JP2000305672A - Electronics compatible to multimedia - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain multimedia compatible electronics which is not needed to operate a CPU when a music CD is reproduced alone. SOLUTION: The electronics are provided with a SCP(System Control Processor) 7 in addition to a CPU 1. When the SCP 7 receives a Main ON signal (Low level) showing that the CPU 1 is in non-operating state, the SCP 7 supplies a command corresponding to the switch operation of a control panel 6 in response to the switch operation of the panel 6 regardless of the CPU 1 and also gives a CD-POWER-ON signal of a High level to a power circuit 8 through an OR circuit 9. When the circuit 8 inputs the High level, the circuit 8 selectively supplies driving power to a CD-ROM drive 2 and an Audio amplifier 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia-compatible electronic device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, a personal computer provided with a recording medium reproducing apparatus such as a CD-ROM drive or a DVD drive is provided. Although this type of recording medium reproducing apparatus is used for acquiring data for a computer, in recent years, it has also been used for reproducing a music CD, for example.

However, in the conventional personal computer, a music CD is reproduced by application software executed on an OS (operating system) of a main CPU. For this reason, the circuits necessary for the personal computer to perform the normal processing are almost fully operated even when the music is simply reproduced. Further, since it is necessary to start up the main CPU, an initial setting time from when the main power supply is turned on to when actual music data reproduction is started is required.

Therefore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-101848 proposes a small multimedia information processing apparatus provided with a mode switch functioning exclusively for a CD player. In this device, when the switch is turned on, diagnosis and initialization processing for functioning as a personal computer are omitted as much as possible, and the device driver is started up from the ROM. This device also
When the mode switch is turned on, power supply to a hard disk device or the like that is not necessary for reproducing the music CD is stopped.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional device, the C is set by turning on / off the mode switch.
The PU performs either light processing or original processing, and in any case, processing by the CPU is performed. For this reason, for example, when playing a music CD in a state in which the CPU is in the sleep mode (idling, sleep) after starting up as an original personal computer, the CPU is released from the sleep mode and operates again. Becomes

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and is characterized by a CPU capable of controlling each circuit, a reproducing apparatus for reading information from a storage medium, and a reproducing apparatus. A switch for operating, an output circuit capable of outputting at least an audio signal based on information read from the playback device, and a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU and a signal indicating an operation state of the switch are input. And a controller for controlling the supply of drive power to the playback device and the output circuit and controlling the transmission of a command to the playback device based on these two signals.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main circuit of a first embodiment of a multimedia-compatible personal computer to which the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, a CPU (Central Pro
The processing unit 1 serves as a main control unit for controlling each circuit in the personal computer, and this is basically the same in the multimedia-compatible personal computer of the present invention. That is, when the multimedia-compatible personal computer of the present invention operates as an original computer, the CPU 1 controls each circuit. For example, the CPU 1 controls the CD-ROM drive 2 based on application software. In this control, an IDE (Integrated Drive) is transmitted from the core logic 3 of the CPU 1.
A command is sent to the CD-ROM drive 2 via the buffer 5 on the Electronics (bus) 4.

In the multimedia personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a multimedia computer) of the present embodiment, the CD-ROM drive 2 is used as described above.
Can be transmitted from the CPU 1 based on application software, and is transmitted based on the operation of a music CD switch (play, stop, fast forward, rewind switch, etc.) provided on the control panel 6. You can also. More specifically, when a switch on the control panel 6 is operated, a switch operation signal is transmitted to the music CD control SCP (Syst.
em Control Processor) 7. The SCP 7 can send a command to the CD-ROM drive 2 via the IDE bus 4 based on the switch operation signal.

The SCP 7 receives a Main ON signal indicating whether or not the CPU 1 is operating. Ma
The in ON signal is High when the CPU 1 is operating.
It is at the h level, and is at the low level when the CPU 1 is not operating (idling or sleep) or the power is off. When the SCP 7 receives the switch operation signal when the Main ON signal is at a low level, the SCP 7 supplies a high-level CD-POWER-ON signal to the power supply circuit 8. That is, the CPU 1 is not operated or the power supply OF
Even in the case of F, if a switch on the control panel 6 is operated, the power supply circuit 8 is in an operating state, and power is supplied from the power supply circuit 8 to the CD-ROM drive 2 and the audio amplifier 10. Note that the SCP 7 is always supplied with backup power, and can operate even when drive power is not supplied to the CPU 1.

