Portable computer system with an operating system-independent digital data player

• US 6,654,827 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Issued: 11/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Salazar, Pablo J., Kilponen, Eric M., Mondshine, J. Luke, Zhang, Tim L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Application Number:
  US09/752,039
• Publication Number:
  US 20020085835A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 710/8, 710/10, 710/13, 710/62, 710/72, 710/74, 710/14
• US Class Current: 710/62
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A portable computer system provides an operating system-independent digital data player. The computer system includes an operating system, a data storage medium to store a plurality of digitally encoded data files, and a digital data player to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded data files in an operating system-independent digital data mode. The data storage medium may be any of the storage media for the computer system such as a hard disk drive, a CD-ROM drive, a DVD drive or removable data storage. A mini-display panel of the portable computer system displays control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the digital data mode. The computer system further includes a digital data button to place the portable computer system in the digital data mode and a plurality of digital data control buttons to select a plurality of digital data control commands for the plurality of digitally encoded data files. Selective portions of the portable computer system are placed in a reduced power state for the digital data mode.

Claims

1. A portable computer system with an operating system-independent digital data mode, the system comprising:

an operating system;

a data storage medium to store a plurality of digitally encoded data files; and

a digital data player to retrieve the plurality of digitally encoded data files from the data storage medium and to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded data files in a digital data mode of the portable computer system independent of the operating system,

wherein the digitally encoded data files are encoded with an audio or video codec.

2. The portable computer system of claim 1, further comprising

a digital data mode button to place the portable computer system in the digital data mode independent of the operating system; and

a plurality of digital data control buttons to select a plurality of digital data control commands for the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the digital data mode independent of the operating system.

3. The portable computer system of claim 2, wherein the digital data player detects selection of the plurality of digital data control commands.

4. The portable computer system of claim 2, farther comprising:

a controller to detect selection of the plurality of digital data control commands and to provide the plurality of digital data control commands to the digital data player in the digital data mode independent of the operating system.

5. The portable computer system of claim 4, wherein the controller comprises a keyboard controller.

6. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a digital data loader module to load a digital data decoder on the data storage medium.

7. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a file system module in BIOS to access the plurality of digitally encoded data flies from the data storage medium.

8. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a digital signal processor.

9. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a dedicated digital data player chip.

10. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a digital audio player.

11. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the digital data player comprises a digital video player.

12. The portable computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

a host processor in a reduced power mode in the digital data mode independent of the operating system.

13. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein selective portions of the portable computer system are placed in a reduced power state in the digital data mode.

14. The portable computer system of claim 1, further comprising:

a mini-display panel to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the digital data mode independent of the operating system.

15. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the data storage medium comprises a hard disk drive.

16. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the data storage medium comprises a CD-ROM drive.

17. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the data storage medium comprises a DVD drive.

18. The portable computer system of claim 1, wherein the data storage medium comprises removable data storage.

19. A digital data player for an operating system-independent digital data mode of a portable computer system, the player comprising:

a means for retrieving a plurality of digitally encoded audio or video media files from a hard disk drive of a portable computer system in an operating system-independent digital data mode; and

a means for decoding and playing the plurality of digitally encoded data audio or video media files in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

20. The digital data player of claim 19, further comprising:

a means for detecting selection of a plurality of digital data control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files.

21. The digital data player of claim 19, further comprising:

a means for signaling a mini-display panel of the portable computer system to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

22. The digital data player of claim 19, the means for decoding and playing comprising:

a file storage means for accessing the plurality of digitally encoded data files from a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system independent digital data mode.

23. The digital data player of claim 19, further comprising:

a means for placing selective portions of the portable computer system in a reduced power state in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

24. A method of digital data playing in a digital data mode of a portable computer system independent of an operating system, the method comprising the steps of:

retrieving a plurality of digitally encoded data files from a data storage medium of a portable computer system in an operating system-independent digital data mode;

decoding the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode; and

playing the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode,

wherein the digitally encoded data files are encoded with an audio or video codec.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of:

detecting selection of a plurality of digital data control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of:

signaling a mini-display panel of the portable computer system to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of:

placing selective portions of the portable computer system In a reduced power state in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the digitally encoded data files comprises digital audio files.

29. The method of claim 24, wherein the digitally encoded data files comprise digital video files.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the data storage medium comprises a hard disk drive.

31. The method of claim 24, wherein the data storage medium comprises a CD-ROM drive.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the data storage medium comprises a DVD drive.

33. The method of claim 24, wherein the data storage medium comprises removable data storage.

34. A digital data media player for an operating system-independent digital data mode of a portable computer system, the player comprising:

a file system module to retrieve a plurality of digitally encoded media files from a hard disk drive of a portable computer system in an operating system-independent digital data mode;

a digital data decoder to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded media files in the operating system-independent digital data mode; and

a digital data loader to load the digital data decoder from the hard disk drive,

wherein the digitally encoded media files are encoded with an audio or video codec.

35. The digital data player of claim 34, further comprising:

an interrupt handler to detect selection of a plurality of digital data control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system-independent digital data mode.

36. The digital data player of claim 34, wherein the digital data loader initializes selective portions of the portable computer system for the operating system-independent digital data mode.

37. The digital data player of claim 34, wherein the digital data loader and the file system module are stored In system BIOS of the portable computer system.

38. The digital data player of claim 34, the file system module comprising:

a hard disk drive driver to read the plurality of digitally encoded data files from the hard disk drive.

39. A portable computer system with an operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode, the system comprising:

an operating system;

a CD-ROM drive;

a digital audio/audio CD mode button to place the portable computing system In an operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode;

a means for detecting if the CD-ROM drive contains an audio CD in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode;

a means for playing the audio CD in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode if the CD-ROM drive contains an audio CD; and

a means for decoding and playing digital audio fifes in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode if the CD-ROM drive does not contain an audio CD.

40. The portable computer system of claim 39, the means for decoding and playing comprising:

a means for decoding and playing digital audio files on a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode.

41. The portable computer system of claim 39, the means for decoding and playing comprising:

a means for decoding and playing digital audio files on a data CD in the CD-ROM drive in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode.

42. A method of audio playing in an operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode of a portable computer system, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting If a CD-ROM drive of the portable computer system contains an audio CD in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode;

playing the audio CD in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode if the CD-ROM drive contains an audio CD; and

decoding and playing digital audio files in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode if the CD-ROM drive does not contain an audio CD.

43. The method of claim 42, the decoding and playing step comprising the step of:

decoding and playing digital audio files on a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode.

44. The method of claim 42, the decoding and playing step comprising the step of:

decoding and playing digital audio files on a data CD in the CD-ROM drive in the operating system-independent digital audio/audio CD mode.