JP2004110229A - Method for controlling power supply of external storage device and electronic equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the power consumed by an external storage device of electronic equipment, without impairing its read/write functions. <P>SOLUTION: When a body is powered, a switch 12 is kept open and a memory card slot 14 serving as the external storage device is not powered. Next, when an operation input part 20 is operated to direct a read or write operation on a memory card 15, a control part 11 closes the switch 12 to power the memory card slot 14 and executes the directed read or write operation on the memory card 15. After the operation has ended, the switch 12 is opened to prevent the memory card slot 14 from being powered again. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a power control method for an external storage device and an electronic apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic device capable of storing a storage medium in an external storage device built in or connected to a main body and reading and writing data from and to the storage medium. The present invention relates to a power control method for an external storage device in a device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In general, stationary electronic devices such as personal computers have a function of reading and writing data between a main unit and a storage medium of an external storage device built in or connected to the main unit. Similar functions are being demanded for electronic devices of the type. For example, in the case of a portable wireless communication device, the use of flash memory is not limited to the exchange of telephone and text mail, but is expanding to the handling of various and large-capacity contents such as music, still images, and moving images. And the like, a slot for storing an external storage medium, and a function of reading and writing the slot are inevitably required.
[0003]
In the case of a portable electronic device, there are greater restrictions on the power supply capacity, the processing capability of the processor, and the like than on a stationary electronic device, and various methods have been proposed to cover this point. The invention disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is an example of this, in which a video signal obtained as a result of shooting by a video recording device is compressed for each predetermined section and stored in a buffer memory. When writing to such a storage medium, the external storage device storing the storage medium is set in a recording operation state only for a period necessary for the writing operation, and is in a rest state for other periods (in the case of a hard disk drive, only the motor rotates and the magnetic head rotates the disk. (A so-called idle state that is evacuated from the vehicle) to suppress power consumption and heat generation.
[0004]
The invention disclosed in Patent Document 2 is another example. In the present invention, a storage medium is mounted on a flexible disk drive of an electronic device main body via, for example, an adapter having a shape compatible with a flexible disk, and the adapter includes a rotating body that rotates in accordance with a spindle of the flexible disk drive and a rotating body thereof. It has a detecting means, and is configured to turn on the power of the adapter only when the rotation is detected. With this configuration, the power of the adapter is turned on only when the flexible disk drive (the storage medium attached to the flexible disk drive via the adapter) is accessed, thereby reducing power consumption and battery consumption.
[0005]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-270985 (page 1-2, FIG. 1)
[0006]
[Patent Document 2]
JP-A-2000-48556 (page 1-2, FIG. 2)
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Since the conventional technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 relates to recording of video, it is temporarily assumed that a large-capacity external storage device such as a hard disk device is used. (During this time, the power is not completely turned off, but is kept idle.) Therefore, this technology is not suitable for applications in which the power supply capacity is more severely restricted, such as a portable wireless communication device, and in which power control of an external storage device needs to be performed more finely.
[0008]
In addition, the conventional technology disclosed in Patent Document 2 described above enables fine power control in terms of turning on the power of the adapter only when the external storage device is accessed. Since the invention is related to an adapter on the premise of a rotary external storage device, the configuration of the adapter is complicated and cannot be applied to a storage medium using a non-rotational external storage device such as a memory card.
[0009]
Therefore, the present invention can be realized with a simple configuration even under conditions where the power supply capacity is very strict, such as a portable wireless communication device, and can be easily applied to an external storage device using a storage medium such as a memory card. It is an object of the present invention to provide a power control method for an external storage device and an electronic device.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a power supply control method for an external storage device of the present invention stores a storage medium in an external storage device built in or connected to a main body, and reads and writes data from and to the storage medium, A power supply control method for an external storage device in an electronic device including display means for displaying information on a device state of the main unit or the external storage device, wherein the electronic device is configured such that when the power supply of the main unit is off, When the power of the external storage device is turned off and the main body is turned on, the power of the external storage device is kept off, and when the data read / write operation in the external storage device is started, the external storage device is turned off. The power of the device is turned on, and it is determined whether or not the storage medium is stored in the external storage device. In a first case where the storage medium is stored, the main body and the external storage device are determined. Controlling, reading and writing data based on the activation, and performing a process of turning off the power of the external storage device after completion of the reading and writing, and performing a second process in which the storage medium is not stored in the external storage device. In this case, the fact is displayed by the display means.