The power supply circuit 8 is connected to the Mai through an OR circuit 9.
n ON signal and CD-POWER-ON signal, and when any of the supply signals is at a high level, the CD-ROM drive 2 and the audio amplifier 10
To supply the driving power.

The multimedia computer according to the present embodiment comprises an audio controller 11 and a selector 12.
It has. The audio controller 11 outputs a signal (Audio R / L) obtained by mixing a reproduction signal (CD Audio R / L) reproduced by the CD-ROM drive 2 with another signal as necessary. The other signal is, for example, an audio signal created by the CPU 1 or an audio signal separately input from a microphone or the like. Also, Aud
Whether the io controller 11 performs mixing is determined by C
Controlled by PU1.

The selector 12 outputs a reproduction signal (CD Aud)
Either an audio R / L) or a signal (Audio R / L) from the audio controller 11 is supplied to the audio amplifier 10. Specifically, when the Main ON signal is at the High level, the signal (Audio R / L)
Is supplied to the Audio amplifier 10, and when the Main ON signal is at the Low level, the reproduction signal (CD Audio) is output.
R / L) is supplied to the audio amplifier 10.

Next, the operation of the multimedia computer of this embodiment will be described.

[When CPU 1 is Operating] First, the CPU
When 1 is in the operating state by receiving the supply of the driving voltage, Ma
Since the in ON signal is at the high level, the power supply circuit 8 controls the CD-ROM drive 2 and the Audi regardless of the operation of the music CD switch on the control panel 6.
o Drive power is supplied to the amplifier 10. At this time,
The selector 12 supplies a signal (Audio R / L) from the Audio controller 11 to the Audio amplifier 10.

Therefore, when the CPU 1 is in the operating state, the reproduction signal (C) reproduced by the CD-ROM drive 2
D Audio R / L) becomes a signal (Audio R / L) that is mixed as necessary by the audio controller 11 and becomes an audio amplifier 10.
And output from the speaker 13 as sound.

At this time, the CD-ROM drive 2
Is issued in response to a command generated by the CPU 1 and a switch operation of the control panel 6.
There is a command generated by CP7, and the commands may collide with each other. As a method for solving such a problem, a method in which the SCP 7 invalidates the switch operation of the control panel 6 when the Main ON signal is at the High level, is transmitted from the CPU 1 to the CD-ROM drive 2 via the IDE bus 4. Command SC
A method in which a command corresponding to a switch operation of the control panel 6 is sent to the CD-ROM drive 2 while the P7 monitors and the SCP 7 avoids a collision between the commands,
The SCP 7 supplies switch operation information of the control panel 6 to the CPU 1, and issues a command corresponding to this operation to the CP 1.
There are various methods such as the method of transmission by U1.

[When CPU 1 is inactive] Power OFF
Time or when the CPU 1 is inactive, Main ON
The signal is at a low level. The SCP 7 can operate with backup power. The selector 12 has a CD-
A playback signal (CD Audio) from the ROM drive 2
(R / L) is directly selected to be supplied to the audio amplifier 10.

In this state, when a switch on the control panel 6 is operated, first, the SCP 7
-Set the POWER-ON signal to High level. Thereby, the power supply circuit 8 receives the High level signal via the OR circuit 9 and receives the CD-ROM drive 2 and the Aud.
The drive power supply to the io amplifier 10 is started. Also, since the Main ON signal is at the Low level, the SC
P 7 sends a command corresponding to a switch operation of the control panel 6 to the CD-ROM drive 2 via the IDE bus 4. Then, a reproduction signal (CD Audio R / L) reproduced in the CD-ROM drive 2 based on a command from the SCP 7 is supplied to the Audio amplifier 10 via the selector 12 and output as sound from the speaker 13. Will be.

