Method and Apparatus for a Task Priority Processing System

• US 20120083971A1
• Filed: 09/27/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MicroPairing Technologies LLC (Micropairing Technologies Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Eagle Harbor Holdings, L.L.C.
• Inventors: Preston, Dan Alan
• Granted Patent: US 9,336,043 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/36
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/00 Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles locks for vehicles E05B77/00-E05B85/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2035 without idle spare hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2046 where the redundant components share persistent storage G06F11/2043 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4081 Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/08 Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40169 Flexible bus arrangements arrangements for maintenance or administration involving management of faults; events, alarms H04L41/06; automatic restoration of network faults H04L41/0654
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/40273 the transportation system being a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0809 Plug-and-play configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 : specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

A vehicle system comprises multiple processors and a communication system adapted to run real-time vehicle applications. The system adds new devices, identifies data generated by the new device and identifies another device that can input or output the data. The vehicle system also includes a dynamic configuration system configured to operate on the multiple processors and store critical information about the applications running on the multiple processors. The configuration manager automatically detects an application failure and initiates a reconfiguration process. The configuration manager then downloads from memory the previously stored critical data associated with the failed application and initiates a reboot operation for the failed application.

Claims

1. A system used in a vehicle, comprising:

multiple processors located on-board the vehicle and adapted to run real-time vehicle applications;

a communication system configured to couple the multiple processors together over multiple communication links;

a device manager for automatically detecting and adding at least one new device to the on-board multiprocessor system;

a data manager that identifies data generated by the new device and identifies at least one other device in the multiprocessor system that can input or output the identified data;

a dynamic configuration system run on at least two of the multiple on-board processors, comprising;

a configuration manager configured to;

operate on the multiple processors,

store critical information about the application running on the multiple processors,

automatically detect application failure,

responsive to detecting application failure, initiate a reconfiguration process,

download from memory the stored critical data associated with the failed application,

initiate a reboot operation for the failed application.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the vehicle applications include one or more of the following:

braking;

audio control;

video control;

sensor monitoring;

display control;

security monitoring;

temperature control;

lighting control; and

airbag monitoring.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the communication system includes support for at least one of IEEE 802.11 link, a Bluetooth link, a hard-wired link, a satcom link, and a cellular link.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration manager is further configured to:

monitor the vehicle applications running on the multiple processors;

identify a failure of a high priority one of the vehicle applications operating on a first one of the multiple processors;

identify a lower priority one of the vehicle applications operating on a second one of the multiple processors; and

reconfigure the multiple processors to run the high priority one of the vehicle applications on the second one of the multiple processors.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the configuration manager is further configured to:

store a copy of a high priority one of the vehicle applications in a memory;

identify a failure of the high priority one of the vehicle applications on a first one of the multiple processors;

identify a second one of the multiple processors currently running another one of the vehicle applications;

download the copy of the high priority one of the vehicle applications from the memory to the second one of the multiple processors in response to identifying the failure of the high priority one of the vehicle applications on the first one of the multiple processors; and

run the downloaded copy of the high priority one of the vehicle applications on the second one of the multiple processors.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the data manager is further configured to;

identify a failure of one of the vehicle applications running on a first one of the multiple processors;

store critical data generated by the vehicle application identified as failed; and

configure a second one of the multiple processors to run the vehicle application; and

download and process the critical data with the vehicle application running on the second one of the multiple processors in response to the failure of the identified one of the vehicle applications on the first one of the multiple processors.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a user interface configured to:

indicate a failure associated with one of the vehicle applications running on one of the multiple processors;

indicate other vehicle applications running on other ones of the multiple processors that can be replaced by the failed one of the vehicle applications.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the data manager is further configured to:

identify a type of data transferred by the new hardware device;

identify an application configured to process the type of data; and

display the application on a user interface.

9. A method used in a vehicle, comprising:

operating multiple processors located on-board the vehicle adapted to run real-time vehicle applications;

operating a communication system configured to couple the multiple processors together over multiple communication links;

operating a device manager for automatically detecting and adding at least one new device to the on board multiprocessor system;

operating a data manager that identifies data generated by the new device; and

identifies at least one other device in the multiprocessor system that can input or output the identified data;

operating a dynamic configuration system run on at least two of the multiple on-board processors, wherein the dynamic configuration system comprises a configuration manager configured to;

operate on the multiple processors,

store critical data about the application running on the multiple processors,

automatically detect an application failure,

responsive to detecting application failure, initiate a reconfiguration process,

download from memory the stored critical data associated with the failed application,

initiate a reboot operation for the failed application.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising selecting one of the on-board processors to start running a second one of the vehicle applications according to a type of data generated by the new hardware device.

11. The method of claim 10 comprising selecting the second one of the vehicle applications according to a type of data generated by the new hardware device.

12. The method of claim 9, comprising:

identifying a failure of a new application operating on the new hardware device; and

reconfiguring an on-board processor to run a vehicle application in response to the failure of the new application.

13. The method of claim 9 comprising:

identifying a speed of the vehicle; and

automatically configuring one of the on-board processors according to the speed of the vehicle.

14. The method of claim 10 comprising:

downloading the second one of the vehicle applications from a memory to the selected one of the multiple processors in response to detecting and connecting the new hardware device to the multi-processor system and running the second one of the vehicle applications on the selected one of the multiple processors.

15. The method of claim 9 comprising:

responsive to connecting the new hardware device to the multiprocessor system, identifying an icon representing the first one of the vehicle applications running on one of the on-board processors and identifying an icon representing the second one of the vehicle applications running on a second one of the on-board processors;

displaying an icon for at least one of the first one of the vehicle applications or the second one of the vehicle applications on a user interface.

16. The method of claim 15 comprising, responsive to receiving a signal from the user interface selectin the second one of the vehicle applications replacing the first one of the vehicle applications with the second one of the vehicle applications in one of the on-board processors.

17. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle applications include an application to control a cell phone.

18. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle applications include at least one of an audio control application, a video control application, and a vehicle display control application.

19. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle applications include at least one of a vehicle sensor monitoring application and a vehicle security monitoring application.

20. The method of claim 9 wherein the vehicle applications include a maintenance data logging application.