SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING INTERRUPTION OF A PROCESS IN ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT BASED ON PRIORITY OF THE PROCESS, AND PROGRAM

• US 20110099313A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 04/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: BOLANOWSKI, Wladyslaw
• Granted Patent: US 8,356,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/262
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4837 time dependent
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues

Abstract

System, method, and program to determine whether to interrupt a process, e.g., a write function, to carry out another process, e.g., a high priority read function, in a device that uses memory devices, e.g., eMMC devices, that use a single channel to carry out two different processes, e.g., write and read processes.

Claims

1. A system for controlling interruption of an operation of electronic equipment, comprising

a device configured to carry out an operation, and

logic configured to determine based on time consideration permission to interrupt the operation to carry out another operation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the device is a mobile phone.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the permission is based on priority of the operation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic determines a timeout value [TOUT] and an actual time [TACT] and permits interruption if [TACT] is less than [TOUT].

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the logic does not permit interruption if [TACT] is greater or equal to [TOUT].

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operation is a write process and the possible interruption is a high priority read process.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the device uses one channel to carry out both the operation and the another operation.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operation and another operation cannot be carried out simultaneously.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the device is an eMMC device.

10. A method for operating electronic equipment by controlling permission to interrupt a process, comprising

determining based on the length of time that the process has been carried out whether to permit interruption of the process to carry out another process.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising carrying out the controlling in a mobile phone.

12. The method of claim 10, said determining comprising determining based on priority.

13. The method of claim 10, said determining comprising determining a timeout value [TOUT] and an actual time [TACT] and permitting interruption if [TACT] is less than [TOUT].

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said determining does not permit interruption if [TACT] is greater or equal to [TOUT].

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the process is a write process and the interruption is a high priority read process.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein one channel is used to carry out both the process and the another process.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the process and another process are carried out with respect to an eMMC device.

18. An electronic device comprising:

a memory configured to store one or more application programs and/or data,

a controller coupled to the memory, wherein the processor receives a request to execute a process that may be interruptible depending on priority of the process, the controller is configured to;

commence carrying out the process,

in response to an interrupt determining based on time carrying out the process and the time permitted for interrupting the process whether to interrupt the process to carry out another process.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the device comprises a portable electronic device.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the memory uses the same channel to carry out the process and the another process.

21. The device of claim 18, wherein the process and another process are, respectively, write and high priority read.

22. The device of claim 18, wherein the memory comprises an eMMC device.

23. A program for use in an electronic device for controlling interruption of a computer application program that is stored in a machine readable medium, comprising executable logic to:

receive a command to launch the computer application program to carry out the process;

obtain a timeout time value [tout] within which the process may be interrupted to permit the carrying out of another process;

after receiving a request for interrupting the process to carry out another process, determining whether the amount of actual time [tact] during which the process has been carried out since commencing carrying out the process is at least one of greater or equal to the timeout time value [tout]; and

permitting the carrying out of the another process if [tact] is at least one of less than or equal to [tout].