U.S. patent application number 11/338932 was filed with the patent office on 2006-06-08 for portable computing device adapted to update display information while in a low power mode.
Invention is credited to Mark Fullerton, Nigel C. Paver.
Application Number | 20060121936 11/338932 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32176042 |
Filed Date | 2006-06-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060121936 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Paver; Nigel C. ; et
al. |
June 8, 2006 |
Portable computing device adapted to update display information
while in a low power mode
Abstract
Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a
portable computing device that has a processor, a direct memory
access (DMA) engine, and a display controller may transfer data
with the DMA engine to the display. The DMA engine may transfer the
data while the processor is in a standby mode and transfer data to
the processor while the processor is executing instructions.
Inventors: |
Paver; Nigel C.; (Austin,
TX) ; Fullerton; Mark; (Austin, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
INTEL CORPORATION
P.O. BOX 5326
SANTA CLARA
CA
95056-5326
US
|
Family ID: |
32176042 |
Appl. No.: |
11/338932 |
Filed: |
January 24, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10289081 |
Nov 5, 2002 |
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11338932 |
Jan 24, 2006 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
455/552.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
Y02D 30/70 20200801;
Y02D 70/142 20180101; Y02D 70/144 20180101; Y02D 70/124 20180101;
Y02D 70/1224 20180101; G09G 2330/021 20130101; H04W 52/0209
20130101; G09G 5/363 20130101; G06F 1/3203 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/552.1 |
International
Class: |
H04M 1/00 20060101
H04M001/00 |
Claims
1-23. (canceled)
24. A wireless communication device comprising: a display; and an
application microprocessor coupled to the display to provide
information to be displayed on the display, wherein the wireless
communication device is adapted to update displayed information
while the application microprocessor is inactive or in a standby
mode.
25. The wireless communication device of claim 24, further
comprising a direct memory access (DMA) engine coupled to the
application microprocessor and the display to update the displayed
information while the application microprocessor is inactive or in
the standby mode.
26. The wireless communication device of claim 25, wherein the DMA
engine is adapted to transfer information from a memory to the
display while the application microprocessor is inactive or in the
standby mode.
26. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the
memory is external to the application microprocessor.
28. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the
memory is internal to the application microprocessor.
29. The wireless communication device of claim 26, wherein the DMA
engine is adapted to transfer information from the memory to a
frame buffer in a display controller while the microprocessor is
inactive or in the standby mode.
30. The wireless communication device of claim 24, wherein the
displayed information is indicative of information of one or more
of current time, received signal strength, transmitted signal
strength, or battery life.
31. A direct memory access (DMA) engine adapted to transfer data to
a display frame buffer to update information on a display while an
associated applications processor is inactive or in a standby
mode.
32. The DMA engine of claim 31 wherein the information to be
updated on the display pertains to information of one of time,
signal strength or battery life
33. The DMA engine of claim 31, wherein the DMA engine uses
descriptors to access memory locations to update bit map
information on the display while the associated applications
processor is inactive or in the standby mode.
34. The DMA engine of claim 31 wherein transfer of data to the
display frame buffer is performed by the DMA engine in response to
a trigger signal.
35. The DMA engine of claim 31 wherein the display frame buffer
comprises a portion of a liquid crystal display (LCD) display
controller.
36. A portable system comprising: a baseband processor; an
application processor coupled to the baseband processor; a display
controller coupled to the application processor; and a direct
memory access (DMA) engine coupled to the display controller and
the application processor; wherein the DMA engine is configured to
continually update information to the display controller for
display without involvement of the application processor.
37. The portable system of claim 36 further comprising a memory to
store the information continually updated to the display controller
by the DMA engine without involvement of the application
processor.
38. The portable system of claim 36 wherein the baseband processor
comprises a portion of a communication module, the communication
module comprising at least one antenna.
39. The portable system of claim 36 wherein the DMA engine is
triggered to update information to the display controller by a
signal from the baseband processor.
40. The portable system of claim 36 wherein the information
continually updated to the display controller by the DMA engine
comprises graphics pertaining to one or more of display information
for battery status, signal strength or time.
41. The portable system of claim 36 wherein the portable system
comprises a cellular phone.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Portable computing devices such as, for example, cellular
phones, typically operate on battery power. The amount of time that
a portable computing device may be operated using a battery is
typically directly proportional to the amount of power consumed by
electronic devices within the portable computing device.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to turn off or suspend operation
of components (e.g. the processor) while the device is not in use.
However, it may also be desirable to continue to display
information on the display while the portable computing device is
not in use.
