Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Programming control
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-03
2003-01-21
Urban, Edward F. (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Programming control
C455S419000, C455S575100, C455S412100, C711S103000, C711S153000, C711S173000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06510316
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication apparatuses such as the Personal Handy Phone System (PHS) and cellular phones.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that information including positional-record information and area information based on the unified standards of the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) is provided to wireless portable communication apparatuses such as the PHS and a mobile telephone through wireless communications between a base station and the apparatuses. The positional-record information and area information are, for example, stored in a flash memory
2
contained in a wireless communication apparatus
1
shown in FIG.
4
.
The flash memory
2
described above is a non-volatile memory, and for example, includes a program-storing region
2
a
for storing a communication program of the wireless communication apparatus
1
and a data-storing region
2
b
for storing data as information. In the data-storing region
2
b
, a plurality of sectors
3
is formed to be partitioned for storing one or more pieces of information. One of the sectors
3
, for example, a sector
3
a
, stores the aforementioned positional-record information.
When a user carries the wireless communication apparatus
1
with him, and the communication area corresponding to the apparatus
1
changes, an operation for recording the new position is performed. In order to record the new position, the positional-record information concerning the new communication area obtained after moving from the previous position is transmitted to the wireless communication apparatus
1
from a base station in order to update the apparatus
1
. Then, the wireless communication apparatus
1
stores and updates the received positional-record information. In other words, the wireless communication apparatus
1
receives the positional-record information via an antenna
5
, and passes the received information through a radio-frequency unit (RFU)
6
and a base band integrated circuit (BBIC)
7
in sequence to transmit to a control unit (CPU)
8
. After this, the CPU
8
updates the positional-record information of the flash memory
2
with the received update information.
However, because of the nature of a flash memory, all the information stored in every sector is eliminated when the flash memory
2
is updated. Therefore, it is impossible to eliminate only the positional-record information stored in the sector
3
a
among the plurality of items of information stored in the aforementioned flash memory
2
. Furthermore, in the conventional apparatus
1
, only the one sector
3
a
is allocated for storing the positional-record information, as described above. Consequently, it takes excessive time to complete updating of the positional-record information after the updating operation is started.
As a result, under the condition in which only the one sector
3
a
is used for storing the positional-record information, updating of the positional-record information must be performed by the following steps.
According to a first example, when the positional-record information for updating is given to the CPU
8
, the CPU
8
first reads out all the stored information from the flash memory
2
, including the positional-record information from the sector
3
a
, and writes or copies the read-out information in a RAM
10
.
In the RAM
10
, based on the updated positional-record information, the CPU
8
modifies the content of the positional-record information included in the information copied from the sector
3
a
, which is hereinafter referred to as the copied information from the sector
3
a
, to create modified positional-record information. Meanwhile, after the information stored in the sector
3
a
has been copied in the RAM
10
, as described above, the CPU
8
eliminates all the information stored in the sector
3
a
of the flash memory
2
.
Then, when the sector
3
a
becomes empty after elimination of the information stored in the sector
3
a
is completed, the CPU
8
stores the modified positional-record information modified in the RAM
10
into the sector
3
a
, with the result that updating of the positional-record information is completed.
Following is another example of a process for updating the positional-record information. First, when the positional-record information for updating is given to the CPU
8
, in the very first step, only when there is no copied information from the sector
3
a
in the RAM
10
, the CPU
8
, as described above, reads out all the stored information including the positional-record information from the sector
3
a
, and copies the read-out information in the RAM
10
. Then, as in the first example described above, the CPU
8
performs updating of the positional-record information.
However, after the updating of the positional-record information in the flash memory
2
has been completed, the copied information of the sector
3
a
in the RAM
10
and the stored information of the sector
3
a
in the flash memory
2
are the same. Therefore, in this case it is unnecessary to copy the positional-record information stored in the sector
3
a
into the RAM
10
. Instead, when the positional-record information for updating is given to the CPU
8
, the CPU
8
, from the beginning, updates the positional-record information among the information copied from the sector
3
a
already stored in the RAM
10
, based on the given updated positional-record information, and similarly, updates the positional-record information of the flash memory
2
, without first reading out the stored information from the sector
3
a
to copy in the RAM
10
.
As described above, in the conventional wireless communication apparatus, by the time updating and storing of the positional-record information for updating in the sector
3
a
of the flash memory
2
is completed after starting of updating thereof, the stored information of the sector
3
a
of the flash memory
2
must be eliminated without fail. Since it takes a long time to eliminate the stored information of the sector
3
a
, it is necessary to take plenty of time during the period between the start of updating the information and the completion thereof. However, this is inconvenient for the user of the apparatus, since the CPU
8
cannot perform any other processing during such a time-consuming operation for updating the positional-record information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a wireless communication apparatus capable of reducing time required for updating updatable information such as positional-record information and area information.
To this end, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wireless communication apparatus including: (1) a non-volatile flash memory in which a plurality of sectors capable of storing one or more pieces of information are formed to be partitioned, the flash memory eliminating the information stored in every sector; (2) a sector controlling unit for controlling the
4
sectors in such a manner that at least one of the plurality of the sectors stores updatable information, and at least one of the remaining sectors has no information so that the sector becomes empty; (3) an update controlling unit for updating and storing the updatable information in a specified empty sector of the plurality of the sectors after receiving a command for updating the updatable information; and (4) an information-elimination controlling unit for eliminating the information stored in the sector storing the pre-update information based on a command given from the sector controlling unit so as to make the sector empty after updating and storing of the updatable information is completed.
In addition, the above wireless communication apparatus, may further include: (1) an information reading unit for reading out all the information stored in the sector having the updatable information as an object targeted for updating, based on the
Milord Marleau
Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
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