TWI426447B - Method for generating firmware frame code using modulization scheme - Google Patents

Description

Modular firmware framework code generation method

The invention relates to a firmware code generation method, and in particular to a modular firmware framework code generation method.

With the development and application of wireless remote control technology, the remote control devices that people use in daily life are gradually increasing, such as television, audio, air conditioning, lighting, and even automobile and motorcycle. In recent years, a wireless communication standard called ZigBee has been introduced, which replaces the old remote control or state sensing wireless technology to meet the market for close distance, low complexity, low power consumption, low data rate, and low cost. The need for wireless networks.

In detail, ZigBee is a technology between Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Bluetooth, which is mainly used for short-distance wireless connections. ZigBee uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and communicates by communicating between thousands of tiny sensors. These sensors require only a small amount of energy to transfer data between sensors through radio waves, thus improving communication efficiency. ZigBee's main application areas include industrial control, home automation, consumer electronics, automatic meter reading systems, automotive automation, agricultural automation and medical device control.

For example, in the state sensing application, the ZigBee device can be used as a feedback display for air conditioners, refrigerators, smoke detectors, etc., and can even be used as a surveillance system for security systems such as anti-theft devices. Thanks to ZigBee It has the advantages of simple structure and power saving. The reliability of this application is high, and its low cost makes it difficult to introduce it into the product.

In terms of architecture, the ZigBee standard defines a stacking protocol, which mainly uses IEEE 802.15.4 as the underlying transport protocol, which includes a physical (Physical, PHY) layer and a Media Access Control (MAC) layer. And implement ZigBee stacking on it.

However, although ZigBee uses a coordinator to connect multiple nodes and an architecture that uses multiple nodes to transfer data, the cost and complexity of the hardware design can be reduced. However, for the firmware design part, the C language and combination are still mostly used in the industry. Writing in languages such as languages. These programming languages do not perform well in the correspondence between the various components in the ZigBee device. As a result, the complexity of the program is increased and the reusability is reduced, and a large amount of labor and cost are also required in product development.

In view of this, the present invention provides a method for generating a modular firmware frame code, which can automatically generate a firmware frame code of a wireless device.

To achieve the above or other objects, the present invention provides a modular firmware framework code generation method suitable for generating a firmware framework code for a wireless device including a plurality of device objects. The method first provides a graphical representation of the wireless device, including functional modules corresponding to the respective device objects and multiple links between the functional modules. Next, the component architecture formed by these functional modules and the affiliation of these links are analyzed to meet the specifications. If the component architecture of these functional modules and the affiliation of these links are in compliance Grid, query program file correspondence table to obtain the program files corresponding to each function module, and then according to the component architecture of these function modules, add the program files corresponding to these function modules into a firmware project of the wireless device to generate the toughness The firmware framework code for the project.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of providing the graphical representation of the wireless device includes displaying the name of each device object in an object of the corresponding function module, and displaying the function of each device object on the corresponding function module. In the interface.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of graphically representing the wireless device further includes establishing a connection between the object and the interface of each functional module according to a connection relationship between the device objects.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of establishing a connection between the object and the interface of each functional module includes using a one-way arrow to indicate a connection relationship of the device object, wherein the direction of the one-way arrow is determined by the called device object. The object of the corresponding function module points to the interface of the function module corresponding to the device object of the call.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of analyzing whether the dependent relationship of the link conforms to the specification includes determining whether each link meets the specification according to an attribute of the object and the interface of each function module.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of parsing the component structure formed by the parsing function module conforms to the specification includes: analyzing whether the component architecture of the functional module includes a nested component synthesized by the plurality of sub-function modules, If the nested module is included, it is determined whether the nested module meets the specifications.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of analyzing whether the component architecture formed by the function module meets the specification further comprises: analyzing whether the component architecture of the functional module includes a main functional module, and if the main functional module is included, determining the main function Whether the module meets the specifications.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the step of parsing the component structure formed by the function module and the dependency relationship of the link conforms to the specification further includes: if the component module formed by the function module or the slave of the link The relationship does not meet the specifications and provides suggestions for modifications to functional modules or links that do not meet the specifications.

In an embodiment of the present invention, after the step of generating the firmware framework code of the firmware project, the method further comprises: receiving the code modification of the program file corresponding to each function module in the firmware project, and generating the wireless The complete firmware code of the device.

In an embodiment of the invention, the wireless device includes one of an end device and a coordinator.

