Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Patent
1993-08-25
1995-10-10
Gonzalez, Frank
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
369 53, 369 58, 380 4, 34082534, G11B 1722
Patent
active
054576687
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to a data processing system, and more particularly, to a data processing system so adapted as to perform predetermined collating processing at the time of starting the system to judge the adaptability of an optical information recording medium serving as an external memory.
BACKGROUND ART
As represented by, for example, a television game set and a personal computer, a data processing system so adapted as to read out program data (game program data in the case of the television game set) from an external memory and execute the same to display a predetermined image on a monitor device (for example, a CRT and a liquid crystal display device) and output a sound thereto has been conventionally known.
In such a data processing system, the program data stored in the external memory should not be data unfairly copied. If the program data stored in the external memory is data unfairly copied, the profit of an owner of the copyright of the program data is damaged. In addition, if the program data unfairly copied is inferior in quality, a malfunction occurs in the data processing system, so that the profit of a user purchasing the external memory is damaged. Consequently, the program data must be strictly prevented from being unfairly copied.
As a method of preventing program data from being unfairly copied, the following methods have been conventionally known.
A first method is a method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,076 issued on Jul. 24, 1984. This method is a method of previously storing a character or character data representing an owner of the copyright in both a memory in a main unit and a memory in an external cartridge, comparing both the data, merely displaying data representing an owner of the copyright by a character if both the data coincide with each other and then, starting the execution of a game program.
A second method is a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 210562/1990 laid open on Aug. 21, 1990. This method is a method of previously storing first character data for displaying a trademark in an external memory unit and storing second character data corresponding to the first character data in an internal memory in an information processing unit, displaying the first character data on a monitor device when the external memory unit is mounted on the information processing unit, and collating the first and second character data to allow the execution of program data if both the data coincide with each other.
A third method is a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 296433/1986 laid open on Dec. 27, 1986 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 3331/1987 laid open on Jan. 9, 1987. This third method is a method of respectively providing an information processing unit and an external storage with ICs for checking the adaptability of the external storage and establishing data communication between both the ICs to judge the adaptability of the external storage.
The first method is very complicated because the data representing an owner of the copyright stored in the memory in the main unit must be altered for each exchange of the external cartridge. Furthermore, in the first method, after the data representing an owner of the copyright stored in the memory in the main unit and the data representing an owner of the copyright stored in the memory in the external cartridge coincide with each other, the data representing an owner of the copyright is displayed on a monitor device. When both the data do not coincide with each other, therefore, nothing is displayed on the monitor device. Consequently, the first method gives a user a feeling of uneasiness that the television game set itself develops a fault when both the data do not coincide with each other.
The second method uses as collating data the character data for displaying a trademark. Therefore, the necessity of altering the collating data in the memory in the main unit for each exchange of the external memory unit as in the first method is eliminate
REFERENCES:
patent: 4462076 (1984-07-01), Smith, III
patent: 5134391 (1992-07-01), Okada
Hibino Toshiro
Taho Sagahiro
Dinh Tan
Gonzalez Frank
Nintendo Co. Ltd.
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