JP2005189950A - Program storage method, device, and semiconductor device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize a capacity to be stored in a memory for preventing shortage of a memory capacity. <P>SOLUTION: A digital composite device 20 is provided with a printed wiring board 30, which is a semiconductor device having a flash memory 8 serving as a nonvolatile storage means, and the flash memory 8 is provided with a product program area 8a for storing a product program and a test program area 8b for storing a test program. By a main control part 1 in the digital composite device 20, the product program of the printed wiring board 30 is compressed to be stored in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8, while the compressed product program is decompressed from the product program area 8a to be stored in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8 if it is determined that the printed wiring board 30 is good one from a test operated on it after the test program of the printed wiring board 30 is stored in the test program area 8b in the flash memory 8. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing a program for a semiconductor device which is a printed wiring board used in an information processing apparatus such as a digital composite apparatus and a facsimile apparatus, and a semiconductor apparatus for storing the program.

  A LAN system in which a digital composite apparatus, which is a facsimile apparatus with a copy, printer, and scanner function, and a plurality of client apparatuses such as personal computers are connected via a local area network (hereinafter referred to as a LAN) has been put into practical use. Yes. In this prior art LAN system, an image scanner in a digital composite apparatus reads a document image, converts it into image data, stores it in a memory box in an image memory corresponding to each client apparatus, and transfers it from each client apparatus. In response to the instruction request signal, the image data is read from the memory box in the image memory and transferred to the corresponding client device via the LAN.

  For example, the above-mentioned digital composite apparatus includes a printed circuit board including a CPU controller for controlling the operation and a memory for operating the CPU, and a semiconductor memory device is provided in these printed circuit boards. ing. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a semiconductor memory device that can suppress a capital investment for testing against an increase in the storage capacity of the semiconductor memory device.

  The semiconductor memory device according to this prior art has a built-in self test circuit and includes a memory cell array formed on a semiconductor substrate. The self test circuit is provided on the semiconductor substrate, stores a program, tests the memory cell array according to the stored program, and outputs a test result. The controller is provided on the semiconductor substrate and rewrites the contents of the program stored in the test circuit.

JP 2001-148199 A.

  That is, in the prior art, for example, in a board test process in which a CPU and a flash memory are mounted, a board test program is stored in the flash memory on the board, and after the board test is finished, the original program of the device is re-fired, Alternatively, the product program including the test is stored in the flash memory from the beginning.

  Therefore, there is a problem that it may take time and effort to rewrite the program, or the product program may become large and the memory capacity may be insufficient.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a program storage method and apparatus for a semiconductor device, and a semiconductor device that can solve the above problems, minimize the capacity stored in the memory, and prevent the memory capacity from being insufficient. It is to provide.

A program storage method according to a first aspect of the present invention is a program storage method for a semiconductor device provided with non-volatile storage means,
A step of compressing the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and storing the compressed product program in the nonvolatile storage means, and storing the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the nonvolatile storage means;
A step of decompressing the compressed product program and storing it in the non-volatile storage means when the semiconductor device test is judged to be satisfactory.

A program storage device according to a second invention is a program storage device for a semiconductor device provided with a non-volatile storage means,
A first control unit for compressing the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and storing the compressed product program in the nonvolatile storage unit, and storing the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the non-volatile storage unit; ,
And a second control unit that decompresses the compressed product program and stores it in the non-volatile storage unit when the semiconductor device test is judged to be good. .
A semiconductor device according to a third aspect of the present invention is a semiconductor device that stores a program for a semiconductor device having a non-volatile storage means.
A first control unit for compressing the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and storing the compressed product program in the nonvolatile storage unit, and storing the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the non-volatile storage unit; It is characterized by having.

  The semiconductor device further comprises second control means for decompressing the compressed product program and storing it in the non-volatile storage means when it is determined that the test of the semiconductor device is satisfactory. It is characterized by that.