[0002] Thus, there is a continuing need for better ways to display
information while reducing the effect on battery life.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0003] The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly
pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the
specification. The invention, however, both as to organization and
method of operation, together with objects, features, and
advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the
following detailed description when read with the accompanying
drawings in which:
[0004] FIG. 1 is a block diagram representation of a mobile device
in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[0005] FIG. 2 is a descriptor to bitmap representation for a method
of operating the mobile device in FIG. 1 according to one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0006] It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of
illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not
necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of
some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for
clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals
have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or
analogous elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0007] In the following detailed description, numerous specific
details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding
of the invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled
in the art that the present invention may be practiced without
these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods,
procedures, components and circuits have not been described in
detail so as not to obscure the present invention.
[0008] Some portions of the detailed description that follows are
presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of
operations on data bits or binary digital signals within a computer
memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations may be
the techniques used by those skilled in the data processing arts to
convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the
art.
[0009] An algorithm is here, and generally, considered to be a
self-consistent sequence of acts or operations leading to a desired
result. These include physical manipulations of physical
quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take
the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,
transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has
proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common
usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements,
symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like. It should be
understood, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be
associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely
convenient labels applied to these quantities.
[0010] Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the
following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the
specification discussions utilizing terms such as "processing,"
"computing," "calculating," "determining," or the like, refer to
the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or
similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or
transform data represented as physical, such as electronic,
quantities within the computing system's registers and/or memories
into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within
the computing system's memories, registers or other such
information storage, transmission or display devices.
[0011] Embodiments of the present invention may include apparatuses
for performing the operations herein. An apparatus may be specially
constructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a general
purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by a
program stored in the device. Such a program may be stored on a
storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk
including floppy disks, optical disks, compact disc read only
memories (CD-ROMs), magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories
(ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), electrically programmable
read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable
read only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, digital video disk
ROM, magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable
for storing electronic instructions, and capable of being coupled
to a system bus for a computing device.
[0012] The processes and displays presented herein are not
inherently related to any particular computing device or other
apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with
programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove
convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the
desired method. The desired structure for a variety of these
systems will appear from the description below. In addition,
embodiments of the present invention are not described with
reference to any particular programming language. It will be
appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to
implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
[0013] In the following description and claims, the terms "coupled"
and "connected," along with their derivatives, may be used. It
should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms
for each other. Rather, in particular embodiments, "connected" may
be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct
physical or electrical contact with each other. "Coupled" may mean
that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical
contact. However, "coupled" may also mean that two or more elements
are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate
or interact with each other.
[0014] Turning to FIG. 1, an embodiment 100 in accordance with the
present invention is described. Embodiment 100 may comprise a
portable computing or communication device 50 such as a mobile
communication device (e.g., cell phone), a two-way radio
communication system, a one-way pager, a two-way pager, a personal
communication system (PCS), a portable computer, or the like.
Although it should be understood that the scope and application of
the present invention is in no way limited to these examples. Other
embodiments of the present invention may include other computing
systems that may or may not be portable or even involve
communication systems such as, for example, desktop or portable
computers, servers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), network
switching equipment, etc.
[0015] In this particular embodiment portable communication device
50 may include a processor 10 that may execute instructions such as
instructions stored in a memory 40. Processor 10 may be one of a
variety of integrated circuits such as, for example, a
microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal
processor, a microcontroller, a reduced instruction set computer
(RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC), or the like,
although the scope of the present invention is not limited by the
particular design or functionality performed by processor 10. In
addition, in some alternative embodiments, portable communication
device 50 may comprise multiple processors that may be of the same
or different type. For example, in another embodiment, portable
communication device 50 may comprise a CISC processor to execute
general user applications and a base band processor that may be
used to initiate and receive wireless communications.
[0016] Portable communication device 50 may also comprise a display
20 to provide information to a user (i.e. time of day, remaining
battery strength, strength of transmitting and/or received signals,
etc.). A display controller 21 having a frame buffer 22 may be used
to store and provide information to be displayed, although the
scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.
[0017] Portable communication device 50 may further comprise
communication modules 30-32 to provide access to other devices,
service, networks, etc. For example communication modules 30-32 may
be used to allow portable communication device 50 to communicate
with other devices networks through either a wired or wireless
link. As shown, communication modules may use antennae 34-35 to
wirelessly communicate with networks 60-61.
