JPH0327438A - Personal computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify operability and a hardware constitution and to miniaturize a device by setting normal display/reverse display by means of a set-up processing. CONSTITUTION:When there is the change of normal display/reverse display, at the time of reverse display, for example, display data is reversed by a revers ing circuit (NOT circuit) provided on a display controller 24 reverses display data and data is supplied to an LCD display part 37. A system is re-started when the change of a device connection state is required. A system re-starting processing reads the data of the connection state which is set in the set-up processing and sets a usable floppy disk drive from the connection state of the floppy disk drive. Thus, operability and constitution are simplified and the device can be miniaturized by setting normal display/reverse display and setting the device connection state with the set-up processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a personal computer having means for selecting and setting normal display/reverse display, device connection state, etc.

(Prior Art) In recent years, various types of personal computers have been developed that are easy to carry and can be operated using internal batteries. In view of operability and functionality, this type of personal computer has means for selecting and setting normal display/reverse display, device connection state, etc.

Conventionally, these selection and setting means have been realized by providing a manual operation switch at a relatively easy-to-operate location on the main body of the device.

For this reason, in the past, there were many operation switches, which resulted in complicated operations and complicated hardware configurations.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, conventionally, the normal display/reverse display setting switch is located at a relatively easy-to-operate location on the main body of the device.
Because it was equipped with a setting switch for device connection status, etc.
The number of operation switches increases, leading to complicated operations and complicated hardware configurations.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and eliminates the setting switch for normal display/reverse display, the setting switch for device connection status, etc., and realizes the selection and setting of these functions by a setup function, thereby simplifying the operation switches. It is an object of the present invention to provide a personal computer with reduced size, simplified operability, and simplified hardware configuration.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means and Effects for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides means for setting normal display or reverse display in setup processing, and outputting display data in reverse when the reverse display is set. The device is equipped with a control means and has a configuration in which the normal display/reverse display setting is performed in the setup process.This eliminates the need for operation switches for setting the normal display/reverse display, and improves operability and hardware. The configuration can be simplified and the device can be made smaller.

The present invention also includes means for setting a device connection state in a setup process, and means for setting a device to be used according to the setting information when the device connection state is set.
The device connection state is set in the setup process, which eliminates the need for operation switches to set the device connection state, simplifying operability and hardware configuration, and making the device more compact. can be achieved.

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the power supply circuit in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, lO is a system bus, and tt to 27 are components connected to the system bus {0. Among these components, 1
1 is a CPU that controls the entire system, and here has setup processing and associated processing functions as shown in FIGS. 3 to 6. This CPU II is a power control CPU 30B of a power supply circuit 30, which will be described later.
When viewed from above, it becomes the host CPU. 12 is a ROM in which fixed programs etc. are stored; 13 is a RAMS in which programs to be processed, data etc. are stored; 14 is a DMA controller (D) that performs direct memory access control.
Direct Memory Ac
cess controller), 15 is a programmable interrupt controller (PIC
; Programmable InterruptC
controller), 1B is an interval tie 7 (PIT; P
rogrammableInterval Timer
), 17 is a clock module (RTC; Real-Time Clock) with its own operating battery.
). 18 is a large capacity expansion RAM that can be inserted into and removed from the dedicated card slot of the main unit, and is equipped with a Z backup power supply (
V BK) is supplied. 19 is a backup RAM serving as a data storage area for realizing the resume function, and is supplied with backup power (VBK). 2
0 is a hard disk pack that can be inserted into and removed from the dedicated storage compartment of the main unit, and here it is a 2.5-inch 5 hard disk drive (HDD) 2OA and a hard disk controller (HDD) that controls access to the drive.
DC) Consists of 20B. 20F is a floppy disk controller (FDC), 21 is a printer controller (P
RT-CONT), 22 is the input/output interface (
U A R T ; Universal Async
chronous Receiver/Transmit
ter ), 23 is the keyboard controller (KBC
), 24 is a display controller (DISP-CON
T), 25 is a video RAM (VRAM) supplied with a backup power supply (VBK), 2B is a kanji ROM that obtains kanji character patterns from kanji character codes, and 27 is a dictionary ROM that realizes a kana/kanji conversion dictionary, etc. . 28
connects the power supply circuit (see Figure 2), which will be described later, to the system bus lO
This is a power supply control interface (PS-IF) for connecting to the CPU 11 via the PS-IF. A power adapter 29 (hereinafter referred to as an AC adapter) rectifies and smoothes a commercial alternating current power source (AC) to obtain a DC working power source of a predetermined potential, and is plug-in connected to the main body of the personal computer. 30 is power control 6? It is an intelligent power supply (hereinafter referred to as a power supply circuit) equipped with a PU (PC-CPU), and the configuration of this power supply circuit 30 will be described later with reference to FIG. 81A is a pack-type removable main battery (M-BATT) that is made up of rechargeable batteries, and 31B is a built-in sub-battery (S-BATT) that is also made of rechargeable batteries. be. 32 is a floppy disk drive (FDD) connected to the floppy disk controller 20F, 83 is an external floppy disk drive connected to the floppy disk controller 30 as necessary, and 34 is a printer connected to the printer controller 21 as necessary. It is.