At this time, the buffer 5 connects the IDE bus 4 to C
It is electrically disconnected from non-operating circuits such as the PU 1 and the core logic 3 to protect these circuits.

As described above, for example, when the purpose is only to reproduce a music CD, the drive power can be selectively supplied to the circuits required only for the reproduction, so that the entire apparatus does not need to be started up. Unnecessary power consumption can be suppressed. Further, since there is no need to start up the OS (CPU), it is possible to reduce the time required from turning on the power for reproducing a music CD or the like to actually starting the reproduction. That is, reproduction of a music CD or the like can be performed without the CPU 1 operating at all. Also, after starting up as an original personal computer, CPU
When the switch 1 is in the sleep mode (idling, sleep) and the switch of the control panel 6 is operated in this state, the music CD or the like can be reproduced without releasing the sleep mode of the CPU 1.

FIG. 2 is a main circuit block diagram showing a second embodiment of a multimedia computer to which the present invention is applied. The second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The multimedia computer according to the second embodiment is obtained by adding the function of monitoring the reproduction state of the CD-ROM drive 2 to the multimedia computer according to the first embodiment. Hereinafter, the additional functions will be mainly described to avoid redundancy due to duplication of the description.

As shown in FIG. 2, the multimedia computer of the second embodiment includes a reproduction monitoring device 20. The playback monitoring device 20 includes a first comparison circuit 21 that determines the presence or absence of a left channel playback signal output from the CD-ROM drive 2, a second comparison circuit 22 that determines presence or absence of a right channel playback signal, A timer circuit for resetting the time measurement based on the comparison result of the circuits;

The first and second comparison circuits 21 and 22 are CD-RO
The reproduction signals of the left and right channels from the M drive 2 and the reference voltage are input and compared, and a low level is output if there is a reproduction signal, and High if there is no reproduction signal.
Output level. If there is no reproduction signal in both the left and right channels, the outputs of the first and second comparison circuits 21 and 22 are both at the High level.
gh level will be input. Then, the timer circuit 23 starts time measurement when the input changes from the Low level to the High level, and changes the Audio-Active signal to the High level when a predetermined time has elapsed.

When the SCP 7 receives the High-level Audio-Active signal output from the reproduction monitoring device 20, the SCP 7 changes the CD-POWER-ON signal to Low.
Configured to level.

The power supply circuit 8 is supplied with Ma through an OR circuit 9.
The in-ON signal and the CD-POWER-ON signal are supplied, and when any of the supply signals is at the High level, the CD-ROM drive 2, the audio amplifier 10,
And the drive power is supplied to the reproduction monitoring device 20.

In this configuration, when the reproduction operation of the CD-ROM drive 2 is completed and the output of the reproduction signal is stopped for a predetermined time, the reproduction monitoring device 20 detects this and outputs a High signal.
A level Audio-Active signal is supplied to the SCP 7. As a result, SCP7 is CD-POWER-ON
Since the signal is at the Low level, the power supply circuit 8 stops supplying the driving power to each circuit. Therefore, wasteful power consumption can be avoided even when the CD-ROM drive 2 is left idle after the reproduction operation is completed. Note that the predetermined time may be fixedly set in the apparatus in advance, or may be arbitrarily set by the user.

In the first and second embodiments, reproduction of a CD has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to reproduction of another storage medium such as a DVD. In this case, it is sufficient to simply replace the CD-ROM drive 2 with a playback device for another storage medium such as a DVD drive.