[0011]
According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately control opening and closing of a power supply of an external storage device using a memory card type storage medium particularly suitable for a portable small electronic device, and to reduce power consumption.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
(First Embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a power supply control method for an external storage device and an electronic apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. In a first embodiment of the present invention described below, the present invention is applied to a portable wireless communication device, and FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the first embodiment. In the figure, 1 is an antenna, 2 is a transmission / reception switching unit, 3 is a transmission unit, 4 is a reception unit, 5 is a modulation / demodulation unit, 6 is a vocoder unit, 7 is a voice-electric conversion unit and an AD conversion unit, and 8 is a DA conversion unit. And a driver, 9 is a transmitter, and 10 is a receiver. These are generally included in the configuration of the portable wireless communication device.
[0013]
Next, reference numeral 11 denotes a control unit which is also generally included in the configuration of the portable wireless communication device. Reference numeral 12 denotes a switch that controls opening and closing of a power supply to a memory card slot 14 described below under the control of the control unit 11, and is always turned off in an initial state immediately after the power of the main body of the portable wireless communication device is turned on. It is a type that takes a state. Operations of the control unit 11 and the switch 12 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described later in detail.
[0014]
Further, 13 is an internal memory, 14 is a memory card slot, 15 is a memory card, 16 is a main display driver, 17 is a sub display driver, 18 is a main display, 19 is a sub display, 20 is an operation input unit, Reference numeral 21 denotes a camera, 22 denotes a power supply unit, and 23 denotes a battery. Among them, the internal memory 13, the main display unit driver 16, the main display unit 18, the operation input unit 20, the power supply unit 22, and the battery 23 are also generally included in the configuration of the portable wireless communication device.
[0015]
Next, the memory card 15 is a storage medium such as an SD memory card (trademark) and functions as an external storage device of the portable wireless communication device when inserted into the memory card slot 14. A large amount of data such as still images, moving images, and music can be written and stored in the memory card 15, and then removed from the memory card slot 14 and inserted into another electronic device such as a personal computer to use the data. . Note that a storage medium other than the memory card (for example, a PC card type hard disk) may be used.
[0016]
The sub-display driver 17, the sub-display 19, and the camera 21 are provided for the purpose of expanding functions or improving convenience, and may have a configuration that does not include them, or may have other functions or convenience. A configuration including elements other than these for the purpose of improvement may be used.
[0017]
Further, the configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention described above is functionally divided, and a configuration configured based on a division of a component or a circuit board, etc., which does not necessarily coincide with this in terms of mounting. Is also included.
[0018]
Next, the operation of the electronic device (portable wireless communication device) according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0019]
First, an operation for instructing execution of reading and writing on the memory card 15 is performed in the operation input unit 20 (step S1). Then, prior to execution of the instructed read / write, the control unit 11 performs control to close the switch 12 and turns on the power to the memory card 15 via the memory card slot 14 (step S2).
[0020]
Next, the control unit 11 checks whether or not the memory card 15 is inserted into the memory card slot 14 (Step S3). For example, in the case of an SD memory card (trademark), this check can be easily performed by using a card insertion detection mechanism or the like included in a connector for a commercially available SD memory card (trademark). Further, even in the case of another external storage device, it can be easily implemented by a method such as detecting a response to a standard read / write operation.
[0021]
As a result of the above confirmation, if the memory card 15 is inserted into the memory card slot 14 ("YES" in step S3), reading and writing to the memory card 15 are performed based on the instruction in step S1 (step S4). When the reading / writing is completed, the control unit 11 performs control to open the switch 12, and turns off the power to the memory card 15 (step S5).
[0022]
If the memory card 15 is not inserted into the memory card slot 14 ("NO" in step S3), the control unit 11 displays a message to that effect on the main display unit 13 via the main display unit driver 16. (Step S6) The power supply to the memory card slot 14 is turned off by controlling the opening of the switch 12 without reading / writing data from / to the memory card 15 (Step S5).
