KR20120114925A - Platform for abstracting a soc solution and terminal apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A platform system abstracting an SOC(System-On-Chip) solution and a terminal device thereof are provided to execute various applications made based on a platform with no constraint even in a terminal selecting the SOC solution under an environment that a platform system is ported to the SOC solution. CONSTITUTION: A PAL(Platform Abstraction Layer)(110) is ported to an SOC solution. The PAL extracts common factors about functions provided by the SOC solution to standardize the same by group. A core layer(120) receives an event generated in the SOC solution through the PAL and requests event processing to a manager. An API(Application Program Interface) layer(160) delivers an event command to a corresponding application performing the event. [Reference numerals] (110) Platform abstraction layer(PAL); (120) Core layer; (130) Core executing unit; (140) Window system; (150) Graphic engine; (170) Application n; (180) SOC solution; (AA) Application 1; (BB) Application 2; (CC) Process; (DD) System; (EE) Standard-C; (FF) Media; (GG) Network; (HH) Registry; (II) Input/output; (JJ) Window; (KK) Graphics; (L1) Event manager; (L2) Media manager; (L3) Network manager; (L4) Process manager; (M1) File system manager; (M2) Input/output manager; (M3) Registry manager; (M4) Database manager; (N1) License manager; (N2) Service manager; (N3) Package manager; (N4) IME manager; (O1) UX component; (O2) Screen manager; (O3) Animator; (O4) Screen compositor; (PP) System; (QQ) File system; (RR) Graphic; (SS) Network; (TT) Media; (UU) Input/output

Description

Platform system and its terminal device abstracting system-on-chip solution {PLATFORM FOR ABSTRACTING A SoC SOLUTION AND TERMINAL APPARATUS THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a platform system that abstracts an SoC solution. In particular, by abstracting and standardizing the functions of an application running on various terminal devices and porting them to the SoC solution of the terminal device, the application is independent of the operating system installed in the terminal device. The present invention relates to a platform system that abstracts an SoC solution that can be driven, and a terminal device thereof.

At present, terminal devices such as various IT products are being developed as system on chip (SoC) integrated in one chip. System-on-chip is expanding the scope of application as the competition for price reduction along with the trend of thin and light, high performance and multi-functionality of IT products, and various functions such as processor, multimedia, graphic, interface, security, etc. All are absorbed and are moving towards more complex systems.

The terminal device has a specific platform for executing an application. The platform, as noted, includes the architecture of the terminal device, an operating system (OS), a programming language, an associated runtime library or GUI. The platform provided to such a terminal device is developed by a related developer based on the purpose and function that the terminal device can provide. Therefore, the terminal device smoothly executes various types of applications, for example, e-books, office viewers, e-dictionary, web browsers, DMBs, photos, games, and the like through the provided platform.

However, the terminal device restricts the execution of the application in some cases. For example, an application of B running on a platform of A does not run on another platform. In other words, the application is designed and programmed according to the function of a specific platform-hardware or an operating system. Therefore, if the platform or the operating system is different, the application does not operate. This is because applications are developed to run only on specific platforms.

In this way, the application can only be extremely limited environment. In order to solve this problem, the same application corresponding to each platform must be prepared to cope with various platforms. Or, to operate an application that is not suitable for a certain platform environment, the application must be changed to match the platform.

As described above, since the execution environment of applications is correlated and limited depending on the operating system and various platforms included in the SoC solution, it is pointed out that each development environment is required in terms of application development.

As another example, a company developing a terminal device should use a standardized platform provided unless the company develops its own platform. In this case, if a developer adopts one platform, only the terminal device equipped with the platform needs to be developed. However, if there is no choice but to mount a different platform according to the needs of the consumer, each terminal device must be developed separately accordingly. Accordingly, the development cost of the terminal device is increased. You must also develop applications for different platforms.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and to separate an SoC solution from an application so that one application can be run under various platform environments.