The invention adopts a modular firmware framework code generation method, and by analyzing the architecture and connection of multiple functional modules in the graphical representation of the wireless device, the program files of the functional modules are combined to generate the toughness of the wireless device. Body frame code. Accordingly, the present invention can provide a more intuitive firmware design, which can reduce the complexity of the firmware and increase the efficiency of the firmware design.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more <RTIgt;

The present invention combines the features of the object-oriented programming language to provide a user with a graphical representation of the various components of the wireless device in a graphical representation. After the user completes the design of the graphical representation, the device automatically analyzes the architecture and connections of the various functional modules in the graphical representation, thereby integrating the program files of the functional modules to generate the firmware framework code of the wireless device. The invention is a set of modular firmware framework code generation method developed based on the above concept. In order to clarify the content of the present invention, the following specific examples are given as examples in which the present invention can be implemented.

1 is a design interface of a graphical representation in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 2 is a schematic diagram of a graphical representation of an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1 , the embodiment provides a graphical design interface 100 for a user to draw a graphical representation of a wireless device to generate a firmware frame code of the wireless device. The wireless device is, for example, an end device or a coordinator of ZigBee, and the firmware thereof is written in a C language or a combined language, for example, using a stack structure of ZigBee.

The design interface 100 includes a function module selection area 110 and a graphic drawing area 120. The function module selection area 110 includes a plurality of function modules corresponding to a plurality of device elements in the wireless device for use by the user, for example, an analog digital conversion module 112, a radio frequency module 114, a low power module 116, and a temperature sensor. Module 118 and the like. The function module selected by the user in the function module selection area 110 is drawn on the graphic drawing area 120. And providing a link between the user drawing function modules to form a graphical representation of the wireless device.

Using the design interface 100 described above, a graphical representation 200 as shown in FIG. 2 can be drawn. The graphical representation 200 includes a plurality of functional modules and a connection between the functional modules. Each function module is used to represent a device object corresponding to the wireless device, and each function module includes an object and at least one interface, and the object is used to represent the device object corresponding to the function module. The name of the object, and the interface is used to indicate the connection function of the device object corresponding to the function module. As shown in FIG. 2, the function module 210 includes an object and a plurality of interfaces 1~n.

It is worth mentioning that the function module 210 in the graphical representation 200 of the embodiment can be distinguished into a main function module and a sub-function module according to the type of the device object represented by the device. Among them, the main function module represents the main common functions included in all device objects in the wireless device firmware, and the sub-function module only represents the special functions included in a single device object. As shown in FIG. 2, the function module 210 is a main function module representing a main program of the wireless device firmware, and the function modules 220, 230, and 240 are respectively sub-function modules representing a single device object in the wireless device.

On the other hand, the graphical representation 200 of the embodiment further includes a link between the functional modules 210 to indicate a connection relationship between the functional modules 210, the connection relationship including the location of the device object in the wireless device and order. For example, when the device object needs to use other device objects, between the interface of the device object and the object of other device objects. Establish a link path. These link paths are for example represented by a one-way arrow, the direction of which is for example the device object pointed to by the called device object. For example, the object of the function module 220 is connected to the interface 1 of the function module 210, and the arrow of the connection path is directed to the interface 1 of the function module 210 by the object of the function module 220, which means that the function module 220 is the function module. The interface of 210 is called.

The present invention provides a modular firmware framework code generation method for the above-described graphical representation 200, which can be used to generate a firmware framework code of a wireless device. The following detailed description of the method will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the embodiment is adapted to generate a firmware frame code of a wireless device. The firmware frame code is, for example, a ZigBee stack structure, and is written in C language or a combined language. The steps of the method are as follows:

First, a graphical representation of the wireless device is provided, including functional modules corresponding to the respective device objects and a plurality of links between the functional modules (step S310). In detail, the step of providing the graphical representation includes displaying the object name of the device object on the object of the function module corresponding to each device object, and displaying the connection function of the device object on the interface of the function module. The user can establish a connection between the objects and interfaces of the functional modules according to the connection relationship of the device objects in the designed wireless device to form a graphical representation of the wireless device. The manner in which the object and the interface are connected includes using a one-way arrow to indicate the connection of the device object. The direction of the one-way arrow is the functional module of the device object that is called by the function module corresponding to the called device object.

