INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20110302587A1
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nishikawa, Naohiro, Murata, Seiji
• Granted Patent: US 8,793,695 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/483 Multiproc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues

Abstract

A system-level management unit generates a system processing and makes a processing request to a task allocation unit of a user-level management unit. The task allocation unit schedules the system processing according to a procedure of an introduced user-level scheduling. A processing unit assigned to execute the system processing sends a notification of acceptability of the system processing to a main processing unit, by halts an application task in appropriate timing or when the processing of the current task is completed. When the notification is received within the time limit for execution, the system-level management unit has the processing unit start the system processing.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

a task processing unit configured to process a program task;

a processing requesting unit configured to add an execution rule to a program task of an external program of a running application so as to issue a processing request, when the external program is called;

a task allocation unit configured to incorporate the program task of the external program, to which the processing request has been issued by the processing requesting unit, into a schedule management of task processing in the task processing unit;

an execution monitoring unit configured to determine whether or not the execution rule added by the processing requesting unit is violated in the task processing of the external program in the task processing unit; and

an execution control unit configured to switch the processing of the task processing unit to the program task of the external program, when the execution monitoring unit determines that the execution rule has been violated.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing requesting unit adds the execution rule to a system-level program task as the program task of the external program so as to issue the processing request.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing requesting unit sets, as the execution rule, a time limit for execution, which is the permissible time before the start of execution of a program task requested after an issuance of the processing request.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when a notification indicating that the task processing of the external program is executable has not been received from the task processing unit within the time limit for execution, it is determined that the execution rule has been violated.

5. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claim 1, wherein

the task allocation unit identifies at least one of items of information of (1) priority level, (2) execution time limit, (3) operating cycle, and (4) execution time, which are set beforehand for a type of processing content of the external program, and

the task allocation unit determines a processing schedule of the task processing unit, based on the at least one of items of information thereof

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the task allocation unit generates a task processing schedule for each task processing unit;

when the processing requesting unit issues a request for the processing of the program task of the external program, the task allocation unit inserts the program task of the external program into any one of the processing schedules assigned respectively to the task processing units, and wherein the task processing unit processes the tasks according to the task processing schedules generated by the task allocation unit.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the task allocation unit stores tasks in a task queue in memory, and when the processing requesting unit issues a request for the processing of the system-level task, the task allocation unit converts information on the tasks into information with the same format as that of user-level tasks and then stores the converted information in the task queue in the memory, and wherein the task processing unit processes a task selected from among the tasks stored in the task queue.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when converting the information on the system-level tasks into the information with the same format as that of user-level tasks, the task allocation unit adds at least one of (i) priority level set for the system-level program task and (ii) the number of task processing units assignable thereto, to the information after conversion, the at least one is/are set in a program that has called a system-level program.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the task processing unit selects from the task queue a task, which is assignable to at least one task processing unit, and wherein when the processing requesting unit issues the request for the processing of the system-level task, a task, for which the number of task processing units assignable thereto is zero and which is stored beforehand in the task queue in memory, is modified to the number of task processing units assignable according to a content of the processing request, so as to incorporate the system-level task into the schedule management of task processing.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

when the running application is set such that the task of the external program to be called is not to be incorporated into the schedule management of task processing, the processing requesting unit does not issue the processing request, and

the execution control unit switches process performed by one of the task processing units, to the task of the external program called.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when execution time of the external program, which is set beforehand for a type of a processing content of the external program, elapses after the task processing unit has started the task of the external program, the execution control unit terminates the processing of the task performed by the task processing unit.

12. An information processing method, comprising:

processing a program task to be executed by a processor;

incorporating a program task of a system-level program into a user-level schedule management performed on a program task of a running application, when the system-level program other than the running application is called; and

processing the task of the system-level program, incorporated into the user-level schedule management, by the processor.

13. The information processing method according to claim 12, further comprising:

adding an execution rule to the task of the system-level program; and

switching the processing of a program task of any one of the processors to the program task of the system-level program, when the execution rule is violated.

14. The information processing method according to claim 12, wherein the incorporating includes setting information having the same format as that of information containing a priority level, which is set for each task of user-level program, according to a task type, to the task of the system-level program.

15. A program embedded in a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program comprising:

a task processing module operative to process a program task to be executed; and

an incorporating module operative to incorporate a program task of a system-level program into a user-level schedule management performed on a program task of a running application, when the system-level program other than the running application is called,

wherein the task processing module further processes the program task of the system-level program incorporated into the schedule management.