TWI461916B - Method for switching dual operating systems and electronic device using the same - Google Patents

Description

Method for switching dual operating system and electronic device using the same

The present invention relates to a dual operating system architecture, and more to a technique for switching dual operating systems.

Portable electronic devices, including a wide range of notebook computers and smart phones, have become indispensable items in modern life.

Traditionally, portable electronic devices have mostly used Microsoft's Windows operating system (Windows). However, today's Linux-based Android operating systems are becoming more popular. Since the two operating systems have different performances in handling different jobs, in order to combine the two, the two operating systems can be integrated into a single electronic device, and the single electronic device has a single central processing. The mode of the device is responsible for the operation of the command of the two operating systems, and the operation of the operating system of each operating system in the form of a dual central processor. In general, under the architecture of such a dual-operation system, only a single operating system can be operated at the same time, and another operating system can be put into a sleep state, so that the dual operating system can share system resources while avoiding each other. Necessary conflicts.

However, it is worth noting that when the operating system is switched, when an operating system enters the sleep state, its driver will issue various commands and settings to the peripheral devices, and these commands and settings may be related to another The command issued by the operating system that is being initialized and is also intended to drive the peripheral device conflicts with the setting. Not only may this cause the peripheral device to malfunction or the initialization process fails, but in severe cases there may even be a risk of operating the entire system.

The present invention provides a method of switching a dual operating system. The method includes: after switching the first operating system to a second operating system, blocking the first operating system to issue any setting command to the plurality of peripheral devices.

The present invention further provides an electronic device comprising: a first synchronization manager operating under a first operating system; a second synchronization manager operating under a second operating system; a controller coupled to The first synchronization manager, the second synchronization manager, and the plurality of peripheral devices are configured to block the first operating system from issuing any setting command to the plural after the first operating system is switched to a second operating system Peripheral devices.

The following is a description of the preferred embodiment of the invention. The examples are intended to illustrate the principles of the invention, but are not intended to limit the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

In order to solve the system conflict problem frequently encountered in switching the operating system in the dual operating system architecture in the prior art, the present invention provides a new method for switching the dual operating system, and a dual operating system architecture using the method.

Dual operating system architecture

1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device capable of operating a dual operating system architecture in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 100 of the present invention can be a variety of notebook computers or smart phones, including: a first operating system 110, a second operating system 120, a controller 130, and peripheral devices 140. For example, the first operating system 110 may be a Windows operating system (Windows), and the second operating system 120 may be an Android operating system. However, the present invention can be applied between various operating systems without The example is limited. The controller 130 of the present invention is, for example, an independently operated embedded controller (EC) connected to the two operating systems 110 and 120 and the peripheral device 140, and can be used according to the two operating systems 110. And the commands issued by 120 control each peripheral device 140. The peripheral device 140 of the present invention includes various input and output devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchpad, a trackball, a trackpoint, a display, a speaker, a headset, a camera, etc., which can be used to execute Various specific functions will not be shown in Figure 1. It should be noted that the two operating systems 110 and 120 of the present invention can share these peripheral devices 140 through the independently operating controllers 130.

In a preferred embodiment, the first operating system 110 and the second operating system 120 respectively operate a first synchronization manager 112 and a second synchronization manager 122. The two synchronization managers 112 and 122 can be specifically used to coordinate the switching between the two operating systems 110 and 120 to facilitate information synchronization between the two. In this embodiment, the two synchronization managers 112 and 122 are not only connected to the controller 130 but also connected to each other by a transmission interface 150. For example, the transmission interface 150 is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. Through the USB transmission interface 150, the direct communication between the two operating systems 110 and 120 is facilitated, and the probability of collision between the two operating systems is reduced. The USB transmission interface in this example is for convenience of description only, and is not limited to other kinds of transmission interfaces in other embodiments.