35 is an RS-2320 interface device that is connected to the human output interface 22 as necessary.

36 is a keyboard connected to the keyboard controller 23; 37 is an LCD connected to the display controller 24;
The display section 38 is a CRT display section that is selectively connected to the display controller 24 as required.

40 is an expansion connector to which an expansion unit is selectively connected.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the power supply circuit 30. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, 301 is a power switch, 302 is a reset switch, 303 is a display switch, and 804 is a ready setting switch provided in the expansion unit. 305
are each of these switches 301, 302 . 8H,
304 and the power control C P described later.
This is a parallel I/O that holds the setting information of the IJ 30B.

30111 is a power control CPU that centrally manages the power supply of the entire device, and manually inputs information on each part of the power supply circuit and instruction information from the host CPU II via the internal bus 307, and controls the instructions from the host CPU II, internal status, and external information. It controls the power supply to each part within the device depending on the operation status, etc., and has processing functions as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

A backlight control circuit 308 controls the backlight power (backlight intensity) of the LCD display section 37, and outputs a backlight drive power according to the setting state of a variable resistor (not shown) for adjusting the light intensity, and displays the setup screen. When the display automatic stop function is set, the backlight power is selectively cut off under the control of the power control CPU 30B.

309 is an LED (fifth
L1 in Figure (a), LED for low battery status display
(L2 in Figure 5(a)), LED for displaying AC adapter connection status (L3 in Figure 5(a)), etc.
This is an LED driver that controls the lighting drive of the ED. Here, each LED is capable of displaying two colors, red and green, and one or both of them is selectively drive-controlled to perform color-specific display. ing. That is, to give a specific example, LED
(L1) is driven to light up in green when the power is turned on and when the high speed clock is operating, and is driven to light up in red when the clock is operating at a low speed. In addition, the LED (L2) is driven to blink red when the battery is low, and turns orange (red and green) when it is in the fast charging state.
It is driven to light up in color, and driven to light up in green when charging 9 is completed. Also, LED (L3)
is driven to light up in red when the AC adapter 29 is in a valid connection state, and is driven to blink in red when the AC adapter 29 is in a valid connection state and the power supply circuit 30 is in an abnormal state.

A D/A converter 310 converts the digital charge control data output from the power control C P 0 30B into an analog signal and supplies it to the charge unit 311 for the main battery 31A. A charge unit 311 charges the main battery 31A under the control of the power control CPU 306 in accordance with a charge control signal output from the D/A converter 310.

A current detector 812 detects the total current within the device including the charging current of the main battery 31A.

314 is a current detector that detects the current (excluding backup current) flowing in the circuit within the device. Reference numeral 315 is a DC-DC converter that obtains power for operating various parts in the apparatus from the power supply of the AC adapter 29 or the power supply of the main battery 31A via the current detector 314.

10 316 is an analog / This is an A/D converter that performs digital conversion. 317 is power control CPU30B and main C
Serial I/O for sending and receiving information to and from PUII
It is. 818 is a charging unit that charges the sub-battery 31B.

319 is main battery 31A and sub battery 31
This is a DC-DC converter that receives each power source of B and obtains a backup power source (VBK).

3 to 6 are flowcharts showing the setup processing and related processing routines executed under the control of the CPU II, respectively. Of these, FIG. 3 shows the setup processing routine, and FIG. 4 shows the setup processing routine. 5 shows the display automatic stop processing routine, FIG. 5 shows the display normal/reverse processing routine, and FIG. 6 shows the device connection (A-B-
PRT) processing routine.

