Portable computer having dedicated register group and peripheral controller bus between system bus and peripheral controller

• US 5,905,914 A
• Filed: 11/26/1996
• Issued: 05/18/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Oda, Hiroyuki, Uehara, Keiichi, Sakai, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Ai T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DARBE, VALERIE A
• Application Number:
  US08/753,792
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: 395/750.01, 395/750.02, 395/750.03, 395/750.04, 395/750.05, 395/750.06, 395/750.07, 395/750.08, 395/887, 395/828, 395/651, 364/709.14, 364/188, 364/189
• US Class Current: 710/67
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/165 the additional display being small, e.g. for presenting status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1677 for detecting open or closed state or particular intermediate positions assumed by movable parts of the enclosure, e.g. detection of display lid position with respect to main body in a laptop, detection of opening of the cover of battery compartment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3218 of display devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4226 with asynchronous protocol
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes

Abstract

Dedicated registers are arranged in a status LCD control gate array connected to a system bus, and the dedicated registers or register group and a keyboard controller are connected through a keyboard interface bus. The keyboard controller has two ports for communicating with a CPU. The keyboard controller transfers existing commands released to an application program or the like and transmits normal key data through the system bus. The keyboard controller transmits hot key data and transfers a command for realizing any other special function through the keyboard interface bus and the dedicated registers.

Claims

1. A portable computer, comprising:

a CPU;

a system bus coupled to the CPU for transferring normal data between the CPU and a keyboard controller;

a keyboard including hot keys designating function relating to setting and change of a system environment and normal keys for inputting normal data;

a keyboard controller, coupled to the system bus, a function expansion bus and the keyboard, for transferring the normal data to the CPU through the system bus and data indicating the hot key to a gate array circuit through a function expansion bus;

a function expansion bus, coupled to the keyboard controller and a gate array circuit, for transferring the data indicating the hot key from the keyboard controller to a gate array circuit; and

a gate array circuit, coupled to the function expansion bus and the system bus and provided with a register file, for receiving the data indicating the hot key from the keyboard controller for performing a process corresponding to the received hot key data; and

wherein the keyboard controller transmits hot key data to the gate array circuit through the function expansion bus if the data to be transmitted is the data indicating the hot key, thereby the gate array circuit stores the hot key data in the register file.

2. The portable computer according to claim 1, wherein the gate array circuit further includes means for issuing a system management interrupt to the CPU request to perform a process corresponding to the hot key data.

3. The portable computer according to claim 2, further including a function key;

wherein the keyboard controller transmits, as the hot key data, key data to the gate array circuit when the function key and a specific key are depressed simultaneously.

4. The portable computer according to claim 2, wherein the process performed by the CPU in response to the hot key data includes an instant security function, a power-save-mode switching function, a resume/boot mode switching function, an LCD/CRT switching function, and an LCD-panel-inverted-monochrome-display function.

5. The portable computer according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sub-display, arranged in a main body of the portable computer, for displaying a plurality of icons representing various operating states of the portable computer; and

an icon display control circuit for ON/OFF-controlling the icons on the sub-display in accordance with the display control data set in the register file.

6. The portable computer according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of icons includes an icon representing a battery save mode including a full-power mode, an economy mode and a low-power mode comprised of operation modes including CPU clock frequency, setting of a CPU sleep mode and setting of an auto-off function of the display and a hard disk drive.

7. The portable computer according to claim 1, further including:

a power supply circuit (PSC);

a PSC bus connecting the PSC to the gate array circuit.

8. The portable computer according to claim 7, wherein the PSC polls the register file in the gate array circuit to thereby adjust a contrast and a brightness of the flat panel display.