JP2001318744A - Information processor and data saving control method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To further shorten the time required until a power source is turned off and shifting to a hibernation state is performed after a suspension request is received. SOLUTION: In this data saving control method of this information processor in hibernation, when one processing by an OS is ended (procedure S4) and an idle state is detected (procedure S6) by an idle state detection means, the contents of a memory block write required for a hibernation processing which are stored in a main memory are successively written (procedure S10) to the HDD of a secondary storage device by a write processing means. Thus, at the time of receiving (YES in procedure S3) the suspension request and executing a processing (procedure S20) shift to the hibernation state by a shifting processing means, a amount required to be written to the HDD is reduced. Also, OS processing interruption (procedures S8 and S9), memory management (diagram 3 not shown) of a main memory and write start (diagram 4 not shown) when a fixed time elapses after the idle state are performed as well.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus having a function of saving the contents of a main memory to a secondary storage device when the power is turned off, and a data save control method therefor.
In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a data save control method thereof that can reduce the time required to turn off the power after receiving a suspend request and transition to a hibernation state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various types of portable information processing apparatuses such as portable personal computers have been developed. In these information processing apparatuses, the main role of the power supply is a built-in battery, and for example, a suspend mode is set as a power saving power mode in order to extend the drivable time of the battery. Recently, hibernation has been used as a suspend mode.

In hibernation, for example, when the power supply of the information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is turned off by a power switch 6-1, the contents of all memories mounted on the apparatus as the main memory 2 are stored in the secondary storage device. After that, all the devices including the main memory 2 are powered down after saving to the HDD (magnetic disk device) 4-1.

Conventionally, this type of information processing apparatus and its data save control method are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-333.
There is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 997. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the BIOS (basic input / output program) 2
When a suspend request is issued from 01, the OS (operation system) 202 performs memory organization and notifies the obtained free memory area to the hibernation routine of the BIOS 201. The hibernation routine of the BIOS 201 saves only the other areas other than the empty memory area notified from the high-speed hibernation software driver 203 in the hibernation area of the HDD, thereby reducing the data transfer amount and shortening the processing time, that is, the high-speed hibernation routine. Has been realized.

Similarly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-319667 proposes a technique for storing only unused area codes and increasing the processing speed by partial transfer of only used parts.

[0006]

In the above-described conventional information processing apparatus and its data save control method, when a suspend request is issued, only the memory contents necessary for saving are written from the main memory to the secondary storage device. However, there is a problem that the reduction of the processing time is still insufficient. The reason is that the hibernation process is started after the suspension request occurs.

It is an object of the present invention to solve such a problem and to provide an information processing apparatus and a data save control method thereof capable of further reducing the processing time of hibernation.

[0008]

A data save control method for an information processing apparatus according to the present invention is a data save control method for an information processing apparatus for saving the contents of a main memory to a secondary storage device when a power supply is turned off. While one process by the system is completed and the system is in an idle state, the contents of the memory block required to be written in the hibernation process stored in the main memory are sequentially written to the secondary storage device. When a processing request of the operating system occurs after entering the idle state, it is desirable to immediately shift to the requested processing operation. Further, it is desirable that such sequential writing to the secondary storage device is started after a lapse of a predetermined time after entering the idle state.

Further, the contents of the memory blocks to be written are managed by a management table which stores the state of the contents of all the memory blocks for the hibernation area of the main memory to be written to the secondary storage device. It is preferable to initialize the table when first writing it to the secondary storage device after power-on. It is desirable that the initialization of the management table be started after a lapse of a predetermined time from the start of the idle state.

As described above, since data is saved as much as possible between operating system processes, only the contents of the remaining required memory block need be written to the secondary storage device when a suspend request is made. The contents of the memory block that requires writing are the contents that have not been written from the main memory to the secondary storage device and the contents that have been changed after writing to the secondary storage device. Executing the hibernation process after a lapse of a predetermined time can prevent the hibernation process from being frequently activated in a situation where the user process and the hibernation process are frequently switched.

Also, in the information processing apparatus according to the present invention as a specific example, when the contents of the main memory are saved in the secondary storage device when the power is turned off, the processing of the operating system ends and the information processing apparatus enters an idle state. An idle state detecting means for detecting, when the idle state detecting means detects an idle state, a write processing means for sequentially writing the contents of the memory blocks that need to be written in the main memory to the secondary storage device, When a suspend request is issued, a transition processing unit is provided for writing the remaining contents of the memory block to be written into the secondary storage device and then turning off the power.

