KR19990086459A - Process Priority Allocation Method for Satellite Broadcast Receivers - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process priority allocation method of a satellite broadcast receiver for assigning priority to each process in a multi-process.

In the present invention, when an interrupt request is generated from a process in a normal viewing mode or in a standby mode, the priority is detected by detecting the type of the process that requested the interrupt. In other words, the DEMUX process and the MPEG process are allocated to all processes in order to not affect the A / V decoding of the current screen, and the priority is assigned to the MCU process that processes the user's key manipulation signal. Next, priority is assigned to a graph process displayed on the OSD as a graphic menu screen, and priority is assigned to a program guide process for processing program guide information. Subsequently, a user interface processor is allocated to perform an overall operation according to a user's request.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an effect of improving the speed of the system of the satellite broadcasting receiver and efficiently using CPU resources by assigning priorities to each of the above-mentioned multiprocessors.

Description

Process Priority Allocation Method for Satellite Broadcast Receivers

The present invention relates to a satellite broadcast receiver, and more particularly, to a process priority assignment method of a satellite broadcast receiver for assigning priority to each process in a multi-process.

Satellite broadcasting is a broadcast that transmits a broadcast program sent from a ground station (broadcasting earth station) using a satellite body (communication satellite) to provide a broadcast signal to a wider area so that each home can receive it directly with a satellite broadcasting receiving antenna. In addition to the conventional over-the-air broadcasting or cable broadcasting, it is a broadcasting method that can maximize the use of channels, improve the quality of video and audio signals, and improve the user interface in addition to the ease of transmitting additional digital service data. That is, when a satellite broadcast signal is provided through a satellite, each family receives a satellite broadcast signal using a satellite broadcast receiving antenna equipped with a low noise blockdown converter (LNB), and converts the received broadcast signal into an IF. The digital broadcast signal is recovered as a digital broadcast signal in the form of a transport stream on a packet basis through demodulation and error correction. At this time, the recovered digital broadcast signal in the form of a transmitted bit stream includes program guide information for each channel, that is, a video signal and an audio signal, a subtitle signal, and a channel. Stored. Therefore, when a specific channel is selected by the user, the satellite broadcasting receiver extracts a broadcast signal of a channel corresponding to the user's selection from the broadcast signal received according to the stored program guide information, and then extracts the extracted broadcast signal into a Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) The program guide information stored in the memory is configured as a menu screen using a graphic tool when a display of a plurality of channel information and broadcast program information of each channel is required from a user. Is displayed.

The satellite broadcast receiver having the function as described above has a multi-process structure in which a plurality of processes exist. That is, the satellite broadcasting receiver is a MCU process (Main Control Unit process) for processing a key operation signal of the user, a user interface process (User Interface Process) that is in close relation with the user, that performs the overall operation according to the user's request , Graphic Process (Graph Process) that directly implements a Graphical User Interface (GUI) on an OSD (On Screen Display). As can be seen, after extracting program information from a transport stream in packet units and storing it in a memory, the user It has a multi-structure consisting of a Program Guide Process provided to the user interface process when program guide information is requested.

That is, in the multi-process structure of the satellite broadcasting receiver, since there is only one central processing unit (CPU), when two or more processes require CPU allocation at the same time, for example, the user interface process and the program guide process simultaneously allocate the CPU. In this case, priority should be assigned to each process among the multi-processes. Therefore, when two or more processes request CPU resources at the same time, the priority is assigned to the highest priority process to occupy the CPU, and the rest is in a standby state and then the high priority process. It should be possible to occupy the CPU after the operation of.

On the other hand, the Demultiplexer process (demuxing) the packetized transport stream and the MPEG process processing the MPEG video signal and the audio signal have a low priority, and audio / video decoding of the current screen. This should affect the priority of all processes.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a process priority assignment method of a satellite broadcast receiver for improving the operation speed of the satellite broadcast receiver system and efficiently using CPU resources by assigning priorities to each of the multi-processes of the satellite broadcast receiver. The purpose is to provide.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the MCU process for processing the key operation signal of the user, a user interface process for performing the overall operation according to the user's request, program guide for providing the program guide information to the user interface process A process priority assignment method of a satellite broadcasting receiver for assigning a priority to each of a plurality of processes comprising a process and a graph processor directly implementing a GUI on an OSD, wherein the process priority allocation method of the satellite broadcast receiver comprises: A first step of determining whether an interrupt request is generated from the process of; A second step of determining a type of the predetermined process requesting an interrupt when an interrupt request is generated from the predetermined process as a result of the first step determination; If the predetermined process determined by the second step is the MCU process, the highest priority is assigned in the multi-process, then the graph process priority is assigned to the MCU process, and the program guide process is assigned to the user interface. A third step of allocating higher than the process; And a fourth step of performing an operation according to the interrupt request according to the priority of the process allocated by the third step.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a process of a satellite broadcast receiver for performing a priority allocation method of a process of a satellite broadcast receiver according to the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for performing a process priority allocation method of a satellite broadcast receiver according to the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: MCU process 110: user interface process

120: program guide process 130: graph process

140: central processing unit (CPU)

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the operation of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a multi-process configuration of a satellite broadcasting receiver according to the present invention, an MCU process 100 for processing a key manipulation signal of a user, and a user interface process 110 performing an operation according to a user's request. The program guide process 120 extracts the program guide information from the transport stream in packet units and stores the program guide information in the memory and provides the program guide information to the user interface process 110 when a request for the program guide information is generated from the user. For each of the graph process 130, the MCU process 100, the user interface 110, the program guide process 120, and the graph process 130 that directly implement the GUI to display a graphic menu screen. Assigns priorities and performs actions corresponding to interrupt requests from each process It is composed of a CPU (140).