According to a feature of the present invention for achieving the above object, a platform abstraction layer which is ported to the SoC solution, and extracts a common factor for the functions provided by the SoC solution to standardize by group; A core layer receiving an event generated in the SoC solution through the platform abstraction layer and requesting an event processing from a corresponding manager; In addition, a platform system including an application programming interface layer (API layer) for delivering an event command to a corresponding application that performs the event is provided.

Here, the core layer may include a core executive for classifying the types of events received through the platform abstraction layer and delivering them to a corresponding manager managing an event, and a window system unit performing a graphic function of the application. system, and the graphics engine of the window system unit provides a graphic function through the platform abstraction layer when a graphics related API is provided to the SoC solution, and uses a software engine when the graphics related API is not provided. Provides graphics capabilities.

The core layer and the API layer are implemented using interfaces provided to the platform abstraction layer and the core layer, respectively.

In addition, the platform system of the present invention, when the application is running, one process is performed in three stages of 'ready-active (deactive)-terminated', the entry (endry) function and end (end) function in the memory The application is executed by calling the entry function while the application is loaded, and when the termination of the application is requested, the end function is called to unload the application.

According to another feature of the invention, the above-described platform system is characterized in that it provides a terminal device ported to the SoC solution.

According to the platform system and the terminal device abstracting the SoC solution of the present invention as described above has the following effects.

First, in an environment in which a platform system is ported to an SoC solution, various applications written based on the platform can be executed without any limitation in a terminal device adopting any SoC solution.

In addition, by simplifying the driving step of the application process, the processing speed will also be improved.

In addition, a configuration related to graphics is provided in the platform system, thereby providing high quality graphics.

1 is a block diagram showing in detail the architecture of the platform system according to an embodiment of the present invention
2 is a block diagram illustrating an event processing process in the platform system of FIG.
3 is a block diagram showing a processing step of a process in the platform system of the present invention

Hereinafter, a platform system that abstracts an SoC solution according to the present invention and a terminal device thereof will be described in detail with reference to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing in detail the architecture of a platform system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the present invention is to provide the same execution environment to various digital content terminal device. Therefore, it is assumed that the interface for the application running on the terminal device is standardized and ported to the SoC solution.

Referring to FIG. 1, the architecture of the platform system 100 includes three layers. The three layers are a platform abstraction layer 110, a core layer 120, and an application programming interface layer (API layer 160). Each layer will be described.

First, a description is given of the platform abstraction layer (hereinafter, referred to as 'PAL') 110.

The PAL 110 abstracts the SoC solution 180 to be ported to the SoC solution 180 described later, and provides a standardized interface to be implemented independently of the SoC solution 180. That is, a common factor is extracted and abstracted based on various functions and purposes provided by the SoC solution 180.

In the embodiment, the standardized interface is divided into a system, a file system, a graphic, a network, a media, and an input / output device. Each will be described as a system PAL, file system PAL, graphics PAL, network PAL, media PAL, and input / output PAL.

First, the system PAL abstracts a synchronization method, a C library, a timer, and the like of the SoC solution 180. Second, the file system PAL abstracts the file system. Third, graphics PAL abstracts the graphics frame buffer and graphics-related interface specifications such as Open GL and Open VG. Fourth, network PAL abstracts the interfaces to the various communication protocols provided by SoC solutions. Fifth, the media PAL abstracts an interface for playing and storing various media. Sixth, input / output PAL abstracts interface specifications for various input / output devices such as USB, flash memory, and camera.

As described above, the platform system 100 of the present invention standardizes interfaces according to functions, purposes, and the like. Therefore, any SoC solution-based platform can run various applications regardless of operating system. For example, if there is a terminal device adopting the TCP communication method and a terminal device adopting the HTTP communication method, when an event occurs for the communication network, the network PAL standardizing the interface to the communication network even though the communication method is different from each other. It can handle the event.

