is turned off (disinsertion processing) is
S is notified, but when turned off in the present embodiment, the OS is not notified. The OS does not need to be conscious of turning the power on and off. In other words, when the PCMCIA card 7 is inserted, the OS appears to be always usable regardless of whether the power is on or off.

In S31 of FIG. 8, the temporary storage RAM
If there is no free space, it is possible to write the data waiting for writing to the PCMCIA card 7 to the PCMCIA card 7 to create a free space, and then proceed to S32 to write the read data to the temporary storage RAM. It is.

A low-priced DRAM is usually used as the RAM 2 in FIG.
It is also possible to adopt a configuration different from M2. Of course, in that case, high-speed access is possible.

In this embodiment, the R for temporary storage shown in FIG.
The capacity of the AM is set to IMB, the number of areas is set to 16, and the capacity per area is set to 64 KB. Of course, the present invention is not limited to this.

<Second Embodiment> This embodiment is a first embodiment.
The memory for temporary storage is different from the embodiment. That is, in the first embodiment, the RA of FIG.
M2 was used.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the flash disk 13 is used, the access speed is slow (it is much faster than the ATAPCMCIA card 7), but it is large as a memory for temporary storage. It is easy to secure the capacity.

As described above, the storage medium storing the program codes of the software for realizing the functions of the first and second embodiments is supplied to the system or the apparatus, and the computer (or the computer of the system or the apparatus) is provided. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention is also achieved when a CPU or an MPU) reads out and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM (com
pactdisk ROM), CD-R (compact disk recordable)
, Magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM (rea
d only memory), and so on.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the first and second embodiments described above are realized, but also the computer operates based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that the operating system (OS) or the like performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the first and second embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, Needless to say, the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described first and second embodiments. No.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention,
With the above configuration, the power of the PCMCIA card is automatically turned off when there is no access to the PCMCIA card for a certain period of time, so that the current consumption can be reduced and the battery life can be extended.

The power of the PCMCIA card is turned on at the time of access. Even in such a case, the PCMCIA card can be accessed immediately without a wait time.

Further, since another memory, such as a RAM, which partially stores the contents of the memory of the PCMCIA card 7 is accessed, there is an effect that the access can be performed at a higher speed than directly accessing the PCMCIA card.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of software.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an interrupt routine of an interval timer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a control procedure when a write request is issued from the OS to the PCMCIA card 7;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration in which a temporary storage RAM of 1 MB is divided into 16 pieces of 64 KB.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a table for managing how areas 0 to 15 are used in a management table of a temporary storage RAM;

FIG. 7 shows the data stored in the temporary storage RAM in the interrupt routine of the interval timer being replaced with actual PCMCIA data.
9 is a flowchart showing a procedure for writing to the card 7.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure when a read request is issued from the OS to the PCMCIA card 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 LCD 2 RAM 3 ROM 4 LCD controller 5 CPU 6 PCMCIA controller 7 PCMCIA card 7 8 Keyboard controller 9 Keyboard 10 Flash disk controller 11 Timer 12 Interrupt controller 13 Flash disk

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. Even if a PCMCIA card is inserted, the PC
Without turning on the power of the MCIA card, every time an access request is made to the PCMCIA card, the power of the PCMCIA card is turned on for a predetermined time after the access request, and when the predetermined time has elapsed, the power is turned off. Power on / off control means for turning off the power supply of the PCMCIA card during a predetermined time after the power supply of the PCMCIA card is turned on by the power on / off control means;
Access control means for disabling access to the CIA card and enabling the access when the predetermined time has elapsed,
If there is a request to access the PCMCIA card while access to the PCMCIA card is disabled, the PCMCIA card is returned in response to the access request.
Access control means for accessing another predetermined memory partially storing the memory contents of the card; and, when the access control means enables access to the PCMCIA card, the contents of the other memory are stored in the memory. An information device comprising: a write control means for writing to a PCMCIA card. 2. The information device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined memory is a RAM in the information device. 3. An information device according to claim 1, wherein said another predetermined memory is a flash disk. 4. The power supply on / off control means according to claim 1, wherein said power on / off control means measures a time during which no access is made to the PCMCIA card, is set when there is access to said PCMCIA card, and is set down by an interrupt routine of an interval timer. The PCMCIA has a counter to be counted, and when the count value of the counter becomes 0, the PCMCIA
Information equipment characterized in that the power of the card is turned off. 5. The power supply on / off control means according to claim 1, wherein said power on / off control means is configured to:
An information device for turning off the power of the PCMCIA card. 6. Even if a PCMCIA card is inserted, the PC
Without turning on the power of the MCIA card, every time there is an access request to the PCMCIA card, the power of the PCMCIA card is turned on for a predetermined time from the time of the access request. A power on / off control step of turning off the PCMCIA card, and disabling access to the PCMCIA card during a predetermined time after the power of the PCMCIA card is turned on, and enabling the access when the predetermined time has elapsed In the access control step, when an access request to the PCMCIA card is made while access to the PCMCIA card is disabled, a memory content of the PCMCIA card is responded to the access request. An access control step of accessing another predetermined memory partially storing the PCMCIA card; If the access to the de is enabled, PCMCIA cards management method characterized in that the contents of said further memory and a write control step of writing to the PCMCIA card. 7. The PC according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined other memory is a RAM in the information device.
MCIA card management method. 8. The PCM according to claim 6, wherein said another predetermined memory is a flash disk.
CIA card management method. 9. The PCMCIA card management method according to claim 6, wherein the power on / off control step turns off the power of the PCMCIA card when the PCMCIA card is removed. 10. The PCMCIA card is not turned on even if the PCMCIA card is inserted into the computer, and every time an access request is made to the PCMCIA card, the PCMCIA card is switched for a predetermined time from the time of the access request. A power on / off control procedure for turning off the power when the predetermined time has elapsed; and a power on / off control procedure for powering on the PCMCIA card by the power on / off control procedure for a predetermined time. The PCM
An access control procedure for disabling access to the CIA card and enabling the access when the predetermined time has elapsed,
If there is a request to access the PCMCIA card while access to the PCMCIA card is disabled, the PCMCIA card is returned in response to the access request.
An access control procedure for accessing another predetermined memory partially storing the contents of the memory of the card; and, when the access control procedure enables access to the PCMCIA card, the contents of the other memory are stored in the memory. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing a write control procedure for writing to a PCMCIA card is recorded. 11. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 10, wherein in the power on / off control procedure, when the PCMCIA card is removed, the power of the PCMCIA card is turned off.