11 Figures 7 and 8 are power control C P
7 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the U 30B, in which FIG. 7 shows a processing routine when the power is turned off, and FIG. 8 shows a processing routine when the power is turned on.

FIG. 9 shows the external configuration of a device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which (a) is a perspective view showing the display case in an open state, and (b) is a perspective view of the device in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the display unit (display) housing is closed.

In FIG. 9, 1 is the device main body, and la is the device main body 1 surrounding the operation button 301a of the push button type power switch 301.
This is a barrier portion formed protrudingly from the side surface of the This barrier part 1a
This avoids an inconvenient situation in which the power switch 30l is accidentally operated while carrying the device, and is structured so that the switch can be operated only when the switch is intentionally pressed. Also, Ll,
L2 and L3 are LEDs that are each driven for display by the driver 309. Of these, L1 is an LED for displaying the power-on state and operating speed, L2 is an LED for displaying a low battery state, and L31 2 is for displaying an AC adapter connection state. The LEDs are inverted L-shaped LEDs arranged on the ridge formed by the front wall and the upper wall of the rectangular protrusion 1b formed on the device main body 1, and spanning the front wall and the soil wall. Provided inside the display window. Therefore, the display state of each of the LEDs can be easily identified from the outside not only when the display housing is open but also when the display housing is closed.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a setup screen in the above embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a normal display/reverse display switching mechanism.

Here, the operation in one embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the above figures.

When a predetermined setup command is entered,
In accordance with this command input, the setup process shown in FIG. 3 is executed under the control of CPUll. At this time, L
FIG. 10 shows an example of the setup screen displayed on the CD display section 37.

In the setup process (or setup window) of this embodiment, first, in order to eliminate the need to restart the system, the system restart flag is turned off, and then
It is determined whether or not the setting of the display automatic stop function has been changed (steps Sl and S2 in FIG. 3). If you need to change the settings for the display auto-stop function, select "Allow" or "
"prohibited" (register set), and when enabling the display automatic stop function, set the automatic stop time (3rd
Figure Steps 83 to S4).

This display automatic stop function setting process (step 82 in Figure 3)
~S4), it is determined whether the normal display/reverse display should be changed, and if a setting change is required, the display mode is set (step S5, SO in FIG. 3).

After this display setting process (step S5, SO in FIG. 3),
It is determined whether or not the external device connection (A-B-PRT) state has changed, and if a setting change is required, the connection state is set (steps S7 and S8 in FIG. 3).

After completing these settings, turn on the system restart flag to require system restart, and perform other setup processing (e.g., whether or not to resume, display mode, communication board device, etc.). If it is necessary to restart the system, restart the system and complete the setup process.

FIG. 4 shows a processing flow of the display automatic stop function when the display automatic stop function is in the permitted state.

Here, when the display automatic stop function is enabled, the time without key input is counted, and when that time reaches the set time, the display flag is referenced, and when the display is in progress, the display flag is displayed. Set it to the stopped state and send the display stop command to system bus 10 and power control interface 2.
Power control C P of the power supply circuit 30 via 8 etc.
Send to U 30B.

Power control CPU 80B of power supply circuit 30
When receiving a display stop command from the host CPU II, it sets display stop instruction information to the parallel I/0 305, and accordingly, the backlight control circuit 30
8 stops the supply of backlight power to the LCD display section 37 . Also, when there is key manual power, a counter that counts the time without key manual power is cleared, and when the display flag is in the display stopped state, the display flag is set in the displaying state and a display command is output.

Power control CPU 30 of power supply circuit 30 [
When i receives a display command from the host CPU II,
Display instruction information is set in the parallel I/0305, and accordingly, the backlight control circuit 308 supplies backlight power to the LCD display section 37.

In this way, when the display automatic stop function is enabled, when the time without any key input reaches the set time, the supply of backlight power to the LCD display section 37 is cut off, and the backlight turns off. Then, when a key is pressed, the backlight will immediately turn on and input operations will be possible. This eliminates wasteful power consumption of the backlight when it is not in use, and extends the battery life when it is in battery operation. In addition, when there is no key power at all, such as in a demonstration program, by setting the display automatic stop function to "prohibit", continuous display is possible even without key power.

