JP3321090B2 - Music reproduction method and music reproduction apparatus in information processing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a musical sound reproducing method in an information processing apparatus having a data transmission interface for transmitting audio data in real time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An IE is a transmission system for transmitting time-series data such as audio or video data in real time.
EE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engi
neers) The 1394-1995 standard is receiving attention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a network configuration using devices (hereinafter, referred to as nodes) each having a data transmission interface based on the IEEE 1394 standard.

In FIG. 1, each node is a CD.
(Compact disk) A player 10, an information processing device 20 such as a personal computer, and an audio amplifier 30 are each connected to a data transmission bus (hereinafter, referred to as SBUS). When the power of each node is turned on, or when a node is connected to or disconnected from the SBUS, the node that detects this sends a bus reset on the SBUS. In response to such a bus reset, a root node is determined from among these nodes. Thereafter, an IRM (Isochronous Resource Manager) is selected from each node. The IRM performs bus management such as allocation of a transmission band and a transmission channel of each node during an asynchronous transmission period described later. When the selection of the IRM is completed, the data transmission according to the transmission format as shown in FIG. 2 is started.

As shown in FIG. 2, one cycle in such data transmission is, for example, 125 μs. After the cycle start packet CS is transmitted from the root node, isochronous transmission and asynchronous transmission are executed. Isochronous transmission is used when transmitting synchronous data such as audio data and video data that need to be transmitted periodically, whereas asynchronous transmission is intended for asynchronous data . The cycle start packet CS is SBUS
It indicates the reference bus cycle time that governs the above reference time, and is used for correcting the bus cycle time in each node.

[0005] Here, a node that wants to perform data transmission uses the above-mentioned asynchronous transmission to transmit I / O data.
A request to allocate a transmission band and a transmission channel to be used is made to the node that has become the RM. Upon receiving the transmission band and transmission channel allocation request, the node that has become the IRM performs bus management such as allocating a transmission channel to the requesting node, and uses it for data transmission in the next cycle. To reflect.

For example, when the information processing device 20 acquires the right to use a transmission channel by such bus management, the information processing device 20 starts transmitting data from the next transmission cycle. Hereinafter, an operation in a case where the information processing device 20 transmits the audio signal stored in the hard disk device to the audio amplifier 30 using the isochronous transmission will be described.

[0007] In a hard disk device (not shown) of the information processing apparatus 20, music player software as software and musical sound sample data corresponding to each of a plurality of music pieces are installed in advance. Further, a transmission interface circuit (not shown) for controlling data transmission based on the IEEE 1394 standard is provided in the information processing apparatus 20.

At this time, when the music player software is executed, the function of the music player is realized on the information processing device 20. Here, when a reproduction start command is issued from the user, first, the bus management as described above is performed. Thereafter, musical tone sample data corresponding to the tune designated for reproduction is sequentially read from the hard disk device, and is transferred to the transmission interface circuit. The transmission interface circuit converts the data packet obtained by packetizing the musical tone sample data into a predetermined number by the SBU in the isochronous transmission as shown in FIG.
Send on S.

The audio amplifier 30 is provided with such an SBUS.
First, the tone sample data is restored from the data packet received via the. Next, the musical tone sample data is converted into an analog audio signal, which is amplified as desired and supplied to the speaker 31. With the above operation, the musical tone sample data read from the hard disk device of the information processing device 20 is transmitted to the audio amplifier 30 via the SBUS, and is acoustically output in real time by the speaker 31.

Generally, the music player has a pause function for temporarily stopping the reproduction operation. When the pause operation is performed, the reading from the hard disk device stops. At this time, the transmission interface circuit that performs the IRM as described above releases the transmission channel because the transmission interface circuit cannot receive the data to be transmitted.

However, when the transmission channel is released, the bus management process as described above must be executed again. Therefore, after the pause operation is released, the reproduction operation by the music player cannot be promptly resumed. A problem arose.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides a musical sound reproducing method and a musical sound reproducing apparatus in an information processing apparatus having a real-time data transmission interface, which can promptly resume a reproducing operation after a pause operation is released. The purpose is to provide.

