JPH04114238A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten time required for switching display with the changeover of an application by providing plural memories for display, display means, instructing means and control means. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with the plural memories for display, display means to select and display one corresponding memory for display from the plural memories for display, and instructing means to instruct the display of the executed result to select one of plural applications 101 and 102. Further, the control means is provided to execute control so as to select and display the contents of the memory for display corresponding to the application 101 or 102 instructed by the instructing means on the display means. Therefore, when one of the plural applications 101 and 102 is selected and it is instructed to display the executed result, the contents of the display memory corresponding to the instructed application 101 or 102 are selected and displayed. Thus, time for switching display with the changeover of the applications 101 and 102 can be shortened.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an information processing device that can switch its display content according to each application, such as a workstation that can run multiple application software in parallel.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND ART On conventional single-user workstations, personal computers, and the like, multiple application software programs may be executed in parallel. In such a case, among the contents displayed on the CRT by these application software, the display contents based on the application running in the foreground are written directly to the video memory (V RAM), and the contents are displayed on the CRT. will be displayed. On the other hand, the display content based on the application running in the background is
It is written in the computer's main memory called AM. Then, if you want to switch the application software running in the background to the foreground, you can switch the virtual VRAM based on the application running in the background (in order to display the display contents on the CRT). The contents are copied to VRAM and displayed on the CRT.Conversely, in order to save the currently displayed contents of VRAM, it is necessary to copy them from VRAM to virtual VRAM.Such screen switching processing is as follows:- The multitasking O installed in such computers
8 software performs this. The above configuration is shown in FIG. 210 and 202 indicate application software, 201 indicates a foreground application, and 202 indicates a background application. 203 is O8, which manages the execution of these applications 201 and 202. 204 is a video RAM for storing display data to be displayed on the CRT 208, in which display data is stored based on the foreground application 201; 205 is a virtual VRAM for storing display data based on the background application 202; Data is stored therein. A CRT controller (CRTC) 207 performs control to display the contents of the video RAM 204 on the CRT 208.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In this way, in the above conventional example, the display contents of the background application 202 are displayed on the CRT 20 instead of the currently displayed foreground application 201.
8, the contents of the virtual memory 205 are transferred to the video RAM 204, and the contents of the virtual memory 205 are transferred to the video RAM 204.
4 must be transferred to virtual RAM 205. Numerically, the content displayed by the application is mostly a graphic display, and the displayed content stored in the RAM 204 is a large amount of data. Therefore, such data transfer in the VRAM requires a lot of time. In order to solve this problem and enable high-speed display switching, a virtual VRAM is prepared for each application, and in the foreground application, VR
There is also a method in which the same data is written to the virtual VRAM at the same time when writing to the AM. In this method, when switching applications, the contents of VRAM are transferred to virtual VRAM.
Since there is no need to save the data to another location, the switching process becomes a little faster. However, based on the foreground application (the display contents must be written to both VRAM and virtual VRAM, the foreground application operates slowly). The object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that reduces the time required for display switching when switching applications.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an information processing device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, an information processing device capable of executing a plurality of applications by multitasking, comprising a plurality of display memories that store display data corresponding to each of the plurality of applications, and a corresponding display from the plurality of display memories. a display means for selecting and displaying a memory for the application, an instruction means for selecting one of the plurality of applications and instructing to display the execution result thereof, and corresponding to the application instructed by the instruction means. and control means for controlling the display means to select and display the contents of the display memory. [Operation] In the above configuration, when one of multiple applications is selected and an instruction is given to display its execution result, the content of the display memory corresponding to the instructed application is selected. , operates to display its contents.

【Example】

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. <Description of System Configuration (FIGS. 1 to 3)> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the workstation system of this embodiment. Here, due to multitasking management of the operating system (O8) 103, multiple applications 10
1 and 102 are operating in parallel due to CPU allocation by the time sharing mechanism. In addition, both of these applications 101 and 102 involve displaying on the CRT 108, and the writing of display data to the video memory (VRAM) by these applications is as follows:
All this is done through OS103. The OS 103 outputs all output requests to the CRT 108 when the application 101 is running, that is, outputs display data from the application 101 to the VRAM 10.
It operates to write to 4. In addition, all the display data of the application 102 is VR.
It is controlled to write to AM105. When the CRT controller (CRTC) 107 displays the contents of the video memories 104 and 105 on the CRT 108, it simultaneously sends the same read address to the two video memories 104 and 105 via the address line 115, and reads the contents of both the VRAMs 104 and 105. simultaneously read out the contents of each data line 112 and 114. 106 is a changeover circuit including a changeover switch, which connects multiple VRs.
Display contents 11 read simultaneously from AM104 and 105
2,114 is selected and sent to the CRTC 107. Information about which VRAM to select the display data from is transmitted by the switching circuit 106 to the control line 11 from 0S103.
Directed through 6. This allows the 08103 to select the application to be actually displayed on the CRT 108, that is, the foreground application. FIG. 3 is a diagram mainly showing the configuration of FIG. 1 in terms of the circuit configuration, and parts common to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same numbers, and their explanation will be omitted. A CPU 120 controls the entire system and operates according to the OS 103 and applications 101 and 102 stored in the program memory 123. 121 is a system bus, and 122 is a RAM used as a workstation for the CPU 120. A keyboard 124 is used to input data, commands, etc. to this system. 125 is a pointing device such as a mouse. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing started by O3103. First, in step Sl, a foreground application switching instruction is issued using the mouse 125 or keyboard 124.
Check to see if it is input more. When this instruction is input, the process proceeds to step S2, and the instructed application is operated as a foreground application. Next, the process proceeds to step S3, in which the control signal 116 switches the output from the switching circuit 106 to display the video RAM corresponding to the application that has become the foreground application. Here, the application 101 has video RAM 1
04, but the application 102 has a video RAM 10
5 is compatible, and now, for example, application 102
When the background application is switched to the foreground application, the switching circuit 106 is switched to display and output the contents of the video RAM 105. Next, the process advances to step S4, where the applications 101 and 102 are executed alternately due to time sharing, and apparently two
Two applications run in parallel. Note that, although the case where there are two applications has been described here, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that it can be implemented in the same way even in cases where there are more than two applications. As explained above, according to this embodiment, when multiple applications are operated in parallel in a multitasking environment, a video RAM is provided for each application, and when each application is executed, the corresponding video RAM is
Make sure to update AM. This reduces the time required to switch displays when switching applications.

【Effect of the invention】

As explained above, according to the present invention, there is an effect that the time required for display switching accompanying application switching can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the workstation system of this embodiment, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional multitasking system, and Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the workstation system shown in Figure 1. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic circuit configuration, and FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of O8 in the workstation of the embodiment. In the figure, 101, 102... application, 103
... Multitask O8, 104, 105 ... Video memory (VRAM), 106 ... Switching circuit, 107.
・・CRT controller (CRTC), 108...C
RT, 116... Control signal, 120... CPU, 1
22...RAM, 123...Program memory, 1
24... It's a keyboard. patent applicant

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An information processing device capable of executing a plurality of applications by multitasking, comprising: a plurality of display memories that store display data corresponding to each of the plurality of applications; and a plurality of display memories. a display means for selecting and displaying a more corresponding display memory; and selecting one of the plurality of applications;
an instruction means for instructing to display the execution result; and a control means for controlling the display means to select and display contents of a display memory corresponding to the application instructed by the instruction means. An information processing device comprising: