Video overlay buffer mirrored through a shared mailbox between two processors in a feature phone

• US 7,289,823 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2004
• Issued: 10/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Neomagic Corporation
• Inventors: Kumar, Sandeep, Pothana, Sai K., Zaidi, Syed
• Primary Examiner(s): Kincaid; Lester G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Figueroa; Marisol
• Application Number:
  US10/904,337
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 455/550.1, 455/566, 455/412.1
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/167 using a common memory, e.g. mailbox
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16

Abstract

A feature phone has two processors that share a display. The display is attached to an applications processor that has a frame buffer for refreshing the display. A base-band processor also runs programs that generate graphics data that is written to a base-band frame buffer. Updates to the base-band frame buffer are sent through a shared-memory interface to a shared memory, and a shared mailbox is written with the message length, triggering a mailbox-interrupt to the applications processor. The applications processor reads the message from the shared memory and updates a copied frame buffer. An overlay engine uses the copied frame buffer to refresh the display when the base-band processor has the focus, or to refresh a smaller base-band window that covers a portion of the display, leaving the rest of the display area for applications-processor graphics data. Rapid switching between the copied and local frame buffer is possible.

Claims

1. A dual-processor wireless-communications device comprising:

a wireless transceiver for sending and receiving wireless data over a wireless network using wireless protocols;

a base-band processor, coupled to control the wireless transceiver, for executing routines using a first operating system kernel including routines to transmit and receive wireless data through the wireless transceiver;

a base-band frame buffer, coupled to the base-band processor, for storing base-band graphics data generated by routines executing on the base-band processor;

an applications processor for executing application programs using a second operating system kernel;

a shared memory having a first buffer that is written by the base-band processor and read by the applications processor;

a transmit routine, executing on the base-band processor and coupled to the base-band frame buffer, the transmit routine writing a graphics-update message to the first buffer in the shared memory in response to the routines executing on the base-band processor updating the base-band graphics data in the base-band frame buffer;

a shared mailbox, coupled to be written by the applications processor and by the base-band processor, having a plurality of mailbox locations, wherein writing to a first mailbox location in the shared mailbox generates a second interrupt to the applications processor;

a receive driver, executed by the applications processor in response to the second interrupt, the receive driver reading the graphics-update message from the first buffer in the shared memory in response to the second interrupt;

a copied frame buffer, coupled to the applications processor, having a copy of the base-band graphics data, the receive driver updating the copy of the base-band graphics data in the copied frame buffer in response to the graphics-update message; and

a display, coupled to the applications processor, for displaying to a user the base-band graphics data from the copied frame buffer generated by the base-band processor and for displaying applications information to the user generated by the application programs;

whereby the display is shared by passing messages through the shared memory using the shared mailbox.

2. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 1 further comprising:

an overlay engine, coupled to the display, for driving the base-band graphics data to the display in response to a base-band-display signal being in an active state;

a local graphics engine, coupled to the display, for driving local graphics data generated by the applications programs executing on the applications processor to the display in response to the base-band-display signal not being in the active state.

3. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 further comprising:

a local frame buffer, coupled to supply the local graphics data to the local graphics engine, for storing the local graphics data generated by the applications programs executing on the applications processor.

4. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 wherein the base-band display signal is activated for a refresh time period of the display when the base-band processor has an execution focus for running the routines on the base-band processor;

wherein only the base-band graphics data is displayed when the base-band display signal is in the active state.

5. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 wherein the base-band display signal is activated for only a portion of a refresh time period of the display;

wherein the base-band graphics data is displayed in a base-band window on the display, the base-band window being smaller in area than a display area of the display;

wherein the local graphics data appears in the display area that is not covered by the base-band window.

6. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 wherein the base-band graphics data displays call information to the user generated by the base-band processor.

7. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 wherein the wireless data sent over the wireless network using the wireless protocols includes encoded voice data,

wherein the dual-processor wireless-communications device is a feature wireless phone.

8. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 further comprising:

a first general-purpose input-output (GPIO) module, coupled to read a signal on a GPIO line and generate a first interrupt to the base-band processor in response to the signal on the GPIO line;

a second GPIO module, coupled to write the signal onto the GPIO line in response to a command from the applications processor.

9. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 8 wherein the applications processor sends an acknowledgement message to the base-band processor by writing the acknowledgement message to the shared memory and by activating the second GPIO module to write the signal onto the GPIO line;

whereby the acknowledgement message is signaled to the base-band processor by the applications processor activating the GPIO line.

10. The dual-processor wireless-communications device of claim 2 wherein the first operating system kernel and the second operating system kernel are different operating systems.

11. A method for sharing a display between a first processor and a second processor within a mobile device comprising:

the first processor generating first graphics data and activating a transmit driver;

the transmit driver generating a graphics-update message identifying changes to the first graphics data and writing the graphics-update message to a shared memory, the transmit driver also writing to a shared mailbox to generate a second interrupt to the second processor;

the second processor, in response to the second interrupt, activating a receive driver;

the receive driver reading the graphics-update message from the shared memory in response to the second interrupt and updating copied graphics data in response to the graphics-update message;

the second processor executing second programs that generate second graphics data, the second processor refreshing a display controlled by the second processor using the second graphics data; and

an overlay engine substituting the copied graphics data for the second graphics data for a first window portion of the display,

whereby second graphics data on the display is overlaid with the copied graphics data for the first window portion, the copied graphics data being updated by the graphics-update messages sent through the shared memory.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

the first processor writing the first graphics data to a first frame buffer on the first processor.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the transmit driver writing to the shared mailbox comprises writing a length of the graphics-update message to the shared mailbox.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

clearing the shared mailbox by the receive driver writing a zero to the shared mailbox.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the mobile device is a mobile telephone, and wherein the first processor is a base-band processor and the second processor is an applications processor.

16. An applications processor that shares a local display with a base-band processor comprising:

processing means for executing high-level programs that generate local graphics data;

shared memory means for storing a graphics-update message received from the base-band processor;

inter-processor interface means, coupled between the shared memory means and the base-band processor, for allowing the base-band processor to write the graphics-update message to the shared memory means;

shared mailbox means, coupled to the inter-processor interface means and to the processing means, for generating a first interrupt in response to the base-band processor writing to a first location in the shared mailbox means;

display interface means for driving the local graphics data to the local display;

copied frame buffer means for storing remote graphics data;

graphics-update driver means, executing on the processing means and activated by the first interrupt, for reading the shared memory means to read graphics data from the graphics-update message sent from the base-band processor, the graphics-update driver means updating the remote graphics data stored in the copied frame buffer means in response to the graphics-update message;

overlay engine means, coupled to the copied frame buffer means, for driving the remote graphics data to the local display and blocking the local display interface means from driving the local graphics data to the local display for at least a window portion of the local display,

whereby the base-band processor writes the graphics-update message to the shared memory means and signals the applications processor by writing to the shared mailbox means.

17. The applications processor of claim 16 further comprising:

local frame buffer means for storing the local graphics data generated by the high-level programs;

wherein the display interface means reads the local graphics data from the local frame buffer means when the overlay engine means is not driving the remote graphics data to the local display.

18. The applications processor of claim 17 wherein the graphics-update driver means further comprises:

receive means, executing on the processing means, for reading the graphics-update message from the shared memory means in response to the first interrupt, the receive means passing the graphics-update message to the graphics-update driver means.

19. The applications processor of claim 18 wherein the receive means further comprises:

clearing means for clearing the first interrupt by writing to the first location in the shared mailbox means after the graphics-update message has been read from the shared memory means.

20. The applications processor of claim 17 wherein the applications processor and the base-band processor are within a mobile telephone.