KR100719808B1 - A portable terminal having a memory sharing method and a memory sharing structure - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a portable terminal having a memory sharing structure. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a portable terminal includes a memory having an interface for transmitting and receiving multimedia data; A host coupled to the memory via a first bus and generating and outputting location information corresponding to a location of the multimedia data stored in the memory; And a digital signal processing unit coupled to the memory via a second bus and reading the multimedia data stored in a position corresponding to the position information from the memory via the second bus when the position information is input from the host, . Therefore, the load and / or the power consumption of the host of the portable terminal can be reduced by the present invention.

Mobile communication terminal, memory, sharing

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a portable terminal having a memory sharing method and a memory sharing structure,

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a view showing an example of a conventional coupling structure of a control section, a signal processing section and a memory. Fig.

2A is a diagram showing another example of a coupling structure of a conventional control unit, a signal processing unit, and a memory.

FIG. 2B is a view showing another example of a coupling structure of a conventional control unit, a processor, and a memory. FIG.

3 is a block diagram of a conventional mobile communication terminal having an MP3 file playback function.

4 is a diagram illustrating a combined structure of a host, a digital signal processor, and a memory according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reproducing multimedia data through sharing a memory between a host and a digital signal processing unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG.

Description of the Related Art

410: Host

420: memory

430: Digital signal processor

The present invention relates to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to a memory sharing method in a portable terminal.

 The portable terminal is an electronic device which is formed in a small size for facilitating the functions of a game, a mobile communication, and the like and facilitates the user's carrying. The portable terminal may include a mobile communication terminal, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a portable multimedia player (PMP).

The dual mobile communication terminal is essentially a device that enables a mobile user to make a phone call with a receiver of a remote location. However, due to advances in science and technology, recent mobile communication terminals have a variety of functions such as a camera function, a multimedia data playback function (for example, MP3 file playback, video playback Etc.) are additionally provided.

FIGS. 1 and 2B are views showing an example of a conventional combining structure of a control unit, a signal processing unit, and a memory.

Referring to FIG. 1, the controller 110 controls the overall operation of the mobile communication terminal. The controller 110 is responsible for input / output to / from the memory 120 and transmits the data read from the memory 120 to the signal processor 130.

The signal processor 130 is an audio codec that decodes an MP3 file to reproduce the MP3 file. The signal processor 130 receives and decodes the MP3 file from the controller 110. In the structure of FIG. 1, since the controller 110 has to participate in the operation of the signal processor 130 until the MP3 file is reproduced, the load on the controller 110 is relatively increased. As a result, power consumption of the control unit 110 increases, and overall performance degradation occurs due to a bottleneck phenomenon.

To reduce the load on the control unit 110, a separate processor 240 dedicated to input / output to the memory 120 is added as illustrated in FIG. 2 reduces the load on the controller 110 but increases the load on the processor 240 and the bottleneck with the signal processor 130 still exists and the power consumption of the processor 240 increases The problem of the structure of Fig. 1 still exists.

As shown in FIG. 2B, when the processor 250 includes the signal processing unit 130, it may directly access the memory 120. FIG. However, the structure of FIG. 2B is different from the structure of FIG. 2B in that the processor 250 is implemented in the form of a general chip so that the processor 250 has a large size, consumes a lot of power, There is a problem that can not be done.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a memory sharing method and a portable terminal having a memory sharing structure capable of reducing a load of a host and reducing power consumption in multimedia data playback.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a host capable of minimizing information transfer between a host and a digital signal processing unit, and a portable terminal having a memory sharing method and a memory sharing structure capable of reducing a bottleneck of a digital signal processing unit.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a memory sharing method and a portable terminal having a memory sharing structure that can reduce manufacturing cost by reducing the bottleneck of a host and a digital signal processing unit by adding a minimum amount of hardware.

Other objects of the present invention will be readily understood from the following description of the embodiments.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable terminal including a memory having multiple interfaces for transmitting and receiving multimedia data.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a mobile terminal comprising: a memory having an interface for transmitting and receiving multimedia data; A host coupled to the memory via a first bus and generating and outputting location information corresponding to a location of the multimedia data stored in the memory; And a digital signal processing unit coupled to the memory through a second bus and reading the multimedia data stored in a position corresponding to the position information from the memory via the second bus when the position information is input from the host, And a portable terminal.