Also, when there is a change in normal display/reverse display,
The process shown in FIG. 5 is executed. Here, for reverse display, an inversion circuit (NOT
After the display data is inverted by a circuit), it is supplied to the LCD display section 37.

The configuration of the normal display/reverse display switching circuit in this case is shown in FIG.

Further, when the device connection (A-B-PRT) state needs to be changed, the system is restarted. The system restart process uses the connection status (A-B) set in the setup process.
- Read the data of floppy disk drive (FDD) and set a usable floppy disk drive from the connected state of the floppy disk drive (FDD). After that, I turned on the power and started the system.)
.

By configuring such settings such as normal display/reverse display settings, device connection (A-B-PRT) status settings, etc. to be performed in the 17 setup process, the normal display/reverse display setting switch can be ,
There is no need for a switch for setting the device connection (A-B-PRT) state, and the configuration can be simplified.

The power supply control means according to the present invention is not limited to the system configuration shown in FIG. 1, but can be easily applied to other system configurations.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, there are provided a means for setting normal display or reverse display in the setup process, and a means for controlling the inverted output of display data when the reverse display is set. By having a configuration in which the normal display/reverse display setting is performed in the setup process, operation switches for setting the normal display/reverse display are eliminated, simplifying operability and hardware configuration. The device can be made smaller.

Further, according to the present invention, the apparatus includes means for setting the device connection state in the setup process, and means for setting the device to be used according to the setting information when the device connection state is set. By configuring the configuration in which the status is set through setup processing, operation switches for setting the device connection status can be eliminated, simplifying the operability and hardware configuration, and making the device more compact.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration in one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the power supply circuit in the above embodiment, and FIGS. A flowchart showing the setup processing and its related processing flow in the embodiment, FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts showing the processing flow of the power control CPU in the above embodiment, and FIG. S9 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the power control CPU in the above embodiment. Figure (a) is a perspective view showing the display unit in an open state;
FIG. 10B is a perspective view showing a closed state of the display housing, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the setup screen in the above embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the setup screen in the above embodiment. It is a block diagram showing the switching mechanism of normal table 19 display/reverse display. 1... Device main body, la... Barrier part, IO... System bus, 11... CPU (host CPU), 12
...ROM, 13...RAM, 14...DMA controller (DMAC.Direct Memory
Access Controller) 15-
・Interrupt controller (PIC; Prog
rammableInterrupt Control
ler), 1B-...Internocle timer (P
I T ; Programmable Inter
val Timer), 17-=clock module (
RTC; Real-Time Clock),
l8...Additional RAM, 19...Backup RAM
, 20...Hard disk pack, 20A...Hard disk drive (HDD), 20B...Hard disk controller (IDC) 20B. 20F
...Floppy disk controller (FDC), 2
1... Printer controller (PRT-CONT)
, 22... Input/output interface (U A R
T; LluniversalAsynchronous
s Receiver/Transmitter)
, 2B--Keyboard controller (KBC), 24
...display controller CD I SP-CONT)
, 25...Video 20 RAM (VRAM), 2B...Kanji ROM, 27
...Dictionary ROM. 2B...Power control interface (PS-IF), 29...Power adapter (AC adapter), 30...Intelligent power supply (
power supply circuit), 31A...main battery (M-B
ATT), 31B...Sub battery (S-BA
TT), 32...floppy disk drive (F
DID), 83...External floppy disk drive, 34...Printer, 85...RS-232C interface device, 36...Keyboard, 37...
・LCD display section, 38...CRT display section, 301...
・Power switch, 301a...operation button, 302...
Reset switch, 303... Display switch, 304... Expansion unit setting switch, 305...
・Parallel I/O, 306...Power control C
PU, 307... Internal lotus, 308... Backlight control circuit, 309... LED driver, 3
10... D/A converter, 311, 318... Charge unit, 312, 314... Current detector,
315, 319...DC-DC converter, '3
1B...A/D converter, 317...Serial I/O
, 'Ll, L2, L3...LED. 21 Figure 11

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1). A means for setting normal display or reverse display in the setup process, and a means for inverting and outputting display data when the reverse display is set, and setting the normal display/reverse display is performed in the setup process. A personal computer characterized by: (2). The device is equipped with a means for setting the device connection state in the setup process, and a means for setting the device to be used according to the setting information when the device connection state is set, and it is possible to set the device connection state in the setup process. Characteristic personal computer.