Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Computer power control – Power conservation
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-17
2001-08-28
Lefkowitz, Sumati (Department: 2181)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Computer power control
Power conservation
C713S323000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282667
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a computer system with a sound device providing a sound function and to a method of controlling the power supply of the sound device, and more particularly to a computer system capable of remarkably reducing the amount of electric power unnecessarily consumed by a sound device and to a method of controlling the power supply of the sound device.
In recent years, a variety of portable information devices that are easy to carry with and can operated from a battery have been developed. Most of the portable information devices of this type have a sound function for dealing with sound effects, music, speech, and the like.
The sound function is provided by a sound device (e.g., a sound controller) in the information device. The sound device is constituted by a dedicated logic circuitry composed of various circuits corresponding to the sound functions of a plurality of types, including WAVE sound and MIDI sound.
Recently, a new use of computers known as mobile computing has been finding its way in various fields. In mobile computing, the user loads only the necessary ones of the data items managed by a desk-top personal computer serving as, for example, a server into the user's easy-to-carry portable information device. Subsequently, the user does data processing work using the data in the portable information device at the user's destination or in the middle of moving to the destination. With the popularization of such mobile computing, the possible continuous running time of a computer operating from a secondary battery has begun to be considered important. In this connection, thorough power saving has been studied in the development of portable information devices.
The sound device, however, is constantly being powered as long as the power supply of the portable information device is in operation, regardless of whether the sound function is currently being used or not. This leads to a waste of electric power.
To sum up, the latest personal computers are provided with a sound device for providing a sound function. The sound device has the problem of wasting electric power, because electric power is constantly being supplied to the sound device as long as the power supply of the personal computer is in operation, regardless of whether the sound function is currently being used or not.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system capable of remarkably reducing the electric power unnecessarily consumed by a sound device and a method of controlling the power supply of the sound device.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system comprising: a sound device including various circuits that provide various types of sound functions; means responsive to a request of an application program and capable of issuing an open message to start the execution of a specific type of sound function or a close message to end the execution of the sound function; and power-saving means including: means responsive to the open message issued from the issuing means, for controlling the sound device such that electric power is supplied to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function; and means for responsive to the close message issued from the issuing means, for controlling the sound device such that the supply of electric power to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function is stopped.
The system may further comprise sound device driving means for driving the sound device. In this case, the power-saving means may hand over the open message or close message issued from the issuing means to the sound device driving means. The sound device driving means may control the sound device such that the sound process of the corresponding type in the sound device is started or stopped in response to the open message or close message handed over by the power-saving means. Moreover, the power-saving means may control the sound device such that the supply of electric power to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function is stopped after a predetermined time has elapsed since the power-saving means handed over the close message to the sound device driving means. In this case, the power-saving means may include a timer for counting the predetermined time. Moreover, the sound device may include a common amplifier shared by the various circuits. In this case, the power-saving means may control the sound device such that electric power is supplied to the common amplifier, when at least one of the various types of sound functions is in operation. The power-saving means may include a plurality of counters that are provided so as to correspond to the various types of sound functions and indicate whether or not the corresponding types of sound functions are in operation. Moreover, at least one of the various circuits included in the sound device may be a WAVE exclusive circuit or a MIDI exclusive circuit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system comprising: a sound device including various circuits that provide various types of sound functions; an operating system responsive to a request of an application program and capable of issuing an open message to start the execution of a specific type of sound function or a close message to end the execution of the sound function; and a power-saving driver for controlling the sound device such that electric power is supplied to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function in response to the open message issued from the operating system, and controlling the sound device such that the supply of electric power to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function is stopped in response to the close message issued from the operating system.
The system may further comprise a sound device driver for driving the sound device.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a power-supply control method for use in a computer system which has a sound device including various circuits that provide various types of sound functions and an operating system responsive to a request of an application program and capable of issuing an open message to start the execution of a specific type of sound function or a close message to end the execution of the sound function, the power-supply control method comprising the steps of: controlling the sound device such that electric power is supplied to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function, when the operating system has issued the open message; and controlling the sound device such that the supply of electric power to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function is stopped, when the operating system has issued the close message.
The power supply stopping control may be carried out after a predetermined time has elapsed since the sound process of the corresponding type in the sound device was stopped.
According to yet still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium having program code instructions stored thereon which perform power-supply control in a computer system which has a sound device including various circuits that provide various types of sound functions and an operating system responsive to a request of an application program and capable of issuing an open message to start the execution of a specific type of sound function or a close message to end the execution of the sound function, the instructions comprising: controlling the sound device such that electric power is supplied to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function, when the operating system has issued the open message, and controlling the sound device such that the supply of electric power to the circuits providing the specific type of sound function is stopped, when the operating system has issued the close message.
The power supply stopping control may be carried out after a predetermined time
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Lefkowitz Sumati
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