JPH113222A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the time and labor which are needed for production of a patch program by reading a module out of an information reading means to store it in a RAM and using this module in place of a faulty module stored in a ROM. SOLUTION: A CPU 13 checks whether a desired module is stored in a ROM 14. If the desired module is stored in the ROM 14, its checked via the initialization processing whether or not the value of a module management table corresponding to the module is invalid (FFFFh). If the table value is invalid, the module is read out of an optical disk 17 and executed like the case where the module is not stored in the ROM 14. Thus, the correcting part of the ROM 14 is copied to a RAM 15 from the disk 17 for each module and the RAM 15 is used as a part of the ROM 14. As a result, an effect that is similar to that secured by replacing a defective ROM 14 with the non-defective one is ensured without producing any complicated patch program.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus using a recording medium on which programs and data are recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional information processing apparatus, when a ROM in which programs and data are stored has a defect,
The problem was avoided by loading a patch program from a floppy disk or optical disk into the RAM at startup.

[0003]

However, in order to create such a patch program, a defective ROM is required.
Before and after the processing of the program, check the part operating on the RAM (for example, interrupt vector table),
After transferring the control from that part to the patch program, a new program for avoiding the problem of the ROM had to be considered. For this reason, creating a patch program requires more time and effort than modifying a normal ROM program.

[0004] The present invention solves such a problem. By creating a correction program for a defective ROM program without creating a complicated patch program, the time required for creating the patch program can be reduced. The purpose is to reduce labor.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To solve this problem, the present invention relates to a method for transferring a module from an information reading means to a RAM.
And can be used in place of a module on a defective ROM. According to the present invention, a program can be modified by the same procedure as that for modifying a normal ROM program without creating a new complicated patch program.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention uses a recording medium in addition to a ROM as means for recording programs and data, and has information reading means for reading information on the recording medium, Provided is an information processing apparatus that corrects by using a module recorded on a recording medium in place of a defective ROM module.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the invention described in claim 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a keyboard as an input device for inputting characters and the like, 12 denotes a display device for displaying the input characters, 13 denotes a central processing unit (CPU) for performing arithmetic processing,
14 is a ROM in which programs and data are recorded, 15 is a RAM in which created data is recorded, 16 is an external storage device for recording created data and programs, and 17 is a program and data recording device. An optical disk device for mounting the optical disk. Here, if the optical disk device 17 is built in the main body, it will be an embodiment of the present invention according to claim 2, and if the built-in optical disk device 17 is not provided with an opening for attaching and detaching an optical disk. This is an embodiment of the invention described in claim 3.

Before describing the patch processing of the present invention, a conventional patch processing will be described. FIG. 4A is a flowchart showing a conventional RAM patch program initialization process. FIG. 4B is a flowchart showing the patch processing of the conventional RAM patch program. By the initialization processing of FIG. 4A, the CPU 13 changes the interrupt vector so that the control is transferred to the correction module before or after the processing of the module to be corrected in the defective ROM program 14, and at the time of the interrupt processing,
The patch processing of the RAM patch program of (b) is executed. The CPU 13 determines whether control has been transferred from a defective module based on the contents of the RAM 15 and executes a correction program to avoid the defect, and then executes the original program. This correction program must be newly created based on the contents of the defect in the ROM 14.

Next, patch processing according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2A is a flowchart showing the initialization processing of the RAM patch program. Here, in order to invalidate the faulty module, the CPU 13 stores, for example, the ROM storing the module 2 in the module management table on the RAM 15 in FIG.
Is changed to FFFFh indicating that it is invalid as shown in FIG. This change requires only data indicating which module is to be invalidated, and does not require the creation of a new correction program unlike the conventional RAM patch program.

FIG. 2B is a flowchart showing a module replacement procedure. The CPU 13 checks whether a target module exists in the ROM 14. If the module does not exist, the module is read from the optical disc 17 and executed. If there is, it is checked whether the value of the module management table corresponding to the module is invalid (FFFFh) by the initialization processing. If not invalidated, the module on the ROM 14 is executed as before. If the module is invalid, the module is read from the optical disk and executed in the same manner as when no module exists on the ROM 14. The module on the optical disk is RO
Since the module is created in the same form as the module on the M14, a repair module on the optical disk can be created in the same procedure as creating a module in which a defective module on the ROM 14 is directly corrected.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, RO
Modified part of M from optical disk to module in RAM
By using the RAM as a part of the ROM, it is possible to obtain the same effect as replacing a defective ROM with a non-defective ROM without creating a complicated patch program.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, by using a module recorded on a recording medium in place of a module recorded in a ROM, a new ROM is not created and replaced, and the number of development steps can be reduced. Development costs can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating a process of initializing a RAM patch program according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2B is a flowchart illustrating a module replacement procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a module management table before a RAM patch program is initialized in one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a RAM patch program after an initialization process in one embodiment of the present invention; Diagram showing module management table (when module 2 is disabled)

4A is a flowchart showing a conventional RAM patch program initialization process; FIG. 4B is a flowchart showing a conventional RAM patch program patch process;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 11 keyboard 12 display device 13 central processing operation device 14 ROM 15 RAM 16 external storage device 17 optical disk device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A ROM storing a program and data
And an information processing apparatus having information reading means for reading information from a recording medium on which a program or data is recorded, wherein the program or data is managed on a module basis, and is recorded on the recording medium instead of a module recorded on the ROM. An information processing apparatus characterized by using a module that has been set. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information reading means is built in the main body. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information reading means does not have an opening for attaching and detaching a recording medium.