The memory may have at least one interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the host, and at least one interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the digital signal processing unit.

The multimedia data may be any one of image data, audio data, and moving picture data.

 The digital signal processor may be coupled to the host through a third bus to transmit and receive information.

The memory may be either an internal memory or an external memory.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of sharing a memory having multiple interfaces for transmitting and receiving multimedia data.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of sharing memory for reproducing multimedia data stored in a memory coupled to a host via a first bus and coupled to a digital signal processing unit via a second bus, The host accesses the memory through the first bus to generate position information corresponding to the position of the multimedia data in the memory and transmit the generated position information to the digital signal processor; The digital signal processing unit reading multimedia data corresponding to the position information from the memory via the second bus; And the digital signal processing unit decodes the read multimedia data, converts the read multimedia data into analog data, and transmits the converted analog data to an output unit.

The multimedia data may be any one of image data, audio data, and moving picture data.

The host may further include a command for instructing the processing of the multimedia data to the digital signal processor.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same means regardless of the number of the drawings. In addition, the numerals (for example, first, second, etc.) used in the present specification are intended to distinguish the same or similar objects, and thus the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto.

3 is a block diagram of a mobile communication terminal having a memory sharing structure according to the present invention.

3, a mobile communication terminal 300 having an MP3 file reproducing function includes a high frequency processor 310, an A / D converter 315, a D / A converter 320, a controller 325, A key input unit 335, a memory 340, a display unit 345, a signal processing unit 350, and a speaker 355.

The high-frequency processing unit 310 processes a high-frequency signal received via an antenna or transmitted through an antenna.

The A / D conversion unit 315 converts the analog signal output from the high-frequency processing unit 310 into a digital signal and transmits the digital signal to the control unit 325.

The D / A converter 320 converts the digital signal output from the controller 325 into an analog signal and transmits the analog signal to the high frequency processor 310.

The controller 325 controls the overall operation of the mobile communication terminal 300. In addition, the control unit 325 transfers an arbitrary command (for example, a data processing command, a data read command, and the like) to the signal processing unit 350. [ For example, if a playback command is input to the control unit 325 in response to a user's selection of an MP3 file through the key input unit 335, the control unit 325 controls the memory 340 to store the corresponding MP3 file (That is, the address where the corresponding MP3 file is stored), and transmits it to the signal processing unit 350 together with the MP3 file playback command. Here, the control unit 325 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or a micro-controller and is hereinafter referred to as a "host ".

The power supply unit 330 is a means for supplying power necessary for the mobile communication terminal 300 to operate. The power supply unit 130 may be coupled to an external power source or may be coupled to a battery or the like.

The key input unit 335 generates key data for performing various functions and dialing of the mobile communication terminal 300 and transmits the key data to the host 325.

The memory 340 stores an operating program of the mobile communication terminal 300, various data, and the like. The memory 340 may be a memory included in the mobile communication terminal 300 or may be coupled to the mobile communication terminal through a memory socket (not shown) provided in the mobile communication terminal 300 as an external memory. For example, the memory 340 may be a flash memory or an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). FIG. 4 illustrates a shared structure of a portable terminal according to the present invention. A detailed description will be given below with reference to FIG.

The display unit 345 displays an operation state, a character or a graphic of the mobile communication terminal 300 under the control of the host 325.

The signal processing unit 350 may be a dedicated processor for processing multimedia data such as MPEG-4, 3D graphics, camera functions, and audio data reproduction (for example, MP3 file playback). Hereinafter, the signal processing unit 350 is assumed to be an audio codec and is referred to as a "digital signal processing unit ". That is, the digital signal processor 350 decompresses the MP3 file of the memory 340, which is input through the host 325, into an MP3 format and then decodes it into an audio data format, (355).

The output unit 355 outputs the audio signal input from the digital signal processing unit 350 to the outside. For example, output 355 may be a speaker.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a host, a digital signal processor, and a memory of a portable terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4, the host 410 is coupled to transmit and receive information to and from the memory 420 via a first bus, and to transmit and receive information to and from the digital signal processor 430 via a second bus. The digital signal processing unit 430 is coupled to transmit and receive information to and from the memory 420 via the third bus. Here, the host 410 and the digital signal processing unit 430 may be connected by a single line.

