Software processing apparatus and recording medium on which program is recorded

• US 20020040442A1
• Filed: 02/07/2001
• Published: 04/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Ishidera, Nobutaka
• Granted Patent: US 6,910,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

In a software processing apparatus, an operating environment determining unit determines whether an operating environment requires power saving or not at the time of executing a process such as an animation displaying process, and a switching unit performs a simplified process of light load by making a part of the functions of software valid in the environment requiring power saving, and executes a process of heavy load in which all of the functions of the software are valid in the environment which does not require power saving.

Claims

1. A software processing apparatus comprising:

an operating environment determining unit which determines whether an operating environment requires power saving or not; and

a switching processing unit which performs a process of heavy load in a first environment which does not require power saving and performs a process of light load in a second environment requiring power saving.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said operating environment determining unit determines a status where the apparatus operates on an external power supply as said first environment, and determines a status where the apparatus operates on a battery as said second environment.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said process of light load is a process obtained by simplifying said process of heavy load.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said simplified process is a part of said process of heavy load.

5. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said simplified process is a process of using data obtained by processing data used in said process of heavy load.

6. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said simplified process is another process realizing the same function as that of said process of heavy load.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit of setting the switching between said process of heavy load and said process of light load to be valid or invalid.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said process of heavy load and said process of light load are performed by a processor, and said processor changes an operation clock frequency in accordance with load of a process.

9. A software processing apparatus comprising:

an operating environment determining unit which determines an operating environment of a system; and

a switching unit which performs switching between a process of heavy load on a processor and a process of light load on the processor in accordance with said operating environment.

10. A software processing method comprising:

determining whether an environment requires power saving or not; and

performing a process of heavy load in a first environment which does not require power saving and performing a process of light load in a second environment requiring power saving.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said determining step determines a status where the apparatus operates on an external power supply as said first environment, and determines a status where the apparatus operates on a battery as said second environment.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein said process of light load is a process obtained by simplifying said process of heavy load.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein said simplified process is a part of said process of heavy load.

14. A method according to claim 12, wherein said simplified process is a process of using data obtained by processing data used in said process of heavy load.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein said simplified process is another process realizing the same function as that of said process of heavy load.

16. A method according to claim 10, wherein said switching step performs switching between said process of heavy load and said process of light load on the basis of valid/invalid setting information.

17. A method according to claim 10, wherein said process of heavy load and said process of light load are performed by a processor, and said processor changes an operation clock frequency in accordance with load of a process.

20. A recording medium according to claim 19, wherein said operating environment determining step determines a status where the apparatus operates on an external power supply as said first environment, and determines a status where the apparatus operates on a battery as said second environment.

21. A recording medium according to claim 19, wherein said process of light load is a process obtained by simplifying said process of heavy load.

22. A recording medium according to claim 21, wherein said simplified process is a part of said process of heavy load.

23. A recording medium according to claim 21, wherein said simplified process is a process of using data obtained by processing data used in said process of heavy load.

24. A recording medium according to claim 21, wherein said simplified process is another process realizing the same function as that of said process of heavy load.

25. A recording medium according to claim 19, wherein said switching step performs switching between said process of heavy load and said process of light load on the basis of setting valid/invalid information.

26. A recording medium according to claim 19, wherein said process of heavy load and said process of light load are performed by a processor of said computer, and said processor changes an operation clock frequency in accordance with load of a process.

27. A recording medium according to claim 19, wherein said program is commonly used by other program and performs switching between said process of heavy load and said process of light load in response to a notification from the other program.

28. A recording medium according to claim 27, wherein said program determines the contents of said process of heavy load and the contents of said process of light load in accordance with the contents included in the notification from said other program.

18. A software processing method comprising:

determining an operating environment of a system; and

switching between a process of heavy load on a processor and a process of light load on the processor in accordance with said operating environment.

19. A recording medium on which a program to be executed by a computer is recorded,

wherein said program includes:

an operating environment determining step of determining whether an operating environment requires power saving or not; and

a switching step of performing a process of heavy load in a first environment which does not require power saving and performing a process of light load in a second environment requiring power saving.

29. A program to be executed by a computer, comprising:

an operating environment determining step of determining an operating environment of a system; and

a switching step of performing switching between a process of heavy load on a processor and a process of light load on the processor in accordance with said operating environment.