  Therefore, according to the program storage method and apparatus and the semiconductor device according to the present invention, the capacity stored in the storage means can be minimized, and the capacity of the storage means can be prevented from being insufficient.

  Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

<Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital composite apparatus 20 which is an embodiment according to the present invention and is a facsimile apparatus having a copy, printer, and scanner function connected to a LAN 70, for example.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital composite device 20 includes a printed wiring board 30 that is a semiconductor device including a flash memory 8 that is a non-volatile storage unit, and the flash memory 8 has the following areas.
(A) Product program area 8a for storing product programs.
(B) A test program area 8b for storing a test program.
Here, the main control unit 1 of the digital composite device 20 compresses the product program of the printed wiring board 30 for the digital composite device 20 by a predetermined compression method and stores it in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8. When the test program for the printed wiring board 30 is stored in the test program area 8b of the flash memory 8 and then the test for the printed wiring board 30 is performed and the test program is judged to be good, the compressed product program is converted into a product. The program area 8a is decompressed and stored in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the printed wiring board 30 includes a main control unit 1 that is a CPU, a ROM 6, a RAM 7, a flash memory 8, a fax modem 10, an NCU 11, and a LAN interface 12.

  In FIG. 1, a digital multifunction apparatus 20 has functions of a copy, a printer, and a scanner in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as a G3 system. The main control unit 1 is specifically composed of a CPU, and is connected to the following hardware units via the bus 13 to control them, and executes various software functions to be described later. The image reading unit 2 reads a document with a scanner using a CCD or the like, and outputs dot image data converted into monochrome binary. The image recording unit 3 is, for example, a printer apparatus such as an electrophotographic system, and prints out image data scanned and converted by the image reading unit 2 or image data received from another facsimile apparatus by facsimile communication as a hard copy. Record or record character data.

  The display unit 4 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD) or a CRT display, and displays the operation state of the digital composite device 20 and displays image data of a document to be transmitted and received image data. Do. The operation unit 5 includes character keys, dial keypads, speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like necessary for operating the digital composite apparatus 20. In addition, you may comprise so that a part or all of the various keys of this operation part 5 may be substituted by making the above-mentioned display part 4 into a touch panel system.

  The ROM 6 stores various software programs that are necessary for the operation of the digital composite apparatus 20 and executed by the main control unit 1 in advance. The RAM 7 is composed of SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM or the like, and is used as a working area for the main control unit 1 to store temporary data generated when the program is executed. When a flash memory is used as the RAM 7, the contents of the data are not lost even when the power is cut off due to a power failure, movement of the device, or the like.

  As described above, the flash memory 8 includes the product program area 8a and the test program area 8b, and stores image data to be transmitted, received image data, or scanned and converted image data. Here, the flash memory 8 includes a memory box area (not shown) divided into a plurality of client personal computers connected to the LAN 70 or a plurality of memory boxes corresponding to the user. Each client personal computer temporarily transfers image data transmitted / received by the facsimile function, image data scanned and converted by the scanner function or copy function, and image data when using the printer function to the corresponding memory box. When the data is stored and read from the memory box, the data is read from the corresponding memory box and transferred by transmitting a transfer instruction request signal.

  The fax modem 10 is a modem connected to the public telephone line L and having a function of a fax modem for normal facsimile communication. An NCU (Network Control Unit) 11 is a hardware circuit that performs an operation of closing and opening a DC loop of an analog public telephone line L and having an automatic dial function. Is connected to the public telephone line L. Here, the NCU 11 detects the ID receiving terminal activation signal and the normal telephone call signal in the outgoing telephone number notification service, and transmits the primary response signal and the secondary response signal in the outgoing telephone number notification service as necessary. can do. The NCU 11 may be connected to a baseband transmission type digital line (for example, an ISDN line) via a predetermined terminal adapter and DSU (Subscriber Line Termination Unit: Digital Service Unit).