[0018] Although the scope of the present invention is not limited
in this respect, communication modules 30-31 may employ a variety
of wireless communication protocols such as cellular (e.g. Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular radiotelephone
communication systems, Global System for Mobile Communications
(GSM) cellular radiotelephone systems, GPRS, North American Digital
Cellular (NADC) cellular radiotelephone systems, Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Extended-TDMA (E-TDMA) cellular
radiotelephone systems, third generation (3G) systems like
Wide-band CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA-2000, and the like).
[0019] In addition, communication modules may use other wireless
local area network (WLAN), wide area network (WAN), or local area
network (LAN) protocols such as the Industrial Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard, Bluetooth.TM.,
infrared, etc. (Bluetooth is a registered trademark of the
Bluetooth Special Interest Group).
[0020] It should be understood that the scope of the present
invention is not limited by the types of, the number of, or the
frequency of the of communication protocols that may be used by
portable communication device 50. Furthermore, alternative
embodiments may only have no, one, or two communication modules
(either wired or wireless) and communication modules need not have
separate antenna, and some or all may share a common antenna.
[0021] Portable communication device 50 may also comprise memory 40
that may comprise any variety of volatile or non-volatile memory
such as any of the types of storage media recited earlier, although
this list is certainly not meant to be exhaustive and the scope of
the present invention is not limited in this respect. Memory 40 may
be used to store sets of instructions such as instructions
associated with an application program, an operating system
program, a communication protocol program, etc. For example, the
instructions stored in memory 40 may be used to perform wireless
communications, provide security functionality for portable
communication device 50, user functionality such as calendaring,
email, internet browsing, etc. Further, as explained in more detail
below, memory 40 may be used to store information to be displayed
by display 20. In addition to or alternatively, processor 10 may
comprise embedded memory 11 that may be used in a manner similar to
memory 40 and comprise any of the memory types described above or
other memory compatible with processor 10.
[0022] Portable computing device 50 may also comprise a direct
memory access (DMA) engine 25 that may be used to transfer
information to be displayed by display 20, although the scope of
the present invention is not limited in this respect. In addition,
DMA engine 25 may also be used to transfer data to and from other
components of portable communication device 50. For example, DMA
engine 25 may also be optionally be used to transfer data and/or
instructions from memory 40 to processor 10 while processor 10 is
executing instructions.
[0023] Although the scope of the present invention is not limited
in this respect, the operation of DMA engine 25 may involve the use
of instructions or descriptors. For example, the descriptors may
include information such as where the information is originating
from, the destination of the data, the type of data being
transferred, the size of the data being transferred, addressing
information (e.g. address offset information, etc.) that may be
used during the accessing of the source and/or destination of the
data, etc. It should be understood that the scope of the present
invention is not limited so as to require all or any particular
subset of the information listed above. In addition, other
information may be included with the descriptors used by DMA engine
25.
[0024] Turning to FIG. 2, a method in accordance with a particular
embodiment is now provided. In this particular embodiment DMA
engine 25 may be used to transfer data to be displayed on display
20 without involving processor 10 as explained in more detail
below. Although the scope of the present invention is not limited
in this respect, processor 10 may have two or more operational
modes such as, for example, a normal operational mode during which
instructions are executed and a standby or low power mode during
which the execution of instructions is either significantly reduced
(i.e. clock frequency is reduced) or halted altogether, or
alternatively, reduce or remove the power supply potentials from
the device.
[0025] Processor 10 may have a core or core region 12 that may be
used to execute instructions. Core 12 may include, for example,
logic circuitry to execute instructions, buses, caches, arithmetic
logic units (ALUs), registers, etc. In addition, core 12 may or may
not include memory such as memory 11. It should be understood that
the scope of the invention is not limited so as to require that
core 12 include all of these elements as in alternative embodiments
other components may be included within core 12 or the elements
listed above may not be in core 12 or even within processor 12.
Simply stated, for this particular embodiment, core 12 refers to a
portion of processor 10 that may be inactive while DMA engine 25 is
transferring data to be displayed.
[0026] It should be understood that processor 10 may also have two
or more standby modes during which the execution of instructions is
either reduced or halted. For example, one standby mode may
represent a condition where only a portion of processor 10 is
active and executing instructions, another standby mode may
represent a condition during with the power supply voltage
potential and/or clock frequency of core 12 is reduced to reduce
power consumption. In addition, yet another standby mode may
represent a condition where the power supply voltage potential is
removed altogether from all or a portion of processor 10. In yet
another embodiment, processor 10 may have a standby or disabled
operational mode where at least a portion of the logic circuitry of
core region 12 is indeterminate.