The aforementioned dual operating system architecture electronics 110 of the present invention can be used to perform the method of the present invention for switching a dual operating system, and the various steps of the apparatus of the present invention and the methods performed thereby will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Method of switching dual operating system - first embodiment

2 is a flow chart showing a method of switching a dual operation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 together. The method 200 of the present invention is implemented in the foregoing electronic device 100, including the process 200A performed by the first synchronization manager 112 under the first operating system 110, and the second synchronization manager 122 performed by the second operating system 120. Flow 200B, and flow 200C performed by controller 130. For convenience of description, the processes 200A, 200B, and 200C will be depicted in different blocks, respectively. It should be noted that although this embodiment is described by switching the first operating system to the second operating system, the same method may be used to switch back to the first operating system by the second operating system, and no further details are provided herein.

The process 200A executed by the first operating system 110 includes: in step S202, booting up and initializing the peripheral device 140 through the controller 130; in step S204, when receiving a command from the user to switch the operating system (for example, using Pressing a specified keyboard button or hotkey, or operating a specific user interface component in the screen, the second operating system is activated (or awakened) by the controller 130, and then communicated through the transmission interface 150, and then The system is further switched to the second operating system through the controller 130; and in step S210, the sleep mode is entered. The "sleep mode" of the foregoing step S210 of the present invention contributes more to the entire electronic device 100 to further save power than the general "standby mode".

The flow 200B executed by the second operating system 120 includes: in step S206, obtaining control of the peripheral device 140 by the controller 130, thereby completing the switching of the operating system; and initializing the peripheral device 140 (re) after the step S212 operation. Since different operating systems drive the same hardware with different drivers, each time the operating system switches At the same time, each peripheral device must be reinitialized to ensure that the peripheral device can operate normally.

It should be noted that when the first operating system 110 enters the sleep mode, its respective drivers still issue a setting command to the peripheral device 140 through the controller 130, although the frequency of issuing the command is lower than the general initialization program, but if not If the setting command is controlled, it is still quite easy to conflict with the setting command issued by the second operating system, resulting in abnormal function of the peripheral device. In addition, the re-initialization of the second operating system after switching is also often caused by the conflict of the aforementioned setting commands. In view of this, the controller 130 of the present invention performs the following steps to cope with it.

In step S208 in the first embodiment, after learning that the first job 110 system is switched to a second operating system 120, the controller 130 will release any setting commands issued by the dormant first operating system 110. It is blocked before the peripheral device 140 (ie, ignored and not executed). FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the signal of the setting command S1 in step S208 for explaining how the controller 130 blocks the setting signal S1. This step S208 will help to ensure that the peripheral device 140 will only unilaterally receive the set command issued by the second operating system 120, avoiding the conflict of simultaneous control of the dual operating system.

However, although the foregoing method of blocking the setting of the first operating system 110 to the peripheral device 140 prevents the peripheral function from being abnormal and avoids the initial operation of the second operating system 120, the first operating system 110 is late. Any response to the peripheral device 140, so when the system switches back to the first operating system 110 again, the speed of the wakeup will become very slow or even fail. Accordingly, the present invention provides a better second embodiment, See below for details.

Method of switching dual operating system - second embodiment

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing a method of switching a dual operating system in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. Please refer to Figure 1 and Figure 4 together. As in the foregoing first embodiment, the method 400 of the present invention is implemented in the foregoing electronic device 100, including the flow 400A executed by the first synchronization manager 112 under the first operating system 110, and the second operation by the second operating system 120. The process 400B performed by the synchronization manager 122, and the process 400C performed by the controller 130. The flow 400A executed by the first operating system 110 includes: in step S402, the peripheral device 140 is initialized by the controller 130; in step S404, when the user receives a command to switch the operating system, the controller 130 is transmitted through the controller 130. The second operating system is started (or awakened), and then communicated through the transmission interface 150, and then the system is switched to the second operating system through the controller 130; and in the step S410, the sleep mode is entered. The flow 400B executed by the second operating system 120 includes: in step S406, obtaining control of the peripheral device 140 by the controller 130, thereby completing the switching of the operating system; and initializing the peripheral device 140 (re) after the step S412 operation. In step S408, after learning that the first job 110 system switches to a second operating system 120, the controller 130 will release any setting commands issued by the first operating system 110 (during the dormant process) to the periphery. The device 140 is blocked (i.e., ignored and not executed).