[0013]

According to the present invention, there is provided a musical sound reproducing method in an information processing apparatus, comprising: a storage medium storing musical sound data; and a data transmitting means for transmitting supplied musical sound data. A tone reproducing method in a processing device, wherein the musical tone data is read from the storage medium in response to a reproduction start command, is written to a buffer, and supplies the music data written to the buffer to the transmitting means. When a reproduction stop command is issued, a predetermined data sequence is supplied to the transmission means instead of the tone data. Further, the musical sound reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a storage medium storing musical sound data, a data transmitting means for transmitting the supplied musical sound data, and a method for reproducing the musical sound data from the storage medium in response to a reproduction start command. Reading control means for reading and writing the data in a buffer while sequentially reading the data; and in a reproducing operation, supplying the tone data read from the buffer to the transmitting means. Transmission data selection means for supplying the predetermined data series to the transmission means in place of musical sound data.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a musical sound reproducing apparatus comprising: a first storage medium storing musical sound data; a second storing medium storing a predetermined data sequence; Data transmission means for transmitting the tone data from the first storage medium in response to a playback start instruction, and sequentially reading the tone data while writing the tone data in the buffer area of the second storage medium; In operation, the tone data read from the buffer area of the second storage medium is supplied to the transmitting means, and when a reproduction stop command is issued, the predetermined data sequence is replaced with the second tone data instead of the tone data. Transmission data selection means for reading from a storage medium and supplying the read data to the transmission means.

[0015]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of an information processing apparatus to which a tone reproduction method according to the present invention is applied.
The information processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is composed of, for example, a personal computer or the like, and the illustration of various functional blocks not directly related to the present invention is omitted in the figure.

In FIG. 3, a hard disk drive 200
In this information processing apparatus, music player software which is software for realizing a music player, and tone sample data corresponding to each of a plurality of songs to be reproduced by the music player are installed in advance on the information processing apparatus. The operation device 201 includes, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, and receives various commands according to a user operation. At this time, when an execution command is issued to the music player by a user operation, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 202 is issued.
Reads the music player software stored in the hard disk device 200 and writes it in a program area 203a of a random access memory (RAM) 203 as shown in FIG.

At this time, the CPU 202 writes predetermined silence data, for example, a data series in which "0" continues, into the silence data storage area 203b of the RAM 203 as shown in FIG. Next, the CPU 202 executes a control in accordance with the contents stored in the program area 203a of the RAM 203 to activate a music player on the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of such a music player. Hereinafter, the operation of the music player according to the present invention will be described using such a functional block diagram. When such music player software is activated on the information processing device 20,
First, the bus management as described above is executed, and a transmission channel is allocated.

Here, when a reproduction start command for the desired music is issued from the operation device 201, the music player control unit 300 sequentially reads out the music sample data corresponding to the music designated to be reproduced from the hard disk device 200, and reads this. Once in the buffer area 203c of the RAM 203
And then read out sequentially. At this time, the selection circuit 40
0 selects tone sample data from the tone sample data read from the buffer area 203c and the silence data read from the silence data storage area 203b, and selects the tone sample data from the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit. 204. The IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 204 converts a data packet obtained by packetizing the musical tone sample data into a predetermined number by the isochronous transmission as shown in FIG.
A data transmission bus (hereinafter, SBU) based on the E1394 standard
S).

In the receiving node, the SBUS
The tone sample data is restored from the data packet received via the CPU, and is converted into, for example, an analog audio signal and output as sound. Through these series of operations, the music player performs a music reproduction operation.

Here, the operating device 20 is operated by the user.
When a pause command is issued from 1, the music player control unit 300 writes the address where the musical tone sample data read from the hard disk device 200 is stored immediately after the pause command in the stack area 203 d of the RAM 203. Next, the music player control unit 300 sets the buffer area 203c of the RAM 203
The selection switching signal for selecting the silent data from the musical tone sample data read from the non-voice data and the silent data read from the silent data storage area 203b is supplied to the selection circuit 400. With this control, the selection circuit 400 supplies silent data to the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 204 instead of the tone sample data.

Therefore, during the pause operation, the IEEE1
The 394 bus interface circuit 204 continues to transmit a data packet obtained by converting silence data into a data packet on the SBUS. Accordingly, the sound output level of the receiving node that has received the data packet formed by the silence data becomes 0, resulting in a so-called pause state.