  Further, the LAN interface 12 is connected to the LAN 70 and receives signals and data from the LAN 70, and transmits signals and data to the LAN 70 to execute interface processing related to LAN communication such as signal conversion and protocol conversion. .

  In the facsimile communication function of the digital composite apparatus 20 configured as described above, the dot image data transferred from each client personal computer 30-1 to 30-N or the dot image data read by the image reading unit 2 is facsimile. Encoding is performed by software according to an encoding method such as MH, MR, or MMR defined in the communication standard, and then transmitted to the facsimile machine of the other party. The data is also decoded into image data by software, stored in the flash memory 8, and printed by the image recording unit 3 as necessary.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a program storing process executed by the main control unit 1 of the digital composite apparatus 20 of FIG.

  In FIG. 2, first, in step S1, the product program is compressed using a known compression method such as an LZH compression method and stored in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8, and the printed wiring board 30 is tested. For this purpose is stored in the test program area 8 b of the flash memory 8. Next, in step S2, a test of the printed wiring board 30 is executed. In step S3, it is determined whether the result of the board test of the printed wiring board 30 is OK. If YES, the printed wiring board 30 is determined to be good. Then, the process proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, if NO, the printed wiring board 30 is determined to be defective, and the program storing process is terminated. In step S4, the product program is decompressed from the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8, the product program decompressed in step S5 is stored in the product program area 8a of the flash memory 8, and the program storage process ends.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the main control unit 1 of the digital composite device 20 compresses the product program of the printed wiring board 30 for the digital composite device 20 by a predetermined compression method and flash memory. 8 is stored in the product program area 8a, and the test program for the printed wiring board 30 is stored in the test program area 8b of the flash memory 8, and then the test for the printed wiring board 30 is performed to determine that the test program is good. At this time, the compressed product program is decompressed from the product program area 8 a and stored in the product program area 8 a of the flash memory 8. Therefore, the capacity stored in the memory can be minimized, and the memory capacity can be prevented from being insufficient.

<Modification>
In the above embodiment, an example of the digital composite apparatus 20 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be widely applied to a facsimile apparatus or a facsimile server apparatus having a facsimile function.

  The flash memory 8 may be non-volatile storage means such as EEPROM or EPROM.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a digital composite apparatus 20 that is a facsimile apparatus having a copy, printer, and scanner function according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the program storage process performed by the main control part 1 of the digital composite apparatus 20 of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... main control part,
2. Image reading unit,
3 ... image recording unit,
4 ... display part,
5 ... operation part,
6 ... ROM,
7 ... RAM,
8 ... Image memory,
8a ... Product program area,
8b ... test program area,
10. Fax modem,
11 ... NCU,
12 ... LAN interface,
13 ... Bus
20: Digital composite device,
30 ... printed circuit board,
70: Local area network (LAN),
L: Public telephone line.

Claims (4)

A method of storing a program for a semiconductor device having a non-volatile storage means,
A step of compressing the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and storing the compressed product program in the nonvolatile storage means, and storing the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the nonvolatile storage means;
And a step of decompressing the compressed product program and storing it in the non-volatile storage means when the semiconductor device test is judged to be good. A program storage device for a semiconductor device provided with non-volatile storage means,
A first control unit for compressing the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and storing the compressed product program in the nonvolatile storage unit, and storing the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the non-volatile storage unit; ,
And a second control unit that decompresses the compressed product program and stores it in the non-volatile storage unit when the semiconductor device test is judged to be good. Program storage device. A semiconductor device for storing a program for a semiconductor device provided with non-volatile storage means,
A first control unit that compresses the product program of the semiconductor device by a predetermined compression method and stores the program in the non-volatile storage unit, and stores the test program for the semiconductor storage device in the non-volatile storage unit; A semiconductor device comprising the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device further comprises second control means for decompressing the compressed product program and storing it in the non-volatile storage means when the semiconductor device test is judged to be good. The semiconductor device according to claim 3.

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