[0029]

As described above, the multimedia-compatible electronic device according to the present invention is useful as a power-saving electronic device and can also be effectively used as a playback device for CDs, DVDs and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a multimedia-compatible electronic device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of a multimedia-compatible electronic device to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 CD-ROM drive 5 Buffer 6 Control panel 7 SCP 8 Power supply circuit 9 OR circuit 10 Audio amplifier 11 Audio controller 12 Selector 13 Speaker 20 Playback monitoring device 21 First comparison circuit 22 Second comparison circuit 23 Timer circuit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B011 DB11 EA08 EA10 FF01 JA06 MB11 5D044 AB02 AB05 BC03 CC06 DE45 FG30 HL02 5D066 AA02

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A CPU capable of controlling each circuit, a reproducing device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the reproducing device, and at least an audio signal based on the information read from the reproducing device. An output circuit capable of outputting, a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU and a signal indicating an operation state of the switch are input, and drive power to the reproducing apparatus and the output circuit is determined based on these two signals. A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a controller that controls supply and controls transmission of a command to the playback device. 2. A CPU capable of controlling each circuit, a reproducing device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the reproducing device, and at least an audio signal based on the information read from the reproducing device. An output circuit capable of outputting, a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU and a signal indicating an operation state of the switch are input, and a power supply control signal is transmitted based on these two signals and transmitted to the playback device. A controller for sending a command, and a power supply control signal and a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU are input, and when at least one of the two signals is active, the drive power supply to the reproduction device and the output circuit is performed And a power supply circuit for performing the operation. 3. A CPU capable of controlling each circuit, a reproducing device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the reproducing device, and at least an audio signal based on the information read from the reproducing device. An output circuit capable of outputting, a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU, a signal indicating an operation state of the switch, and a signal indicating a reproduction output state of the reproduction device are input, and based on these three signals, A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a playback device; and a controller that controls supply of driving power to the output circuit. 4. A CPU capable of controlling each circuit, a reproducing device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the reproducing device, and at least an audio signal based on the information read from the reproducing device. An output circuit capable of outputting, a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU, a signal indicating an operation state of the switch, and a signal indicating a reproduction output state of the reproduction apparatus, and an electric power based on these three signals is input. A controller for transmitting a supply control signal; and a power supply control signal and a signal indicating an operation state of the CPU are input. When at least one of the two signals is active, the drive power to the reproducing apparatus and the output circuit A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a power supply circuit for supplying power. 5. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the signal indicating the playback output state of the playback device is a signal output from a detection circuit for detecting the playback output and a signal after the playback output is no longer detected. A multimedia-compatible electronic device, which is output by a monitoring circuit including a timer that outputs a signal indicating that a predetermined time has elapsed. 6. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the supply of the driving power of the monitoring circuit is controlled by the controller. 7. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the CPU can supply a command to the playback device based on application software running on an OS. A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: 8. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the controller electrically disconnects the CPU from the playback device when the CPU is in a non-operation state. Multimedia compatible electronic equipment characterized by the following. 9. A reproducing device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the reproducing device, an output circuit capable of outputting at least an audio signal based on the information read from the reproducing device, A monitoring circuit for monitoring the playback output state of the playback device, a signal indicating the operation state of the switch, and a signal output by the monitoring circuit are input to the playback device and the output circuit based on these two signals. And a controller for controlling the supply of driving power to the electronic device. 10. A playback device for reading information from a storage medium, a switch for operating the playback device, an output circuit capable of outputting at least an audio signal based on the information read from the playback device, A monitoring circuit that monitors a playback output state of the playback device, a signal indicating the operation state of the switch and a signal output by the monitoring circuit are input, and the playback device, the output circuit, A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a controller that controls supply of driving power to the monitoring circuit. 11. A reproducing apparatus for reading information from a storage medium, a monitoring circuit for monitoring a reproduction output state of the reproducing apparatus, and a signal output by the monitoring circuit, and a signal output to the reproducing apparatus is input based on the signal. A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a controller that controls driving power supply. 12. A reproducing apparatus for reading information from a storage medium, a monitoring circuit for monitoring a reproduction output state of the reproducing apparatus, and a signal output from the monitoring circuit, and the reproducing apparatus and the A multimedia-compatible electronic device, comprising: a controller that controls supply of driving power to a monitoring circuit. 13. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the controller drives the predetermined circuit when the monitoring circuit detects that the reproduction output of the reproduction device does not exist for a predetermined period. A multimedia-compatible electronic device characterized by stopping power supply. 14. The multimedia-compatible electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said playback device is a CD-ROM drive.