Method of enabling a multitasking computing device to conserve resources

• US 20070038763A1
• Filed: 07/02/2004
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: UIQ Technology AB (UI Holdings BV)
• Original Assignee: Symbian Software Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Oestvall, Magnus
• Application Number:
  US10/562,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20070038763A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/81 by operating on the power supply, e.g. enabling or disabling power-on, sleep or resume operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A multitasking battery operated computing device preserves battery power by determining if an untrusted application is in the background or foreground and preventing an untrusted application that is in the background from running. A window server component may be used to determine if an untrusted application is in the background or foreground; for applications in the background, it can send a control signal to the scheduler or interrupt handler that in effect prevents the untrusted application from running, e.g. being given any services or consuming any resources.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a multitasking computing device to preserve system resources, comprising the steps of determining if an untrusted application is in the background or foreground and preventing an untrusted application that is in the background from running.

2. The method of claim 1 in which a window server component determines if the untrusted application is in the background or foreground.

3. The method of claim 2 in which, for an untrusted application in the background, the window server sends a control signal to a scheduler or interrupt handler to prevent the application from running.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising the further step of preventing an untrusted background application from ‘

polling’

for data over a wireless network.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising the further step of preventing an untrusted background application from running if a display shows a screen saver or is turned off.

6. The method of claim 1 in which a trusted application in the background is (i) still allowed to run, or (ii) actively prevented from running or (III) requested to stop running.

7. The method of claim 1 in which an application has been deemed to be untrusted by the device assessing:

(a) which protected resources on the device can be accessed by the application;

or

(b) whether the application was loaded from ROM or RAM;

or

(c) whether the application has been validated using some predefined validation or certification process.

8. The method of claim 7 in which a background application is prevented from running only if it does not meet predefined ‘

truste’

or certification criteria established using a signature in an installation file for the application.

9. The method of claim 1 in which the device is battery powered.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the system resources that are preserved are one or more of (i) power, (ii) CPU activity and (iii) scheduler activity.

11. The method of claim 1 in which the device is powered by a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

13. Ihe device of claim 11 which is battery powered.

12. A multitasking computing device programmed to be capable of determining if an untrusted application is in the background or foreground and preventing an untrusted application that is in the background from running in order to conserve system resources.

14. An operating system for a multitasking computing device, the operating system being capable of determining if an untrusted application is in the background or foreground and preventing an untrusted application that is in the background from running in order to conserve system resources.