[0027] Thus, while processor is in a standby or inactive mode, DMA
engine 25 may transfer data to be displayed. For example, in the
embodiment shown in FIG. 2, DMA engine 25 may be used to transfer
data so that display 20 may continue to display information such as
the current time without involving processor 10. In this example,
memory 40 may store information associated with the bit maps
250-259 to display the digits zero to nine, respectively.
Descriptors 240-249 may provide a linked list so that DMA engine 25
transfers the appropriate bitmap to display 20.
[0028] In this particular example, descriptors 240-249 may include
one portion 210 that comprises the location of the bitmap to be
transferred to frame buffer 22 of display controller 21. For
example, portion 211 may include the start address of the location
in memory 40 for the bitmap of a particular numeral. In addition,
descriptions 240-249 may include a portion 211 that may indicate
the next descriptor to be executed or performed by DMA engine 25
upon the occurrence of an event or trigger.
[0029] For example, DMA engine 25 may execute descriptor 240 to
transfer the data associated with the bit map for the numeral 0
from memory 40 to frame buffer 22, display controller 21 may then
have the bit map displayed on the appropriate location of display
20. DMA engine 25 may then wait for the occurrence of an event or a
trigger before performing the transfer associated with descriptor
241. Although the scope of the present invention is not limited in
this respect, DMA engine 25 may wait for an enable or logic signal
from circuitry indicating the appropriate moment to display the
information associated with descriptor 241.
[0030] The enable or logic signal may come from a variety or
sources such as, but not limited to, an interrupt signal, a
transition in a clock or logic signal, output of a timer, a logic
circuit, etc. It should be understood that the scope of the present
invention is not limited by the nature or source of the trigger
signal that causes DMA engine to transition to the next descriptor.
In this particular example, the event signal may come from an
internal clock that notifies DMA engine to display the next
numeral. As shown in FIG. 2, DMA engine 25 may then cycle through
descriptors 240-249 with each event trigger, and thus, display the
numerals zero-through nine, and then repeat as the last descriptor
249 may point back to descriptor 240 to repeat the process,
although the scope of the present invention is not limited in this
respect.
[0031] In alternative embodiments DMA engine 25 may be used to
transfer different data to be displayed on display 25. Thus, DMA
engine 25 may modify the image or data that is to be displayed by
transferring data to the display controller. For example, DMA
engine 25 may transfer information as current date, received signal
strength, transmitted signal strength, battery life, and others.
Alternatively or in addition to, DMA engine 25 may display bit maps
that when displayed in sequence allow display 20 to display images
such as, for example, moving icons, video images, etc. The bit map
may also be used to provide other information to a user such as the
fact that there are messages waiting, no service is available, etc.
However, it should be understood that the scope of the present
invention is not limited by the particular information transferred
by DMA engine 25.
[0032] One advantage of this particular embodiment, although not
necessarily all embodiments, is that image data may be transferred
to display controller 21 without involving the use of a core region
12 of processor 10. As a result, the transfers may be done without
the associated power consumption of processor 10 since processor 10
may be kept in a standby or disabled operational mode. In other
words, the transfer to display controller 21 may be done without
having to change the operational mode of processor 10, although the
scope of the present invention is not limited in this respect.
[0033] It should also be understood that the use of DMA engine 25
need not be limited to transferring data while processor 10 is in
active. DMA engine 25 may also be used to transfer data (e.g.
instructions, operations, etc.) to processor 10 while processor 10
is in a normal operational mode or is otherwise executing
instructions. Similarly, DMA engine 25 may be used to transfer
other data (e.g. voice data, user data, instructions, etc.) between
other components of portable computing device 50; some of which may
not be shown in FIG. 1.
[0034] In yet another embodiment, DMA engine 25 may be used to
transfer data to display controller 21 from memory that is internal
to processor 10. In other words, the source of the data to be
display need not be external to processor 10.
[0035] In the case where portable computing device 50 is a cellular
phone, DMA engine 15 may be used to display or update information
on display 20 without involving the use of processor 10. For
example, in some embodiments portable computing device 50 may
comprise more than one processor such as, for example, a base band
processor that may be used to hand wireless communications and an
application processor to execute user applications. In such
applications, DMA engine 25 may used to display information
associated with the base band processor (e.g. received signal
strength) without involving the applications processor. In such
embodiments, a base station may transmit signals to portable
computing device 50, and the appropriate images may be displayed on
display 20 without involving the application processor or its
associated power consumption.
[0036] While certain features of the invention have been
illustrated and described herein, many modifications,
substitutions, changes, and equivalents will now occur to those
skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the
appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and
changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
* * * * *