For example, FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wireless temperature sensing system of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 4, the ZigBee wireless transmission technology is applied to the wireless temperature sensing system 400 of the air conditioner, and includes a ZigBee endpoint device 410 deployed at a remote location for detecting temperature. When the temperature sensor 411 on the endpoint device 410 detects the temperature value, the temperature value is transmitted as a voltage signal to the microcontroller 412 (Microcontroller Unit, MCU) of the endpoint device 410, and then through The analog to digital converter (ADC) of the microcontroller 412 converts the temperature value into a digital signal, and then transmits the digital signal to the ZigBee through the radio frequency (RF) module 413 of the endpoint device 410. Coordination device 420. The digital signal is converted back to the corresponding resistance value via a Digital Potentiometer (DPM) 430 connected to the coordination device 420 for use by the air conditioner 440. The temperature sensor 411 on the endpoint device 410 uses a timer mechanism of the microcontroller 412 to detect and transmit the temperature value every five seconds.

If the endpoint device of the wireless temperature sensing system described above is drawn in the graphical design interface of the present invention, the graphical representation 500 of FIG. 5 can be obtained. Referring to FIG. 5, the graphical representation 500 includes a total of six functional modules. The main program module 510 represents the main function module in the firmware program of the endpoint device, including the main program 511, and the temperature sensor interface 512, the radio frequency (RF) interface 513 and the low power. (Low Power) interface 514 and other three media surface. The three interfaces correspond to three sub-function modules, such as a temperature sensor module 520, a radio frequency module 530, and a low-power module 540, and all three sub-function modules can be called by the main function module 510, so each one is pointed by a one-way arrow. The corresponding interface on the main function module 510.

It should be emphasized here that in this embodiment, each sub-function module also includes its own object and interface, and can be connected with other sub-function modules. For example, the temperature sensor module 520 includes a temperature sensor 521, and an analog digital conversion (ADC) interface 522 and a timer interface 523, which are implemented by an analog digital converter and a timer, respectively. Therefore, the analog digital converter module 550 and the timer module 560 are additionally drawn in the graphical representation 500, and the unidirectional arrow points to the analog digital conversion interface 522 and the timer interface 523 in the temperature sensor module 520 to represent Its call relationship. A complete wireless temperature sensing ZigBee endpoint device can be constructed by the graphical representation 500 described above.

After the drawing of the graphical representation is completed, the system parses the component architecture formed by the functional modules in the graphical representation and whether the affiliation of each of the links conforms to the specification (step S320). In short, this step is to check whether the drawing of each function module and link in the graphical representation conforms to the standard specifications. For the part of the function module, the system first parses whether the nested component synthesized by the plurality of sub-function modules in the component structure formed by the function module meets the specification (step S322). If the specifications are not met, the system will provide modification suggestions for the functional modules that do not meet the specifications (step S328).

If the nested module meets the specifications, the system further analyzes whether the main functional module in the component architecture of the functional module meets the specifications (steps) S324). If the specifications are not met, the system will also provide modification suggestions for the functional modules that do not meet the specifications (step S328).

If the main function module meets the specifications, the system further checks whether the affiliation of each of the above connections conforms to the specification (step S326). In detail, the system determines whether each link meets the specifications according to the attributes of the objects and interfaces of the function modules at both ends of each link. For example, it is checked whether the direction of the arrow of each link is pointed to by the object of the called function module. The interface of the function module. If the specification is not met, the system will provide modification suggestions for the link that does not meet the specifications (step S328).

If the affiliation is in compliance with the specification, the system queries the built-in program file correspondence table to obtain the program file corresponding to each function module (step S330). For example, Table 1 below shows the correspondence table between the function module and the program file, where PWR.c corresponds to the low power module, TempSensoor.c corresponds to the temperature sensor module, Timer.c and Timer.h corresponds to the timer module, and ADC. .c corresponds to the analog digital conversion module and network.c corresponds to the RF module.

After obtaining the program files corresponding to the respective function modules, the program files corresponding to the function modules can be added to the firmware of the wireless device according to the component architecture of the function module to generate the firmware framework code of the firmware project (steps). S340).

By the above method, in addition to allowing the user to design the firmware framework in a modular manner and establishing the firmware framework code, the user can also perform detailed processing on the program files corresponding to the functional modules in the firmware project. Repair, and ultimately produce a complete firmware code for the wireless device.

In summary, the modular firmware framework code generation method of the present invention provides a visual design method for a user to define a firmware framework, and is graphically represented in a graphical representation for the user. Each function module is parsed to generate a firmware framework code. Accordingly, the present invention can provide a more intuitive design interface for the firmware designer to view, while reducing the complexity of the firmware and increasing the efficiency of the firmware design.

