KR20010076910A - method for multi booting of program - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A program multi booting method is provided to store a program and select a program to be executed without an additional cost as an appending of hardware in case of simultaneously managing of a plurality of programs as a program download. CONSTITUTION: In a program multi booting method for selecting a program using a multi booting system having a CPU(10), a program selector(21), a compress agent(23) compressing and releasing information, a construction table storing construction information, flash memory storing a plurality of programs, and a RAM, the program selector(21) transmits a position of the flash memory storing the currently activated program out of the plurality of programs to the compress agent(23) by reading the construction information. The transmitted program information stored in the flash memory is compressed and released by the compress agent(23) and stored in the RAM. The program stored in the RAM is executed.

Description

Method for multi booting of program

The present invention relates to a program multi-booting method for storing and executing an update program that can be downloaded via airwaves or the like in a device such as a digital TV in a storage device for processing by software.

Recently, the demand and supply of digital equipment such as digital TV is increasing rapidly.

Due to the nature of digital equipment, it is possible to provide a variety of services, and there are significant limitations in implementing and supporting all of these services in the early stage of commercialization.

Therefore, early users of these products will be able to use products that can only use the basic functions that are supported at the beginning of the service, and it will be impossible to receive services gradually added by broadcasting stations or telephone stations.

Therefore, in order to use the newly added service, the software program installed in the purchased product must be updated with the function for the newly added service.

Users can visit a service center to get software updates for these products, and for larger products such as TVs, they need to update their software through on-site service.

Software update by this procedure is not only time-consuming but also incurs high costs such as labor cost of service personnel.

This makes it difficult for manufacturers to support ongoing renewals because of the cost of servicing the software.

In order to solve this problem, broadcasting stations such as airwaves, satellites, and cables can transmit the update program provided by the manufacturer through digital broadcasting, and the receiver can download the program transmitted by the broadcasting station and perform the existing program. You can use a method of updating the program.

In the case of a mobile phone, as in broadcasting, when a terminal user makes a phone call to a base station in a predetermined manner, a program update function can be implemented by downloading a program necessary for the terminal.

In the conventional program multi-booting method, a program 12 is first stored in a nonvolatile memory such as N flash memories 11 by using the system shown in FIG. 1 and a space for storing configuration information. Information stored in (13), additional information such as jumpers or dip switches is used to determine which flash memory 11 to execute the program 12 in.

Subsequently, the microcomputer 14 short-circuits the switch 15 connected to each flash memory 11 selectively with respect to a signal for the central control unit 10 to select a chip to read the program 12. It is possible to select a program 12 to be executed by (10).

The selected program stores text and data among the three elements consisting of text, data, and BSS, and after initialization, such as copying the data area to the RAM area at the beginning of the booting process. Run the actual program.

However, a TV or a terminal needs a procedure for verifying stability or accuracy of a newly downloaded program. Therefore, a plurality of programs must be maintained at one time. After a series of inspections, existing programs are newly downloaded. You have to work to replace it.

To this end, each device must have at least twice the size of non-volatile memory space of the size of the program in operation, and hardware components for switching between them must be added, which increases the manufacturing cost and There was a problem of weakening the competitiveness.

Therefore, the present invention has been invented in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to increase production costs such as adding hardware for the case where it is necessary to simultaneously manage several programs such as program download. It provides a program multi-booting method for saving a program and selecting a program to be executed without being loaded.

1 is a view showing the structure of a conventional program multi-boot system,

2 is a diagram schematically showing the structure of a program multi-boot system for implementing the method of the present invention.

Explanation of Signs of Main References

10,20: central control unit (CUP) 11: flash memory

12,24: program 13,22: configuration table

14: Micom 15: Switch

21: Program (boot) selector 23: Compress agent

25: RAM

Program multi-booting method for achieving the object of the present invention, a central processing unit, a program selector, a compression agent (Compress Agent) for decompressing information, a configuration table in which configuration information is stored, a flash in which a plurality of programs are stored A program for selecting a program using a multi-boot system having a memory and a RAM, wherein the program selector reads configuration information stored in the configuration table and stores the currently active program among the plurality of programs. Delivering a flash memory location to the compressor agent, decompressing the program information stored in the received flash memory to the compressor, and storing the program information in the RAM; using only a program stored in the RAM; Only run the program And the it characterized in that the bar.

According to the program multi-booting method, since only the currently active program is selected by software to execute the program, additional hardware is not required for managing multiple programs at the same time.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a configuration of a program booting apparatus for implementing the present invention. The CPU 10, the program selector (or boot selector) 21, and a configuration table 22 in which configuration information is stored. ), A compressor agent 23 for decompressing information, and a RAM 25 for temporarily storing information of a plurality of programs 24.

The booting method of the present invention reads configuration information stored in the configuration table 22 with a program selector 21 and stores a flash memory location where a currently active program is stored among the plurality of programs. To pass).

Then, the program information stored in the received flash memory is decompressed by the compressor agent 23 and stored in the RAM 25.

The program is then executed using only the currently active program stored in RAM 25.

In the program execution method according to the present invention, when the system is used for program download, the purpose of reinforcing the stability of the program download function by adding a check function to check whether the program can be executed normally when the downloaded program is first executed. An external memory device as shown in FIG. 1 may be used as a space for storing information of a configuration table.

The configuration table records the information as shown in Table 1, which stores the size of the compressed and uncompressed original programs, the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) values, and the magic number and CRC value of the configuration table entries. It is used to check the integrity, and the accuracy of the integrity check can be improved by using the program version and the date created.

The program selector (or booster selector) reads the configuration table and selects a program to be decompressed in order of a program that has not been executed since it was written, and then the most recently recorded program.

In this case, if the program is run for the first time, the number of executions is increased before execution, and after executing the self-diagnosis at the beginning of the program, it changes the verification status variable (Biz-Checked) so that it can be used continuously or deleted. do.

In this case, the program selector illustrated in FIG. 2 may be implemented to have the same function as the hardware switch illustrated in FIG. 1, and may solve a problem of deterioration in access speed caused by controlling the chip select signal in hardware.

In the case of DTV broadcasting, the program download must be downloaded according to a method used by a broadcasting station. Therefore, a program of a compressed type may be transmitted during transmission through broadcasting.

In this case, the program can be transmitted in encrypted form for security of the program. For this purpose, a function for decrypting the password must be added to the program, the program selector, or the boot selector of the device.

The program multi-booting method according to the present invention has the following effects.

First, since the program is executed by selecting only the currently active program among the programs, it is possible to provide a program selection function required by a service such as a program download without the cost of adding hardware logic.

Second, when the mobile phone needs a new program when providing a new service in the mobile phone, the method of the present invention does not require the consumer to visit the service center and update the program, and the consumer does not detect that the new program is updated. The network manager can automatically update the system program on all mobile phones.

Claims (2)

Selecting a program using a multi-boot system having a central processing unit, a program selector, a compression agent for decompressing information, a configuration table storing configuration information, a flash memory storing a plurality of programs, and RAM In the program multi-boot method, Reading configuration information stored in the configuration table by the program selector and transferring a flash memory location where a currently activated program is stored among the plurality of programs to the compressor agent; Decompressing the program information stored in the received flash memory with the compressor and storing the extracted program information in the RAM; And executing a program stored in the RAM. The method of claim 1, The configuration table is configured to include the size of the compressed program and the uncompressed original program, the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) value, the magic number and CRC value of the configuration table item, the program version and the creation date. Way.