Preferably, the write processing means starts writing after a lapse of a predetermined time when detecting an idle state. A management table that manages the contents of all memory blocks for the hibernation area of the main memory as a write required state to the secondary storage device, and the management table when writing to the secondary storage device first after power-on. And initialization means for initializing the management table after a lapse of a predetermined time after entering the idle state.

[0013]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of the information processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of an information processing apparatus having a configuration of a general laptop personal computer. The illustrated information processing apparatus main body includes a CPU (central processing unit) 1 connected to a system bus 10, a main memory 2, and a BIOS-ROM (BIOS).
Read only memory for S) 3, H as secondary storage device
A controller 4 for controlling a DD (magnetic disk drive) 4-1, an input controller 5, a power supply controller 6,
A display controller 7 and an RTC (real time clock) 8 are mounted.

The CPU 1 controls the entire system and performs data processing. The system control program is BIOS-RO
Magnetic disk device (HDD) for M3 and secondary storage device
4-1 is stored in the main memory 2 and executed. Data in the system is transferred to each component via the system bus 10. HDD 4-1 is HD
It is controlled by the D controller 4. The input controller 5 controls a human interface such as the keyboard 5-1 or the mouse 5-2. The execution result is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 7-1 controlled by the display controller 7.

The power supply of the information processing apparatus is controlled by a power supply controller 6. The power supply controller 6 monitors the state of the power supply switch 6-1 and notifies the CPU 1 of the power on / off event as an interrupt process. RT
The operation time of the information processing device can be known from the time information at which C8 counts up.

In FIG. 1, a program stored in the BIOS-ROM 3 and a program read in the main memory 2 are read and executed by the CPU 1. An operation system (hereinafter abbreviated as OS) operates in the CPU 1 of FIG. 1, and it is assumed that the OS can virtually operate a plurality of programs simultaneously while switching a plurality of programs preemptively.

The program operating on the OS is a program having a graphical interface utilizing a graphical interface (GUI) function provided by the OS. The operation of the program is performed by the keyboard 5-1 and mouse 5-2 of the operator. It shall be determined by input. When the operation by these inputs is completed,
The program waits for the next input, and leaves control to the OS.

In the OS, a program waiting for input from the operator is put into a wait state, and if there is another program that can operate, the control is transferred to this program. However, in the case of the information processing apparatus of the present embodiment, since the personal computer for a single user is targeted,
Most of the time when the user does not make an input is idle.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention. A data save processing procedure of the information processing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2 with reference to FIG. 1 will be described.

First, the power switch 6-1 is turned on (procedure S
1) Then, a processing request is accepted by operating the keyboard 5-1 or the mouse 5-2 as an input device (Y in step S2).
If ES (ES) is not based on the suspend request (NO in step S3), the CPU 1 executes the requested program and ends (step S4). Subsequently, a processing request is accepted (YE in step S5).
In the case of S), the procedure returns to the above procedure S3, and the previous procedure is repeated.

If the above step S5 is "NO" and the subsequent processing request is not received, the CPU 1 uses the idle state detecting means (substantially one processing operation of the CPU according to the OS program) to execute the information processing device. Is detected (step S6). Subsequent to step S6, the hibernation writing process is started (step S7).

That is, when the information processing apparatus detects that the system has been idle for a certain period of time without a processing request from the user, the information processing apparatus notifies the BIOS (basic input / output program) of the hibernation on the HDD 4-1. The area reserved in the main memory 2 in the main memory 2 has been written to by the hibernation writing routine of the previous time, or the contents of which have been changed since the previous writing was performed by the hibernation writing routine. A hibernation writing process for writing data into the hibernation area of the HDD 4-1 is started by a routine.

If any processing request is issued from the user or the like during the hibernation writing process, the processing request is accepted (YES in step S8), and the hibernation writing process is interrupted as an interrupt (step S9).
Then, the procedure returns to the procedure from the above-mentioned procedure S3 to shift to the requested processing, and the procedure up to this point is repeated.

If the above step S8 is "NO" and there is no processing request, the procedure proceeds to a hibernation write processing procedure (step S10) described later with reference to FIG. 4, and then returns to the above step S3. Also, if the above procedure S3 is "YES"
When the CPU 1 receives the suspend request, the CPU 1 proceeds to the hibernation state transition processing procedure (procedure S20) described later with reference to FIG. 6, and can exhibit the hibernation function.

As described above, when the hibernation function is exhibited, the contents of the writable memory are written in advance from the main memory 2 to the HDD 4-1 in step S10 during the idle state of the OS process before receiving the suspend request. . Therefore, the amount of writing from the main memory 2 to the HDD 4-1 in the transition process upon receiving the suspend request is reduced, and the processing time can be shortened.