Here, when the pause command is released,
First, the music player control unit 300
03 from the stack area 203d,
The reading of the musical tone sample data is started again from the position on the hard disk device 200 indicated by this address. The tone sample data read from the hard disk device 200 is stored in the buffer area 2 of the RAM 203 again.
03c and read from this buffer area. Next, the music player control unit 300 selects the tone sample data from the tone sample data read from the buffer area 203c and the silence data read from the silence data storage area 203b. The selection switching signal to be supplied is supplied to the selection circuit 400. The selection circuit 400 selects one of the tone sample data and the silence data from the tone sample data and supplies the selected tone sample data to the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 204.

As a result, the data transfer from the buffer area 203c of the RAM 203 to the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 204 is restarted, and the music reproduction is started again from the position (on the music) at the start of the pause operation as described above. As described above, in the present invention, silence data is read from the RAM 203 during the pause period,
This is called the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 20.
4 is supplied.

Therefore, during this time, the data transmission operation by the IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit 204 is not interrupted, so that the reproduction operation by the music player can be resumed immediately after the pause operation is released. In the information processing apparatus as shown in FIG. 3, other application software may be simultaneously executed in addition to the music player as described above. At this time, the execution ability of the CPU 202 is reduced, and it becomes difficult to maintain the pause operation.

Therefore, in the present invention, before the music player is executed, silence data is stored in the RA beforehand.
It is written in M203. Therefore, during the pause period, it is only necessary to read out such silence data, so that the load on the CPU 202 can be reduced. In the above-described embodiment, the operation has been described by taking the case of issuing a pause command as an example. However, the operation is similarly applicable to the case of issuing a stop command. According to this, while the application software such as the music player is being executed, it is possible to secure a transmission channel even if the reproduction operation is stopped.

In short, when it is desired to stop the reproducing operation in some way, silence data is read from the RAM 203 instead of the audio sample data, and is read out from the IEEE
What is necessary is just to send it to the 94 bus interface circuit 204. In the above embodiment, silence data is transmitted only when a pause command is issued.
After the music player software is activated, the silent data may be transmitted immediately after the transmission channel is allocated. According to this operation, a transmission channel can be secured until the music player software is started and its reproduction operation is started.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a network configuration based on the IEEE 1394 standard.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of an IEEE 1394 standard transmission format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of an internal configuration of an information processing apparatus to which a musical sound reproducing method according to the present invention is applied;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a schematic memory map of a RAM 203;

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration concept of a music player according to the present invention.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 200 hard disk device 202 CPU 203 RAM 204 IEEE 1394 bus interface circuit

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A musical sound reproducing method in an information processing apparatus comprising: a storage medium storing musical sound data; and a data transmitting means for transmitting supplied musical sound data. Reading out the tone data from the storage medium, writing the read tone data into a buffer, and supplying the music data written into the buffer to the transmitting means, and replacing the tone data when a reproduction stop command is issued. Supplying a predetermined data sequence to the transmission means. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction stop command is a pause command for temporarily stopping a reproduction operation. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the storage medium is a hard disk drive, and the predetermined data sequence is stored in a random access memory. 4. The data transmission means according to claim 1, wherein
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission interface circuit is a data transmission interface circuit that controls data transmission based on four standards. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined data sequence is silent data corresponding to silence. 6. A storage medium storing musical sound data, data transmitting means for transmitting supplied musical sound data, reading said musical sound data from said storage medium in response to a reproduction start command, and buffering said musical sound data. Playback control means for sequentially reading the tone data while writing the data to the transmission means, and supplying the tone data read from the buffer to the transmission means during a playback operation, and replacing the tone data when a playback stop command is issued. A transmission data selection unit for supplying a predetermined data sequence to the transmission unit. 7. The musical sound reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the reproduction stop instruction is a pause instruction for temporarily stopping a reproduction operation. 8. The musical sound reproducing device according to claim 6, wherein said storage medium is a hard disk device, and said predetermined data series is stored in a random access memory. 9. The music data transmitting means according to claim 1, wherein
7. The tone reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the tone reproducing apparatus is a data transmission interface circuit that controls data transmission based on the 394 standard. 10. The tone reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined data sequence is silent data corresponding to silence.