Next, the core layer 120 will be described.

The core layer 120 implements an operation mechanism of the platform system 100, and manages a core executive 130 necessary for operating an application and a user interface (UI) of the application. The window system unit 140 is included.

First, referring to FIG. 2, the core execution unit 130 is an event queue 122 which is a memory storing an event transmitted from the PAL 110 and an event queue 122 from the event queue 122 in a FIFO manner. It includes an event manager 124 to distinguish the type of events to read (read), and deliver the event to the corresponding manager to request processing.

Here, the type of a manager that is requested to process an event by the event manager 124 will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

1. The media manager delivers a request for media playback and storage of an application to the PAL 110 and processes or delivers an event delivered from the PAL 110.

2. The network manager registers a network service requested by an application, and processes or delivers a network event delivered from the PAL 110 to the corresponding application.

3. The process manager provides an interface for loading and relocating applications, creating processes, and tuning processors through the loading and relocation of executables and dynamic libraries.

4. The file system manager manages the directory structure and access policies for file system services.

5. The input / output manager manages information on various input / output devices and access methods, and processes events related to various input / output devices.

6. The registry manager is responsible for providing operations for a database that stores environment information of various platform systems, environment information of applications and PALs, and user information.

7. The database manager provides an interface to the relational database, but calls the PAL if the SoC solution 180 provides a relational database and uses the internal database engine if the SoC solution 180 does not provide a relational database. .

8. The license manager is responsible for applying the license policy for media or files and providing an interface for encode / decode.

9. The service manager plays a role of applying the event delivered to the PAL 110 to the terminal device or the content service.

10. The package manager manages components of the content package and provides an interface for installation / removal.

11. The IME manager is responsible for providing an interface for language-specific combinations of characters for user input.

In addition, it is a matter of course that other managers suitable for the characteristics of the terminal device may be added and configured.

The window system 140, which is another component of the core layer 120, is provided to support a graphic system independent of the window system of the operating system and is related to a function of displaying on a screen of the terminal device.

To this end, the window system unit 140 includes a graphics engine 150 having a configuration of 'Drawing', 'Surface', 'Fonts' and 'Transform', a UX component and a screen manager. Manager, Animator, and Screen Composer.

Here, if the SoC solution 180 provides OpenGL and OpenVG, the graphics engine 150 performs a graphic operation through the PAL 110, whereas if the SoC solution 180 does not support OpenGL and OpenVG, the graphics engine may be used. use.

Next, an application programming interface layer (hereinafter, referred to as an “API layer”) 160 will be described.

Since the API layer 160 implements an application interface required for application development through an interface of each component of the core layer, the API layer 160 has a configuration corresponding to the configuration of the core layer.

Examples of the interface provided to the API layer 160 include obtaining or storing information about a processor interface, a timer, and a terminal resource that provide an interface such as loading an application's execution / termination / action library and registering an event callback function. System interface that provides the interface, standard C library interface that provides the interface for the standard c function, media interface that provides the function interface to control the media such as media playback and recording, and function interface for various communication protocols. The network interface provided, the registry interface that provides the interface for installing / removing applications and accessing the registry, the input / output interface that provides the interface for input / output devices connected to the terminal device, Include generation / extinction and the focus (focus) Windows interface for providing an interface for managing graphic that provides an interface for a component UX interface and graphics primitives (primitive) for the generation of UX component interface of the window. Of course, the configuration of the API layer can also be changed.

Meanwhile, the platform system 100 basically includes a plurality of applications 170 and an SoC solution 180.

Here, the application 170 refers to various application programs. Examples include electronic books, electronic dictionaries, various viewers, web browsers, photos, e-mails, DMBs, and games.

The SoC solution 180 includes a chipset (SoC), a specific operating system (OS), a graphic acceleration module (Open GL; Graphic Acceleration), a media codecs, a database, and the like. Are manufactured and provided to the terminal apparatus.