Next, the write processing procedure from the main memory 2 to the HDD 4-1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, referring to FIG. 3, main memory 2 and H
The memory area of the DD 4-1 will be described. Main memory 2
, A plurality of programs of the OS running on the CPU 1 are stored in the memory area 21. The memory contents of the memory area 21 are managed by a management table 22 for executing the hibernation function. Therefore, as shown in the figure, the management table 22 is managed for each memory block written to the HDD 4-1, and includes a post-write area and a non-write area where the hibernation write process is executed according to the present invention. It is assumed that the unit size of this memory block is constant and is divided, for example, by 2048 bytes. Further, if the contents of the memory are changed after writing, it is necessary to write in the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1 together with the unwritten area in the hibernation transition process. A is set.

The management table 22 is initialized when the power switch of the device is turned on, and requires writing by setting the required write flags of all the memory blocks to "1". All the contents stored in the main memory 2 are unwritten areas until the first idle state of the information processing apparatus and are included in the write required area 21-A, so that the hibernation of the HDD 4-1 is performed in the first idle state. Writing to the area 41 is started, and the necessary writing flag in the management table 22 is turned off “0” in the written memory block. In the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1, before writing to the hibernation area 41 is started,
It is assumed that a memory area for the capacity of the main memory 2 is secured.

When there is a processing request from a user or the like, an interrupt processing is performed and the hibernation writing processing is interrupted. Required write flag “1”. At this point, HDD4-
In the 1 hibernation area 41, a written area is generated, and the rest remains an empty area. A hibernation processing unit (not shown) of the BIOS manages a memory area already written in the hibernation area of the HDD 4-1 when the hibernation writing routine is called when the hibernation processing is performed in an idle state of the information processing apparatus during the OS operation. are doing.

After that, in the memory area 21 of the main memory 2, the changed writing of the unwritten area newly stored in the main memory 2 by the processing of the OS and the post-writing area written in the hibernation area 41 is performed. The post-change area occurs as the write required area 21-A, and the management table 2
2 corresponding to the memory block, the necessary flag "1"
Is standing. Therefore, in the next idle state, the memory contents of the unwritten area and the changed area after writing of the writing required area 21-A are written to the free area of the hibernation area 41 and overwritten on the written area or the written area. Overwrite area.

Next, the hibernation write processing procedure in FIG. 2 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG.

When the information processing apparatus detects an idle state in step S6 in FIG. 2, a predetermined time elapses (step S1).
After waiting for 1), it is determined whether writing to the hibernation area 41 is the first time (step S12). The device time measured by the RTC 8 in FIG. Watching the elapse of a certain time prevents the hibernation process from being frequently activated in a situation where the user process and the hibernation process are frequently switched.

If the procedure S12 is "YES" and the idle state is detected first, the necessary write flag "1" is set for all the memory blocks in the management table 22, and the management table 22 is initialized (procedure S13). it can. Next, since there is data stored in the memory area 21 of the main memory 2 so far, the necessary write flag “1” is stored in the required write area 21-A.
Is set (YES in step S14), since there is a memory block to be written, the contents of this memory block are written to the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1 (step S15). At this time, the management table 2
A write required flag “0” is set for the target memory block No. 2 to indicate that writing is unnecessary in the next hibernation process.

Then, the procedure returns to the step S14, and the presence or absence of a memory block requiring writing is further checked, and all the memory blocks having the contents of the memory have been written to the HDD 4-1, and until the step S14 becomes "NO". The procedure is repeated. If the above step S12 is “NO” and writing to the hibernation area 41 is not the first step, the next step immediately proceeds to step S14.

Next, the hibernation transition process will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 and FIG.

When a transition to the hibernation state is actually performed by a user operation or the like, as shown in FIG.
Requests the OS 102 to write to the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1 the contents of the memory block in the required write area which is unwritten and changed after writing in the memory area 21 of the main memory 2 by the suspend request. In response to this request, the OS 102 calls the hibernation write routine of the BIOS 101 and writes all of the memory contents of the write required area 21-A into the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1. When all the writing by this writing routine is completed, the processing is BI
Moved to OS 101. Next, the BIOS 101 performs a process of shutting off the power in the same manner as in normal hibernation.

Next, the hibernation transition processing procedure in FIG. 2 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 2 and FIG.

