Signal processing apparatus with user-configurable circuit configuration

• US 8,555,251 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2006
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamashita, Kosei
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Qing
• Application Number:
  US11/386,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20060218525A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,758 Days
• Field of Search: 717/100, 717/120, 717/121, 700/94, 704200-278, 712/34, 712/35, 712220-248
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A signal processing apparatus for performing signal processing including a plurality of steps in data units by software signal processing includes signal processing modules performing the steps, a circuit configuration information storing and managing unit storing the signal processing modules and circuit configuration information, a signal processing order determining unit determining a signal processing order by performing path routing, a signal processing executing unit executing the signal processing in the determined order, and a circuit configuration changing unit changing circuit configuration information and causing the signal processing order determining unit to re-execute path routing to determine a signal processing order for the changed circuit configuration information during a period from the end of the software signal processing in the data unit to the beginning of the subsequent data unit. Software signal processing from the beginning of the subsequent data unit is performed with the changed circuit configuration.

Claims

1. A signal-processing apparatus for performing signal-processing comprising:

at least one processor programmed to;

perform a plurality of unit signal-processing steps using a plurality of signal-processing modules;

store and manage the plurality of signal-processing modules and circuit configuration information represented by a virtual connection state of inputs and outputs of the plurality of signal-processing modules;

determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the circuit configuration information by performing path routing;

execute the plurality of unit signal-processing steps by sequentially enabling the plurality of signal-processing modules in the determined signal-processing order; and

determine whether a circuit-configuration change request from a user is received during the execution of the plurality of unit signal-processing steps and, in response to determining that the circuit-configuration change request from the user is received;

change the circuit configuration information; and

re-execute the path routing to determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the changed circuit configuration information during a period from an end of signal-processing in a processing data unit to a beginning of a subsequent processing data unit, wherein the path routing comprises analyzing a plurality of signal-processing orders for the plurality of signal-processing modules and selecting based, at least in part, on a processing metric, one of the plurality of signal-processing orders,

wherein signal-processing from the beginning of the subsequent processing data unit is performed with the changed circuit configuration information.

2. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to:

receive a generation or deletion instruction from a user to generate or delete a signal-processing module and a connection instruction from the user to connect the inputs and the outputs of the plurality of signal-processing modules; and

set up a virtual connection between the inputs and the outputs of the plurality of signal-processing modules in response to the connection instruction from the user,

wherein the determined circuit-configuration change request is at least one of the generation or deletion instruction from the user and the connection instruction from the user.

3. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein circuit configuration information different from the circuit configuration information that is currently being used by the at least one processor to perform the signal-processing is a preset circuit configuration information, and

when a circuit-configuration switching instruction is issued from the user during the executed plurality of unit signal-processing steps, the circuit-configuration switching instruction is determined as the circuit-configuration change request, and changes the circuit configuration information to the preset circuit configuration information, and re-executes the path routing to determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the changed circuit configuration information.

4. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the preset circuit configuration information includes a plurality of pieces of circuit configuration information, and the circuit-configuration switching instruction includes information specifying which piece of circuit configuration information in the plurality of pieces of circuit configuration information to switch to.

5. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the circuit-configuration switching instruction from the user is issued by the user operating a foot switch.

6. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the circuit-configuration switching instruction from the user is issued by user speech.

7. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further programmed to:

instruct a storage unit to store one or more pieces of the circuit configuration information and instruction information specifying which timing of the signal-processing to use the stored circuit configuration information; and

monitor the instruction information stored in the storage unit during the signalprocessing,

wherein, when detecting the circuit-configuration change request, the at least one processor is further programmed to;

obtain the changed circuit configuration information from the storage unit;

store the changed circuit configuration information; and

re-execute the path routing to determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the changed circuit configuration information during a period from the end of the signal-processing in the processing data unit to the beginning of the subsequent processing data unit.

8. The signal-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing metric comprises an amount of time required to perform sequential calculations for the plurality of signal-processing modules when arranged in a particular order.

9. A signal-processing method for performing signal-processing including a plurality of unit signal-processing steps in processing data units by means of signal-processing, each processing data unit having a predetermined number of data samples, the signal-processing method comprising:

performing, by at least one processor, the plurality of unit signal-processing steps, respectively, using a plurality of signal-processing modules;

storing and managing the plurality of signal-processing modules and circuit configuration information represented by a virtual connection state of inputs and outputs of the plurality of signal-processing modules;

determining a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the circuit configuration information by performing path routing;

executing the signal-processing by sequentially enabling the plurality of signal-processing modules in the determined signal-processing order; and

determining whether a circuit-configuration change request from a user is received during the execution of the signal-processing, and in response to determining that the circuit-configuration change request from the user is received;

changing the circuit configuration information; and

re-executing the path routing to determine a signal-processing order of the plurality of signal-processing modules forming the changed circuit configuration information during a period from an end of the signal-processing in a processing data unit to a beginning of a subsequent processing data unit, wherein the path routing comprises analyzing a plurality of signal-processing orders for the plurality of signal-processing modules and selecting based, at least in part, on a processing metric, one of the plurality of signal-processing orders,

wherein signal-processing from the beginning of the subsequent processing data unit is performed with the changed circuit configuration information.