FIRMWARE STRUCTURING METHOD AND RELATED APPARATUS FOR UNIFYING HANDLING OF EXECUTION RESPONSES OF SUBROUTINES

• US 20040177340A1
• Filed: 10/06/2003
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Tsai, Ming-Hsien, Hsu, Han-Wen
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,404 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/18 Error detection or correction; Testing , e.g. of drop-outs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2537 Optical discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A firmware code structuring method and related apparatus includes a plurality of subroutines to define various operations of the hardware circuit, and the subroutines are grouped in several different levels. A subroutine of a lower level defines a simpler operation of the hardware circuit, and a higher-level subroutine calls a plurality of lower level subroutines to define more complicated operations of the hardware circuit. When the lower level subroutines are executed, they store results of corresponding operations in an error code. If certain operations performed do not achieve expected results, a corresponding recovery operation is performed by the hardware circuit. To control the hardware to perform the required recovery operations, an error-handler is executed to make the hardware circuit perform recovery operations corresponding to lower level subroutines called in a higher level subroutine according to the error code after the higher level subroutine is finished.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a hardware circuit with a processor, the processor used for executing a code to control the hardware circuit, the code comprising:

a plurality of lower-level subroutines, wherein after the processor executes various lower-level subroutines, the hardware circuit will be controlled to execute various corresponding operations, and each lower-level subroutine will record results, which come from the hardware circuit executing the corresponding operations, in an error code;

wherein each result corresponds to a recovery operation;

a plurality of higher-level subroutines, each higher-level subroutines used for calling at least a lower-level subroutine to control the hardware circuit to execute operations corresponding to the lower-level subroutine according to the called lower-level subroutine when the processor executesthe higher-level subroutine;

a plurality of recovery subroutines, each recovery subroutine corresponding to a recovery operations for controlling the hardware circuit to execute various corresponding recovery operations, after the processor executes various recovery subroutines; and

an error-handling subroutine for calling the recovery subroutines according to the error code;

the method comprising;

after the processor executes the higher-level subroutines, executing the error-handling subroutine to allow the processor to control the hardware circuit to executethe corresponding recovery operations according to the results corresponding to the lower-level subroutines.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when the processor executes the error-handling subroutine after the higher-level subroutines are executed, the processor will not executesthe recovery operations corresponding to the lower-level subroutine until the higher-level subroutines are finished.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the higher-level subroutines won'"'"'t call each other so that a next higher-level subroutine will not be executed until the processor finishes executing a previous higher-level subroutine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware circuit is a servo module of an optical storage drive, the servo module comprising:

a motor for driving an optical disk to rotate; and

a pick-up head for generating a laser incident on the optical disk.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware circuit is an interface module of an optical storage drive.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the error code is a global variable of the code;

the operation results corresponding to the lower-level subroutines will be recorded in the same error code.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the code further comprises a plurality of next-level subroutines;

when the processor executes various next-level subroutines, the hardware circuit is controlled to execute corresponding operations;

each next-level subroutines will record operation results corresponding to the hardware circuitin a second error code;

each lower-level subroutine is used for calling at least a next-level subroutine so that the processor sequentially executes the next-level subroutines of the lower-level subroutines to control the hardware circuit to execute corresponding operations when executing the lower-level subroutines.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the next-level subroutines of each lower-level subroutine record corresponding operation results in the same second error code.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the second error code is a column of the error code.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the next-level subroutines record corresponding operation results in the same second error code.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the second error code is a column of the error code.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower-level subroutines won'"'"'t call each other so that a next lower-level subroutine will not be executed until the processor finishes executing a previous lower-level subroutine.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower-level subroutines won'"'"'t call the higher-level subroutines.

14. An electronic device, comprising:

a hardware circuit for achieving operations of the electronic device;

a processor for executing a code to control the hardware circuit;

a storage device for storing the code;

wherein the code comprising;

a plurality of lower-level subroutines, wherein after the processor executes various lower-level subroutines, the hardware circuit will be controlled to execute various corresponding operations, and each lower-level subroutine will record results, which come from the hardware circuit executing the corresponding operations, in an error code;

wherein each result corresponds to a recovery operation;

a plurality of higher-level subroutines, each higher-level subroutines used for calling at least a lower-level subroutine to control the hardware circuit to execute operations corresponding to the lower-level subroutine according to the called lower-level subroutine when the processor executes the higher-level subroutine;

a plurality of recovery subroutines, each recovery subroutine corresponding to a recovery operations for controlling the hardware circuit to execute various corresponding recovery operations, after the processor executes various recovery subroutines; and

an error-handling subroutine for calling the recovery subroutines according to the error code;

wherein after executing the higher-level subroutines, the processor executes the error-handling subroutine to allow the processor to control the hardware circuit to execute the corresponding recovery operations according to the results corresponding to the lower-level subroutines.

15. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein when the processor executes the error-handling subroutine after the higher-level subroutines are executed, the processor will not executes the recovery operations corresponding to the lower-level subroutine until the higher-level subroutines are finished.

16. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the higher-level subroutines won'"'"'t call each other so that a next higher-level subroutine will not be executed until the processor finishes executing a previous higher-level subroutine.

17. The electronic device of claim 14 being an optical storage drive, the hardware circuit comprising a servo module, which comprising:

a motor for driving an optical disk to rotate; and

a pick-up head for generating a laser incident on the optical disk.

18. The electronic device of claim 14 being an optical storage drive, the hardware circuit being an interface module of the optical storage drive.

19. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the error code is a global variable of the code;

the operation results corresponding to the lower-level subroutines will be recorded in the same error code.

20. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the code further comprises a plurality of next-level subroutines;

when the processor executes various next-level subroutines, the hardware circuit is controlled to execute corresponding operations;

each next-level subroutines will record operation results corresponding to the hardware circuitin a second error code;

each lower-level subroutine is used for calling at least a next-level subroutine so that the processor sequentially executes the next-level subroutines of the lower-level subroutines to control the hardware circuit to execute corresponding operations when executing the lower-level subroutines.

21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the next-level subroutines of each lower-level subroutine record corresponding operation results in the same second error code.

22. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the second error code is a column of the error code.

23. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the next-level subroutines record corresponding operation results in the same second error code.

24. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the second error code is a column of the error code.

25. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the lower-level subroutines won'"'"'t call each other so that a next lower-level subroutine will not be executed until the processor finishes executing a previous lower-level subroutine.

26. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein the lower-level subroutines won'"'"'t call the higher-level subroutines.