JP4400132B2 - Digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a receiver for receiving a digital broadcast, for example, a digital broadcast television receiver.

  In recent years, digital broadcasting has increased rapidly, and terrestrial broadcasting is also being prepared for digitization. The digital broadcast receiving function demodulates an encoded video / audio signal into a transport stream signal by a digital tuner, performs an MPEG2 decoding process, and displays it on a display as a video signal / audio signal.

  For the various controls, a dedicated CPU for receiving digital broadcasts is provided separately from the CPU for display, and a program is loaded from the flash memory into the work memory of the CPU for operation when the receiver is activated. The operation is similar to the architecture of a personal computer in terms of activation and control except for MPEG decoding. An example of a receiver that receives a conventional digital broadcast will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional embodiment. The reception unit 12 of the digital broadcast receiver includes a first CPU 1, storage units 5, 8, and 12, an MPEG2 decoding unit 11, and a front end demodulation unit 10. The receiving unit 12 and the external inspection device 9 can be connected through a connector. It is. Reference numeral 12 denotes a receiving unit.

  When an external digital broadcast reception signal is input, it is demodulated into a transport stream signal by the front-end demodulator 10, decoded by the MPEG2 decoder 11, and displayed on a display (not shown) as a video signal / audio signal. indicate. The first CPU 1 that performs the control has a fourth storage unit 5 as a work memory. Further, the external bus of the first CPU has a first storage unit 8 such as a flash memory, and further has an expandable inspection connector, so that an external inspection device 9 can be connected from the outside. It is.

  Next, a method for performing activation control of a conventional digital broadcast receiver will be described with reference to FIG. When the power of the receiver is turned on, the reset of the first CPU 1 is cancelled. Next, a boot control signal for determining whether there is an external inspection device connected to the external bus is input to the first CPU 1. Based on the signal, the first CPU 1 operates with the boot program in the first storage unit 8 to transfer and expand data, or operates with the boot program of the external inspection device connected to the external bus. Determine whether to transfer or expand the data in

When the external inspection device 9 is connected, the program activated from the external inspection device 9 connected from the external bus mainly activates the hardware inspection program at the factory or installs the program in the first storage unit 8 Is installed, and is not necessarily always connected to the receiving device.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-98098

  In the case of such a configuration, when the program of the first CPU 1 is destroyed in the market, when starting from the outside, the external inspection device 9 is brought into the customer's home and the work of the television broadcast receiver is opened. I can't. Therefore, a very large man-hour such as replacement of the receiving unit 12 and replacement of the television receiver main body occurs. In particular, a personal computer can be carried by one person, but a large television receiver integrated with an image display device cannot be carried by one person.

  It is also possible to download a program from a small memory card such as an SD card, provided that an older version of the software is running on the receiving unit 12.

  In addition, when a boot program is stored together with data such as a program in a built-in flash memory, the boot program itself may be broken, which causes a problem in reliability.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention boots from one of the two external storage units in addition to the CPU of the receiving unit, for example, the CPU of the display control unit. By receiving a signal, a storage unit that is a memory storing data to be booted is selected. With the above configuration, the program can be booted from the external small memory in an emergency.

  In the digital broadcast receiver of the present invention, when the program of one CPU is destroyed, the system is started up with another CPU without replacing the receiving unit or the television receiver, and In addition to hardware inspection from a small memory card such as an SD card, programs can be written and can be easily restored at the customer's home, which has a great effect.

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver that can be activated without replacing a receiving unit even when one built-in CPU is destroyed, and a specific configuration example thereof is described below. Will be described.

(Embodiment 1)
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram for illustrating the operation of the bootrom selection method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the digital broadcast receiver includes a receiving unit 12 for demodulating received digital broadcast, and a display control unit 13 for controlling a display device (not shown). The receiving unit 12 includes a front-end tuner unit 10, a first CPU 1, storage units 8 and 5, and a first boot ROM 6. The receiving unit 12 includes an external connector 14 and can be connected to an external storage unit 3.

  The display control unit 13 includes a second CPU 4 and a storage unit 2, and the second CPU 4 transmits and receives control signals to and from the first CPU 1 of the receiving unit 12.

  The first CPU 1 and the first storage unit 8 or the first boot ROM 6 are connected by a high-speed bus, and are connected to the removable second storage unit 3 via the external connector 14. Moreover, it has the 4th memory | storage part 5 utilized as a work memory connected with 1st CPU1.

  Furthermore, the display control unit 13 different from the receiving unit 12 includes a second CPU 4 and a third storage unit 2 such as an EEPROM connected to the second CPU 4.