While the present invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, the present invention is not intended to limit the invention, and the present invention may be modified and modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of protection is subject to the definition of the scope of the patent application.

100‧‧‧Design interface

110‧‧‧ functional module selection area

112‧‧‧ analog digital conversion module

114‧‧‧RF module

116‧‧‧Low power module

118‧‧‧Temperature Sensor Module

120‧‧‧Graphic drawing area

200‧‧‧ graphical representation

210, 220, 230, 240‧‧‧ functional modules

400‧‧‧Wireless temperature sensing system

410‧‧‧Endpoint device

411‧‧‧temperature sensor

412‧‧‧Microcontroller

413‧‧‧RF Module

420‧‧‧Coordination device

430‧‧‧Digital Potentiometer

440‧‧‧Air conditioner

500‧‧‧ graphical representation

510‧‧‧Main program module

511‧‧‧ main program

512‧‧‧temperature sensor interface

513‧‧‧RF interface

514‧‧‧Low power interface

520‧‧‧Temperature Sensor Module

521‧‧‧temperature sensor

522‧‧‧ analog digital conversion interface

523‧‧‧Timer interface

530‧‧‧RF Module

540‧‧‧Low power module

550‧‧‧ Analog Digital Converter Module

560‧‧‧Timer module

S310~S340‧‧‧ steps of the method for generating the modular firmware frame code of the present invention

1 is a design interface of a graphical representation in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

2 is a schematic diagram of a graphical representation of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to an embodiment of the invention.

4 is a block diagram of a wireless temperature sensing system of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a graphical representation of an endpoint device of a wireless temperature sensing system of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the invention.

S310~S340‧‧‧ steps of the method for generating the modular firmware frame code of the present invention

Claims (10)

A modular firmware framework code generation method, suitable for generating a firmware framework code including a wireless device of a plurality of device objects, the method comprising the steps of: providing a graphical representation of the wireless device, wherein the The graphical representation includes a functional module corresponding to each of the device objects and a plurality of links between the functional modules; and analyzing whether a component structure formed by the functional modules and a affiliation of the links meet a specification; If the component structure of the function modules and the affiliation of the links meet the specification, query a program file correspondence table to obtain a program file corresponding to each of the function modules; and the component according to the function modules The architecture adds a program file corresponding to the function modules to a firmware file of the wireless device to generate a firmware framework code of the firmware project. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to claim 1, wherein the step of providing the graphical representation of the wireless device comprises: displaying a name of each of the device objects corresponding to the functional module And an element for displaying each of the device objects in an interface corresponding to the functional module. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to the second aspect of the invention, wherein the step of providing the graphical representation of the wireless device further comprises: according to a connection relationship between the device objects, The links between the object and the interface of the functional modules are established. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to claim 3, wherein the step of establishing the links between the object and the interface of each of the functional modules comprises: using a one-way arrow The connection relationship of the device objects, wherein the direction of the one-way arrow is directed to the interface of the function module corresponding to the device object that is called by the object of the function module corresponding to the device object being called. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to claim 3, wherein the step of parsing whether the affiliation of the links conforms to the specification comprises: selecting the object according to each of the functional modules and the at least one The properties of the interface determine whether the links meet the specifications. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to claim 1, wherein the step of parsing whether the component structure formed by the functional modules conforms to the specification comprises: parsing the component architecture of the functional modules Whether a nested component synthesized by a plurality of sub-function modules conforms to specifications. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to claim 6, wherein the step of parsing whether the component structure formed by the functional modules conforms to the specification further comprises: parsing the component architecture of the functional modules. Whether a main function module in the specification meets the specifications. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to the first aspect of the invention, wherein the step of parsing the component structure formed by the functional modules and whether the affiliation of the links meets the specification further comprises: The component structure formed by the function modules or the affiliation of the links does not meet the specifications, and a modification suggestion is provided for the function module or the link that does not meet the specifications. The method for generating a modular firmware frame code according to the first aspect of the invention, wherein after the step of generating the firmware frame code of the firmware project, the method further comprises: receiving a user for the firmware Each of the function modules in the project corresponds to a code modification of the program file, and a complete firmware code of the wireless device is generated. The method of generating a modular firmware framework code according to claim 1, wherein the wireless device comprises one of an end device and a coordinator.