The present embodiment portes the interfaces of the PAL 110 described above to the SoC solution 180 in a standardized state so that the functions supported by the SoC solution 180 can be normally performed.

In this way, the application designed to be driven in the above-described platform system 100 can be driven without being restricted by the characteristics of the operating system even if the operating system is changed.

For example, the application generated by the platform system 100 can be operated normally regardless of the operating system, even if it is a different terminal device adopting an operating system such as Linux, Nucleus, and Windows. That is, in the past, since the application was compiled for a specific operating system, the compiled application was driven only by the operating system. However, in the present embodiment, an interface configured in the PAL 110 according to the function or purpose of the application is an SoC solution regardless of the operating system. Since it is ported to 180, it is irrelevant to the operating system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an event processing process in the platform system of FIG. 1. Referring to Figure 2 will be described in the event processing process in the terminal device implemented platform.

Specific events occur at the request of the user.

The generated event is delivered to the PAL (110). The PAL 110 may receive a plurality of events at the same time.

The PAL 110 transmits the generated events to the core layer 120 in order. The delivered event is then stored in the event queue 122 in a FIFO fashion.

The event stored first in the event queue 122 is delivered to the event manager 124.

The event manager 124 determines what event is the first event delivered from the event queue 122. When the event type is determined according to the determination result, the event manager 124 requests processing to the corresponding manager.

At this time, the manager determines a callback function among applications running on the terminal device, changes the context, and calls the callback function to execute the corresponding application.

For example, when the event determined by the event manager 124 is a network-related event, the event manager delivers the generated event to the network manager. The network manager then calls the callback function that will handle the event, causing the application to run.

On the other hand, the present invention provides a three-step operating state when the application is running in the platform system 100.

This is illustrated in FIG. 3. That is, 'none-ready-active (deactive)-terminated-none' stage. When the entry function 'start_flow' is called in the 'ready' stage, the application is executed in the 'active' stage. Unloading the application by calling the end function 'end_flow'.

For reference, the 'none' step is an empty process, the 'ready' step is a state before the 'start_flow' function is called, and the 'active' step is a state in which a callback function of the application is executed, and the 'deactive' A step is a state in which no action is running, and 'terminated' is the state in which the application is terminated.

Although described with reference to the illustrated embodiment of the present invention as described above, this is merely exemplary, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will be apparent that other embodiments may be modified and equivalent. Therefore, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

110: platform abstraction layer 120: core layer
130: core execution unit 140: window system unit
150: Graphics Engine 160: API Layers
170 Application 180 SoC Solution

Claims (5)

A platform abstraction layer ported to the SoC solution and extracting common factors for the functions provided by the SoC solution and standardizing them by group;
A core layer receiving an event generated in the SoC solution through the platform abstraction layer and requesting an event processing from a corresponding manager; And
A platform system abstracting an SoC solution including an application programming interface layer (API layer) for delivering an event command to a corresponding application that performs the event. The method of claim 1, wherein the core layer,
It includes a core executive for classifying the types of events delivered through the platform abstraction layer to the corresponding manager managing the event, and a window system for performing the graphic function of the application. and,
The graphic engine of the window system unit provides a graphic function through the platform abstraction layer when a graphic related API is provided to the SoC solution, and provides a graphic function using a software engine when the graphic related API is not provided. Platform system abstracting SoC solution. The method of claim 1,
And the core layer and the API layer are implemented using an interface provided to the platform abstraction layer and the core layer, respectively. The method of claim 1,
When the application is running, one process is performed in three stages: 'ready-active (deactive)-terminated'.
The application is executed by calling the entry function while the application is loaded in memory by an entry function and an end function, and when the termination of the application is requested, the end function is called to execute the application. Platform system abstracting an SoC solution characterized by unloading. A terminal device comprising a platform system abstracting an SoC solution including the components of any one of claims 1 to 4.

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