That is, when a predetermined key operation signal is applied from the user, the MCU process 110 provides it to the user interface process 120, and the user interface process 120 responds to the predetermined key operation signal provided by the MCU process 110. Perform the corresponding action. That is, when the MCU process 100 receives a signal for the program guide screen display key from the user, the MCU process 100 provides the signal to the user interface process 120, and the user interface process 120 transmits the program guide information to the program guide process 120. Require. Accordingly, the program guide process 120 reads the stored program guide information and provides it to the user interface process 110, and the user interface process 110 displays the program guide information provided by the program guide process 120 in the graph process 130. ), The graph process 130 configures the program guide information as an OSD menu screen and displays it on the screen.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process for performing a process priority allocation method of a satellite broadcasting receiver according to the present invention, which is performed by the CPU 140 as described above, and assigns priority to each process of the CPU 140. The process will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

That is, if the CPU is in the normal viewing mode or the standby mode of watching a predetermined channel (step 200), the process proceeds to step 201 to determine whether an interrupt request is generated from a predetermined process among the multi-processes described above. That is, if it is determined that the interrupt request is generated from the predetermined process, the CPU 140 proceeds to step 202 to detect the type of the process that requested the interrupt.

At this time, the CPU 140 assigns a priority according to the process type detected in step 202, and the priority of the MCU process 100 is the user interface process 110, the program guide process 120, and the graph process. If it is lower than 130, a problem may occur in that the key is stiff, that is, the key does not work well when the key input is continuously performed from the user. Therefore, the priority of the MCU process 100 may be set to the user interface process 110 or the program. The highest allocation among the guide process 120 and the graph process 130 (steps 203 and 204).

Next, since the CPU 140 actually interacts with the graphical menu screen on the OSD, the CPU 140 prioritizes the priority of the graph processor 130 to allow the user to recognize that the system is operating quickly. Assigning is higher than the program guide process 120 (steps 205 and 206).

Next, when the CPU 140 requests the program guide information from the user interface process 110 to the program guide process 120, the program guide process 120 performs a routine of the user interface process 110 to improve the overall system. runs faster than a routine That is, when requesting the program guide information from the user interface process 110 to the program guide process 120, the program guide process 120 is the user interface process because the operation speed of the program guide process 120 greatly influences the performance of the entire system. Should have a higher priority than (110). Therefore, if the type of the process detected in step 202 is the program guide process 120, the CPU 140 assigns a priority lower than that of the graph process 130 to that of the user interface process 110 (steps 207 and 81). Step 208).

Next, the priority of the user interface process 110 is assigned, and in general, the amount of the user interface process 110 is extensive and there is much work to be done. Therefore, when the user interface process 110 has a high priority, it may be difficult to operate other processes due to a large load on the CPU 140. In addition, by performing the operation of requesting the program guide information to the program guide process 120 or sending a message to display the graphical menu screen on the OSD to the graph process 130 in the operation of the routine of the user interface process 110, In order to increase the normality and efficiency of the CPU 140, the user interface process 110 should be assigned a lower priority than the program guide process 120 or the graph process 130. That is, when it is detected in step 202 that the interrupt request is generated from the user interface process 110, the CPU 140 assigns a priority next to the program guide process 120 to increase the efficiency of the CPU 140. Step 209 and step 210).

The CPU 140 proceeds to step 211 to perform an operation according to the interrupt request in accordance with the priority assignment of the process.

As described above, in a multi-process consisting of an MCU process, a user interface process, a program guide process, and a graph process, priority is first assigned to the MCU process in order to prevent an error that may occur due to a user's key operation. Next, prioritize the graph process following the MCU process so that the user can quickly access the OSD menu screen, and then improve the performance of the system when requesting the program guide information of the user interface process, and give high priority to the user interface process. Since the allocation is a heavy load on the CPU, the priority of the user interface process is assigned to be lower than the program guide process in order to prevent this, thereby improving the speed of the system of the satellite broadcasting receiver and reducing the CPU resources. Typically there is an effect that can be used.

Claims (1)

MCU process to process the user's key operation signal, user interface process to perform the overall operation according to the user's request, program guide process to provide the program guide information to the user interface process, graph to implement the GUI directly on the OSD In the process priority allocation method of the satellite broadcasting receiver for assigning priority to each of the multi-process consisting of a processor, A first step of determining whether an interrupt request is generated from a predetermined one of the processes in a currently watching state or a standby mode state; A second step of determining a type of the predetermined process requesting an interrupt when an interrupt request is generated from the predetermined process as a result of the first step determination; If the predetermined process determined by the second step is the MCU process, the highest priority is assigned in the multi-process, then the graph process priority is assigned to the MCU process, and the program guide process is assigned to the user interface. A third step of allocating higher than the process; And a fourth step of performing an operation according to an interrupt request according to the priority of the process assigned by the third step.