The CPU 1 that has received the suspend request when the procedure S3 in FIG. 2 is "YES" receives the suspend request by the program of the OS 102 in the memory area 21 of the main memory 2 which is the unwritten area and the changed area after the write, that is, the required write area in the management table. The contents of the memory block with the flag “1” are sequentially written into the hibernation area 41 of the HDD 4-1, and the flag is switched to the write required flag “0” in response to this, and after all writing is completed (step S22), the BI
The completion of writing to the hibernation area 41 is notified to the OS 101 (step S23), a predetermined power supply is turned off by a suspend routine of the BIOS 101, and a suspend state by hibernation is set (step S24).
Is done.

In the above description, functional blocks or procedures have been illustrated and described. However, separation and merging of functions or permutation of procedures can be freely performed as long as the above functions are satisfied, and the above description does not limit the present invention. .

Accordingly, in the above description, an information processing apparatus having a configuration of a laptop personal computer for a single user has been described. However, the present invention is also applicable to an information processing apparatus having another configuration.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, an information processing apparatus and a data save control method thereof capable of further shortening the time required to turn off the power after receiving a suspend request and transition to the hibernation state are obtained. be able to.

The reason is that the data is saved as much as possible during the processing by the operating system. Therefore, when the suspend request is made, only the contents of the remaining write-necessary memory blocks need to be written to the secondary storage device. Because.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a main operation procedure in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one form of transition and management state of a memory area in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a hibernation write processing procedure in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing one mode of a suspend request state according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of a hibernation transition processing procedure in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional suspend request state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Main memory 3 BIOS-ROM 4 HDD controller 4-1 HDD 5 Input controller 5-1 Keyboard 5-2 Mouse 6 Power supply controller 6-1 Power switch 7 Display controller 7-1 Liquid crystal monitor 8 RTC 21 Memory area 21- A Write required area 22 Management table 41 Hibernation area 101 BIOS 102 OS

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A data save control method for an information processing apparatus for saving the contents of a main memory to a secondary storage device when a power supply is turned off, wherein the main system is in an idle state after one process by an operating system is completed. A data save control method for an information processing apparatus, characterized by sequentially writing the contents of a memory block required to be written in a hibernation process stored in a memory to the secondary storage device. 2. The data save control of an information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a processing request of an operating system occurs after entering the idle state, the processing immediately shifts to a requested processing operation. Method. 3. The data save control method for an information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the sequential writing to the secondary storage device is started after a lapse of a predetermined time from entering the idle state. 4. The management table according to claim 1, wherein the contents of the memory blocks to be written are stored in a management table which stores a state of the contents of all the memory blocks for the hibernation area of the main memory, which are to be written to the secondary storage device. A data save control method for an information processing apparatus, comprising: managing and initializing the management table when first writing it to a secondary storage device after power-on. 5. The data save control method for an information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the initialization of the management table is started after a lapse of a predetermined time after entering the idle state. 6. In an information processing apparatus having a function of saving the contents of a main memory in a secondary storage device when a power supply is turned off, an idle state detecting means for detecting that the processing of the operating system has been completed and the apparatus has entered an idle state. When,
When the idle state detecting means detects an idle state, the write processing means for sequentially writing the contents of the memory blocks required to be written in the main memory to the secondary storage device; and An information processing apparatus, comprising: a transition processing unit that writes the contents of a memory block into the secondary storage device and then turns off the power. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said write processing means starts writing after a lapse of a predetermined time when detecting an idle state. 8. The management table according to claim 6, wherein a management table for managing the contents of all the memory blocks in the hibernation area of the main memory as a write required state to the secondary storage device, and a secondary storage device first after power-on. An information processing apparatus further comprising: an initializing unit that initializes the management table when writing to the apparatus. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein:
An information processing apparatus characterized in that initialization of a management table is started after a lapse of a predetermined time after entering the idle state. 10. An information processing apparatus having a function of saving contents of a main memory to a secondary storage device when a power supply is turned off, wherein the contents of all memory blocks corresponding to a hibernation area of the main memory are transferred to the secondary storage device. A management table for managing the write required state, an idle state detecting means for detecting that the processing of the operating system has ended and entering an idle state, and a first time after a lapse of a predetermined time from the detection of the idle state after power-on. Initialization means for initializing the management table when writing to the secondary storage device, and contents of the memory block to be written in the management table after a lapse of a fixed time after the idle state detection means detects the idle state. Processing means for sequentially writing data to the secondary storage device; An information processing apparatus comprising: a transition processing unit that writes power of a lock to the secondary storage device and then turns off the power. 11. The method according to claim 6, wherein
The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the idle state detecting means and the write processing means immediately stop the operation and shift to the requested processing operation when a processing request of the operating system is generated after entering the idle state. apparatus.