[0023]
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, the power of the external storage device is turned on only when reading / writing to / from the external storage device is performed, so that the power consumption required for the external storage device is minimized. be able to.
[0024]
Although the first embodiment of the present invention has been described using a portable wireless communication device as an example, the present invention is not limited to a portable or wireless communication device, and may be any electronic device using an external storage device. Can be implemented.
[0025]
(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of a power supply control method for an external storage device and an electronic apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The second embodiment of the present invention is an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a portable wireless communication device, similarly to the first embodiment, and a block diagram (FIG. 1) is common to the first embodiment. It is. FIG. 3 is a flowchart according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[0026]
In the figure, the processing up to step S3 and the processing after “YES” in step S3 are common to FIG. In the first embodiment of the present invention, when the memory card 15 is not inserted into the memory card slot 14, the fact is displayed on the main display unit 13, and then the power to the memory card slot 14 is turned off. Therefore, in order to complete the read / write processing, it is necessary to insert the memory card 15 into the memory card slot 14 and perform an operation for instructing the operation input unit 20 to execute the read / write to the memory card 15 again.
[0027]
Therefore, in the second embodiment of the present invention, after the main display unit 13 displays that the memory card 15 is not inserted in the memory card slot 14 under the control of the control unit 11 (step S6), a certain After the waiting time (step S7), the flow returns to step S3 again to check whether the memory card 15 is inserted. Alternatively, a method of detecting the insertion of the memory card 15 during standby, processing this as an interrupt signal, and branching to “YES” in step S3 may be adopted.
[0028]
According to the second embodiment of the present invention, even if the storage medium is not inserted in the external storage device, reading and writing are executed by inserting the storage medium, and there is no need to perform another operation, thereby further improving convenience. Has the additional effect of doing so. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to a portable or wireless communication device, and any electronic device using an external storage device can be implemented as in the first embodiment.
[0029]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, by supplying power to the external storage device only when necessary, the power consumption of the electronic device can be reduced without impairing its read / write function.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram according to first and second embodiments of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 antenna 2 transmission / reception switching unit 3 transmission unit 4 reception unit 5 modulation / demodulation unit 6 vocoder unit 7 voice-to-electric conversion unit and AD conversion unit 8 DA conversion unit and driver 9 transmitter 10 receiver 11 controller 12 power control switch for memory card 13 Internal Memory 14 Memory Card Slot 15 Memory Card 16 Main Display Driver 17 Sub Display Driver 18 Main Display 19 Sub Display 20 Operation Input Unit 21 Camera 22 Power Supply Unit 23 Battery

Claims (4)

A storage medium is stored in an external storage device built in or connected to the main body, data can be read and written to and from the storage medium, and information on the device status of the main body or the external storage device can be displayed. A power supply control method for the external storage device in an electronic device including a display unit,
Supplying power to the external storage device when detecting that a data read or write operation to the storage medium has been started,
Determine whether the storage medium is stored in the external storage device, in the stored first state, control the main body and the external storage device to read or write data,
Stopping the power supply to the external storage device after completion of the reading or writing of the data,
In a second state in which the storage medium is not stored in the external storage device, a notification that the storage medium is not stored is provided via the display means. 2. The power control method for an external storage device according to claim 1, further comprising: stopping power supply to the external storage device in the second state. A means for storing a storage medium in an external storage device built in or connected to the main body and controlling reading and writing of data from and to the storage medium, and capable of displaying information on a device state of the main body or the external storage device The electronic device provided with a display means, the control means,
Supplying power to the external storage device when detecting that a data read or write operation to the storage medium has been started,
Determine whether the storage medium is stored in the external storage device, in the stored first state, control the main body and the external storage device to read or write data,
Stopping the power supply to the external storage device after completion of the reading or writing of the data,
In a second state in which the storage medium is not stored in the external storage device, the display unit displays that the storage medium is not stored in the electronic device. 4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein in the second state, the control unit further stops power supply to the external storage device.

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