Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-19
2002-01-01
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer session/connection establishing
C709S217000, C709S232000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06336142
ABSTRACT:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of executing different applications programs such as PIM (Personal Information Manager) software, a Web browser or the like and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus that has an infrared communication function for exchanging data with an external device such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). More specifically, this invention relates to an information processing apparatus that is capable of smoothly transferring data, such as processed results obtained from execution of an application program, an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) file acquired from a Web server in accordance with the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) protocol or the like, to the external device by using the infrared communication function.
2. Background Art
With the technological revolution in these days, different types of personal computers (PCs), such as desktop, tower, notebook computers, or the like, have been developed and commercially available in the marketplace. As a type of PC that is far smaller than a notebook PC (e.g., palm top type PC), the so-called “PDA” (Personal Digital Assistant) is now widespread in the industry. In general, a PDA is designed to have a much smaller size and a much lighter weight than a notebook PC, thereby to further improve its mobility.
A typical example of PDAs is a mobile type information processing device called “Newton MessagePad”, which has been jointly developed by Apple Computer, Inc. and Sharp Corp. Another example of PDAs is “IBM ChipCard VW-200” (hereafter called “VW-200”), as shown in
FIG. 6
, which is commercially available from IBM Japan, Ltd. Other examples are the 3com Palm Pilot, and the IBM Workpad.
VW-200 is a PDA of the PC card type, and it comprises a first housing portion that conforms to the form factor of Type-II (5.0 mm×85.6 mm×54.0 mm) defined by PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association)/JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association), and a second housing portion that is pivotably hinged on one end of the first housing portion, thereby to form a “foldable structure”. The first housing portion can be inserted into a PC card clot provided in a system unit of a notebook PC and, at its another end, there is provided a PCMCIA connector for implementing a mechanical/electrical connection with the system unit of the PC. Further, when the second housing portion is folded on the first housing portion, the whole structure can be inserted into a PC card slot as a Type-III card (10.5 mm×85.6 mm×54.0 mm). On a printed wiring board within the housing portions, there is mounted an internal CPU (16 bit CPU called “TLCS-9001” made by Toshiba Corp.) for coordinating operations of a PDA, in addition to a PCMCIA interface circuit, memories (SRAM, EEPROM, Kanji font ROM or the like). In a case where the first housing portion is inserted into a PC card slot, the internal CPU enters a sleep mode and, thus, VW-200 functions as a conventional memory. On the other hand, when it is detached from a PC card slot, the internal CPU resumes its operations and, thus, VW-200 is now enabled to function as a PDA. As shown in
FIG. 6
, on the top surface of the first housing portion, a keyboard is provided as an input device for a PDA. Further, on the surface of the second housing portion, a liquid crystal display (200×320 dots (displaying em-sized 12 characters×20 lines), STN monochrome) is provided.
A primary use of a PDA is to manage and to browse personal information or PIM (Personal Information Manager) data, such as a calendar, a schedule, an address book, a memorandum book or the like. Another use of a PDA is to browse a Web page under a mobile environment. Obviously, an advantage of a PDA is in its excellent mobility. A user of a PDA is capable of easily referencing/updating his/her own PIM information, or browsing a Web page under the mobile environment.
Such data handled by a PDA may be directly edited by a user on a PDA, or there may be another implementation wherein a PDA is automatically connected to a network on its own initiative, thereby to directly acquire an HTML file from a Web server. However, a PDA is much smaller than a notebook PC and, in proportion to its size, its display as an output device and its keyboard/tablet as an input device have to be smaller in size. In other words, its working environment for inputting/editing is not deemed rich enough. Further, any substantial PIM software requires a larger program size and, thus, it is not adapted for execution on a PDA due to a limited computing power of a CPU and/or a limited memory capacity. Further, with respect to acquisition of Web data, supporting of the TCP/IP protocol on a PDA involves certain technical difficulties, which necessarily leads to prohibitive increase of costs. In general, under a mobile environment, connection to the Internet is not always expected. While it takes at least several minutes in time to access a Web server and to transfer data, such operation time just for waiting may not be disregarded by an internal battery of a PDA that has a relatively small size and a small capacity.
Thus, it is already known to pre-edit PIM data for a PDA by using PIM software on a desktop or a notebook PC acting as a host PC, to cut a desired portion only out of the saved PIM data, and then to download it to the PDA. Also, it is already known to download an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) file from a desired Web page to a host PC connected to the Internet in advance and then, responsive to a request from a PDA, to download the saved HTML file (e.g., a text portion only of the HTML file) to the PDA.
The aforementioned VW200 is designed to have the first housing portion, which conforms to the form factor of Type-II defined by PCMCIA/JEIDA, so that when it is inserted into a card slot provided in a host PC, it is enabled to exchange data with the host PC. Namely, while VW200 is inserted into the card slot, the host PC is arranged to download the data acquired in advance (e.g., PIM data or an HTML file) to the PDA. When the PDA is subsequently detached from the card slot, it exercises self-operating functions by virtue of an internal CPU and an internal battery, whereby it is capable of presenting the download data for browsing. Japanese Patent Application, which is assigned to the same applicant and which is identified in Japanese Application No. 8-12790 (IBM Docket Number JA996004—U.S. Application #778,317), discloses to transfer PIM data to a PDA of the PC card type while it is being inserted into a PC card slot. Further, another Japanese article by Hatori et al., “ChipScape for VW200” (Soft Bank), discloses to transfer Web data to a PDA of the PC card type while it is being inserted into a PC card slot.
In case of using a PDA of the PC card type such as VW200, a host PC merely requires a card slot for accepting such a PDA (currently, almost all notebook PCs have a card slot as a standard feature) and to install a program for transferring data to a PDA. Namely, in case of implementing the two examples as mentioned in the preceding paragraph, burdens of hardware/software imposed on a host PC would be expected to be minimum. However, because a PDA that is to receive download data has to conform with the form factor defined by PCMCIA/JEIDA, its range of application is substantially limited.
On the other hand, since various computer systems including PCs are provided with serial communication ports or the like as standard features adapted for data communications by wire, it is not technically difficult to download data by wire. However, it is not advantageous to implement downloading from a host PC to a PDA by wire or cable connection. This is because a downloadable place is constrained by a connection cable and yet it takes some time to attach the cable. Further, in a case where a host PC acting as an originator of data (reservoir of download data) is shared
Kanada Yoshihisa
Kato Naotaka
International Business Machines - Corporation
Otterstedt Paul J.
Vu Viet D.
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