  Based on the information in the third storage unit 2, for example, when the program of the reception unit 12 is not activated, the program is activated from the second storage unit that is an external memory of the reception unit, and then When it is desired to install a program in the first storage unit 8, a part of the data in the third storage unit 2 is rewritten by the second CPU 4.

  When the data is 1, the H boot control signal 7 is output from the second CPU 4 to the first CPU 1. A control signal is input to the port of the first CPU 1. When the first CPU 1 is booted, it is started by the first boot ROM 6 assigned for booting, the port information is obtained during the boot process, and the data in the first storage unit 8 is stored in the work memory. Whether data is transferred / expanded to a certain fourth storage unit 5 or data is transferred / expanded from the second storage unit 3 is switched.

  Although the first CPU 1 detects the boot control signal in the figure, it may be detected by an external device. At that time, an operation for the first CPU to read the state to an external device is added.

  Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described as a flowchart with reference to FIG.

  After the power is turned on, the reset of the first CPU is released, and in step 1, the first CPU detects the state of the port by the boot control signal output from the second CPU, and in step 2, the boot ROM is selected. .

  If the program of the receiving unit 12 is destroyed and does not operate, the process proceeds to step 5 by a preset boot control signal, and a second storage unit such as a small memory card is read.

  Since there is a case where the second storage unit is not always connected, reading is performed, and if a read error occurs, the process returns to the original. If there is no read error, data is transferred and expanded from the second storage unit to the fourth storage unit, which is a work memory, in step 6.

  On the other hand, at the time of normal startup, an L boot control signal is issued from the second CPU in step 1, and after the detection by the first CPU, data is transferred from the first storage unit to the fourth storage unit in step 3. Transfer and expand.

  FIG. 3 shows a bootrom selection method. A boot control signal connected from the second CPU to the first CPU is input to the port, detection is performed for 3 seconds, and a storage unit to be booted is selected based on the information. This eliminates false detection of boot selection.

  As described above, in the digital broadcast receiver of the present invention, even if the program of one CPU is destroyed, the other CPU does not replace the receiving unit or replace the television receiver. Since the system can be started up, there is an effect that it is not necessary to perform maintenance processing from the outside.

  In this embodiment, an example in which a display control unit is used in addition to the CPU of the receiving unit has been shown. However, the display control unit is not particularly limited, and signals can be transmitted to and received from the CPU of the receiving unit. As long as the storage means capable of storing the boot program is provided, the same effects as those of the present invention can be obtained.

  The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention can be started up without performing external maintenance even when a program of one CPU is destroyed. It is useful for various digital broadcast receivers.

The figure which showed the structure of the digital broadcast receiver of this invention The figure which shows the 1st operation | movement of the digital broadcasting receiver The figure which shows 2nd operation | movement of the digital broadcasting receiver Diagram showing the configuration of a conventional digital broadcast receiver Diagram showing operation of the digital broadcast receiver

Explanation of symbols

1 First CPU
2 3rd memory | storage part 3 2nd memory | storage part 4 2nd CPU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 5 4th memory | storage part 6 1st bootrom 7 Boot control signal 8 1st memory | storage part 9 5th memory | storage part 10 Front end demodulation part 11 MPEG2 decoding part 12 Reception unit 13 Display control part 14 External connector

Claims (1)

A second storage for storing a second boot program for starting the second stage of the first CPU described later and connectable to the first CPU in the first unit described later via an external connector described later Means,
An external connector for connecting to the second storage means;
A first boot ROM for starting the first stage of the first CPU;
A first storage unit for storing a first boot program for starting the second stage of the first CPU;
A fourth storage unit which is a work memory;
When the first boot ROM is activated in the first stage, and a boot control signal received from a second CPU (to be described later) during the first stage activation process indicates that the first boot program is to be activated. Transfers the first boot program stored in the first storage unit to the fourth storage unit and expands the second boot based on the first boot program after starting the first step. If the first boot program does not perform the second stage activation, the fact is transmitted to the second CPU, and the first CPU receives the second CPU during the first stage activation process. When the boot control signal indicates that the second boot program is to be activated, the second boot program stored in the second storage means is transferred to the fourth storage unit and expanded, and the first step Before after boot A first CPU for the second stage boot based on the second boot program,
A first unit comprising:
Which of the first boot program stored in the first storage unit and the second boot program stored in the second storage means is read for the second stage activation of the first CPU A third storage unit for storing boot program activation information indicating:
After the power is turned on, the boot program activation information is read from the third storage unit, the boot control signal based on the boot program activation information is transmitted to the first CPU, and the first boot program is activated in the second stage. A second CPU that rewrites the boot program activation information to read the second boot program when it receives from the first CPU that
A second unit comprising:
A digital broadcast receiver.

Images