Different from the foregoing first embodiment, the second embodiment further includes step S414. In step S414, the controller 130 further responds to the setting command issued by the first operating system 110 to the peripheral device 140 in accordance with a response table 160 (shown in FIG. 5) stored therein, wherein the response table 160 Various setting commands S1 are recorded and the peripheral device presets various response messages S1' to the first operating system 110. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the setting command S1, the response message S1', and the response table 160 in step S414. In this embodiment, the controller 130 continuously responds to any setting commands issued by the first operating system 110 by way of simulating the peripheral device 140, thereby ensuring that the first operating system 110 does not recover from the sleep state. There is a delay due to the invalid transmission of the previously set command, so as to achieve a smoother switching between the two operating systems.

The present invention has been described above with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and the invention may be modified and modified without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

110‧‧‧First operating system

120‧‧‧Second operating system

130‧‧‧ Controller

140‧‧‧ peripheral devices

112‧‧‧First Synchronization Manager

122‧‧‧Second Sync Manager

150‧‧‧USB transmission interface

S1‧‧‧Setting order

S1’‧‧‧Response message

200‧‧‧ method

200A-200C‧‧‧ Process

S202-S212‧‧‧Steps

S402-S414‧‧‧Steps

1 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device capable of operating a dual operating system architecture in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flow chart showing a method of switching a dual operation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the signal of the set command in step S208.

Figure 4 is a flow chart showing a method of switching a dual operating system in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the setting command, the response message, and the response table in step S414.

200‧‧‧ method

200A-200C‧‧‧ Process

S202-S212‧‧‧Steps

Claims (11)

A method for switching a dual operation system, which is suitable for installing an electronic device of at least two operating systems, comprising the steps of: starting and executing a first operating system, the first operating system initializing at least one peripheral device; And switching to a second operating system; during the switching of the first operating system to the second operating system, blocking the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device; and causing the second operating system to obtain a pair The control of the peripheral device is initialized, wherein the step of blocking the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device is in the process of switching the first operating system to the second operating system, according to a response The table back should be the setting command issued by the first operating system to the peripheral device, wherein the answering table records the setting command and the peripheral device presets a response message to the first operating system. The method for switching a dual operation system according to claim 1, wherein the step of blocking the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device is to set the setting command of the first operating system Ignore and not execute. The method of switching a dual operating system according to claim 1, wherein the first operating system enters a sleep mode after switching to the second operating system. The method of switching a dual operating system according to claim 1, wherein the first operating system directly transmits a notification message to the second operating system through a transmission interface to switch to the second operating system. An electronic device with a first operating system and a second operation And a system having at least one peripheral device, comprising: a first synchronization manager operating under the first operating system; a second synchronization manager operating under the second operating system; and a controller Connecting to the first synchronization manager, the second synchronization manager, and the at least one peripheral device, to block the first operating system from being released during the switching of the first operating system to the second operating system Setting a command to the peripheral device, wherein the step of blocking the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device is in response to a response table in the process of switching the first operating system to the second operating system The setting command issued by the first operating system to the peripheral device, wherein the response table records the setting command and the peripheral device presets a response message to the first operating system. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the blocking the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device is that the controller ignores the setting command of the first operating system without carried out. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the first operating system initializes the peripheral device before switching to the second operating system. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the first operating system enters a sleep mode after switching to the second operating system. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the controller blocks the first operating system to issue a setting command to the peripheral device Thereafter, the second operating system initializes the peripheral device. The electronic device of claim 5, further comprising: a transmission interface connected between the first synchronization manager and the second synchronization manager; wherein the first synchronization manager transmits the transmission The interface directly transmits a notification message to the second synchronization manager to switch to the second operating system. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the transmission interface is a universal serial bus (USB) interface.