The memory 420 has one or more ports for exclusively transmitting and receiving information to and from the host 410, and one or more ports for exclusively transmitting and receiving information to and from the digital signal processing unit 430. Of course, the number of ports that can be provided in the memory 420 may be increased or decreased according to the number of processors (for example, a host, a digital signal processor, etc.) coupled to the bus.

All or part of the memory 420 according to the present invention may be implemented as a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a pseudo SRAM, a NAND flash, an SD, or a multimedia card (MMC).

4, when the memory 420 has two ports and is coupled to the host 410 via the first bus and coupled to the digital signal processing unit 430 via the second bus, 420 are connected to the input / output signals (e.g., clock (CLK), clock enable (CKE), chip select signal (CS) (RAS: Row Address Strobe), column address (CAS: Column Address Strobe), and so on) are formed. 4, if the memory 430 is commonly coupled to the host 410 and the digital signal processor 430, then the two processors 410 and 430 use one memory 420 The memory 420 must have two access ports. That is, the two access ports are divided into a first port (Addr_A, Data_A) and a second port (Addr_B, Data_B) so that the first port is connected to the host 410 and the second port is connected to the digital signal processor 430 Respectively.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reproducing multimedia data through sharing of memory between a host and a digital signal processing unit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of decoding an MP3 file to be reproduced stored in the memory 420 after the MP3 file to be reproduced is selected through the key input unit 335 included in the portable terminal according to the present invention. And output (reproduced) through an output unit (for example, a speaker).

In step 510, the host 410 accesses the memory via the first bus and confirms the storage location of the MP3 file in the memory 420 and stores the location information (the location information Generated information).

In step 520, the host 420 transmits the position information and the MP3 file processing command to the digital signal processor 430 via the second bus.

In operation 530, the digital signal processor 430 accesses the memory 420 through the third bus and reads the MP3 file from a location corresponding to the location information received from the host 410.

In operation 540, the digital signal processor 430 decodes the read MP3 file, converts the read MP3 file into an analog audio signal, and transmits the analog audio signal to an output unit (e.g., a speaker).

As described above, by providing the portable terminal having the memory sharing method and the memory sharing structure according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the load of the host and reduce the power consumption when reproducing the multimedia data.

In addition, the present invention can minimize information transfer between the host and the digital signal processing unit, thereby reducing the bottleneck of the host and the digital signal processing unit.

In addition, the present invention has the effect of reducing manufacturing cost by reducing the bottleneck of the host and the digital signal processing unit by adding a minimum amount of hardware.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be understood that the invention may be varied and varied without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (8)

A memory having an interface for transmitting and receiving multimedia data; A host coupled to the memory via a first bus and generating and outputting location information corresponding to a location of the multimedia data stored in the memory; And A memory coupled to the memory via a second bus and coupled to the host via a third bus, wherein when the location information is input from the host, multimedia data stored at a location corresponding to the location information is transmitted to the memory And a digital signal processing unit for reading out and processing the digital signal. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the memory further comprises at least one interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the host, and at least one interface for transmitting and receiving information to and from the digital signal processor. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the multimedia data is any one of image data, audio data, and moving picture data. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the memory is any one of an internal memory and an external memory. 1. A method for sharing memory for reproducing multimedia data stored in a memory coupled to a host via a first bus and coupled to a digital signal processing unit via a second bus, The host accesses the memory via the first bus to generate position information corresponding to a position at which the multimedia data of the memory is recorded, and transmits the position information to the digital signal processor; The digital signal processing unit receiving the location information from the host via a third bus reads multimedia data corresponding to the location information from the memory via the second bus; And Wherein the digital signal processing unit decodes the read multimedia data, converts the decoded multimedia data into analog data, and transmits the analog data to an output unit. The method according to claim 6, Wherein the multimedia data is any one of image data, audio data, and moving picture data. The method according to claim 6, Wherein the host is further configured to transmit a command to the digital signal processor to direct the processing of the multimedia data.

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