Terminal with corrective maintenance in accordance with selected mode

• US 6,868,510 B1
• Filed: 09/22/2000
• Issued: 03/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Nozu, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): MASKULINSKI, MICHAEL C
• Application Number:
  US09/667,324
• Time in Patent Office: 1,635 Days
• Field of Search: 714/48, 714/44, 714/23
• US Class Current: 714/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40

Abstract

The terminal deals effectively with an error occurrence in accordance with a selected one of modes that comprise a normal mode and a debug mode. The terminal comprises a mode information holder, an error detector, a mode judge unit and a initializer. The mode information holder holds mode information that indicates which mode is the selected mode. For example, the holding of the mode information is carried out ahead of supplying power to the terminal. When an error occurs in the terminal, the error detector detects the error. Then the mode judge unit judges which mode is the selected mode, by referring to the mode information so as to produce an initialization request if the normal mode is the selected mode. The initializer initializes the terminal in response to the initialization request. On the other hand, the mode judge unit does not produce the initialization request if the debug mode is the selected mode. Accordingly, the initializer does not initialize the terminal so that the terminal continues to malfunction from the error.

Claims

1. A terminal which processes an error occurring in the terminal in accordance with a mode selected by a user from among a normal mode and a debug mode, said terminal comprising:

a mode information holder adapted to hold mode information that indicates which mode is the selected mode;

an error detector adapted to detect an error occurring in the terminal;

a mode judge unit adapted to judge which mode is the selected mode when the error detector detects the error, by referring to the mode information, the mode judge unit producing an initialization request if the normal mode is the selected mode, while the mode judge unit does not produce the initialization request if the debug mode is the selected mode; and

an initializer which initialize the terminal in response to the initialization request;

wherein the mode information holder comprises a register adapted to store, as the mode information, a flag indicative of either one of the normal mode and the debug mode, and

wherein the initializer carries out initialization which comprises a first initialization phase and a second initialization phase carried out after the first initialization phase, the terminal further comprising;

a memory which is selectively put into a hold state and a release state;

an error information controller adapted to write error information into the memory when the error detector detects the error;

an error information analyzer adapted to judge whether or not the memory stores the error information after the initializer carries out the first initialization phase, the error information analyzer notifying the initializer of the judgement;

an information switch adapted to switch between two switch conditions which indicate the hold state and the release state, respectively; and

a switch detector adapted to detect the switch condition of the information switch to notify the initializer of the switch condition so that, if the switch condition indicates the hold state in a condition that the memory stores the error information, the initializer keeps the memory storing the error information and then carries out the second initialization phase.

2. A terminal as claimed in claim 1, the terminal being connected with an outer analyzer when the error is analyzed, wherein:

the error information analyzer reads the error information out of the memory after the initializer carries out the first initialization phase, and analyzes the error on the basis of the error information to produce detailed error information and to notify the detailed error information to the outer analyzer.

3. A terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a main controller adapted to control a normal operation of the terminal after the second initialization phase, the error detector periodically monitoring the terminal so as to tell an error occurrence to the error information controller if detecting the error.

4. A terminal as claimed in claim 3, further comprising a display unit and a display controller, wherein the error detector also notifies the display controller of the error occurrence when detecting the error, so that the display controller controls the display unit to visually display the error information on the display unit.

5. A terminal which processes an error occurring in the terminal in accordance with a mode selected by a user from among a normal mode and a debug mode, said terminal comprising:

a mode information holder adapted to hold mode information that indicates which mode is the selected mode;

an error detector adapted to detect an error occurring in the terminal;

a mode judge unit adapted to judge which mode is the selected mode when the error detector detects the error, by referring to the mode information, the mode judge unit producing an initialization request if the normal mode is the selected mode, while the mode judge unit does not produce the initialization request if the debug mode is the selected mode; and

an initializer which initialize the terminal in response to the initialization request;

wherein the mode information holder comprises a register adapted to store, as the mode information, a flag indicative of either one of the normal mode and the debug mode, A terminal which processes an error occurring in the terminal in accordance with a mode selected by a user from a among a normal mode and a debug mode, said terminal comprising;

a mode information holder adapted to hold mode information that indicates which mode is the selected mode;

an error detector adapted to detect an error occurring in the terminal;

a mode judge unit adapted to judge which mode is the selected mode when the error detector detects the error, by referring to the mode information, the mode judge unit producing an initialization request if the normal mode is the selected mode, while the mode judge unit does not produce the initialization request if the debug mode is the selected mode; and

an initializer which initialize the terminal in response to the initialization request;

wherein the mode information holder comprises a register adapted to store, as the mode information, a flag indicative of either one of the normal mode and the debug mode, and

wherein the initializer carries out initialization which comprises a first initialization phase and a second initialization phase carried out after the first initialization phase, the terminal further comprising;

a memory;

an error information controller adapted to write an error information into the memory when the error detector detects the error, the error information being indicative of an error part of the terminal that is selectively put into an active state and an inactive state;

an error information analyzer adapted to judge whether or not the memory stores the error information after the initializer carries out the first initialization phase, the error information analyzer notifying the initializer of the judgement;

a reduction switch adapted to switch between two switch conditions which indicate the active state and the inactive state, respectively; and

a switch detector adapted to detect the switch condition of the reduction switch to forbid the initializer to start the error part if the switch condition indicates the inactive state, so that the initializer carries out the second initialization phase with the error part being functionally reduced.

6. A terminal as claimed in claim 5, the terminal being connected with an outer analyzer when the error is analyzed, wherein:

the error information analyzer reads the error information out of the memory after the initializer carries out the first initialization phase, and analyzes the error on the basis of the error information to produce detailed error information and to notify the detailed error information to the outer analyzer.

7. A terminal as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a main controller adapted to mainly control a normal operation of the terminal after the second initialization phase, the error detector periodically monitoring the terminal so as to tell an error occurrence to the error information controller if detecting the error.

8. A terminal as claimed in claim 7, further comprising a display unit and a display controller, wherein the error detector also notifies the display controller of the error occurrence when detecting the error, so that the display controller controls the display unit to visually display the error information on the display unit.