JPH037963B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a portable terminal device, and more particularly to a portable terminal device configured with a CMOS integrated circuit to which a battery voltage is constantly applied.

[Background of the invention]

As shown in Figure 1, a typical portable terminal device, when viewed from the outside, consists of a printer 2, a liquid crystal display 3, a keyboard 4, an interface connector 5 for linking with a host computer, etc. There is. The purpose is to make the backup power supply for the internal data RAM (its contents disappear when the power is turned off) and the power supply for the control circuit the same, to prevent battery wastage due to forgetting to turn off the power switch, and to prevent waste of battery power during data processing. In order to prevent the circuit from malfunctioning when the power switch is turned off, many models do not have a manually operated power switch. A conventional example of a control block without a power switch is shown in FIG. In the figure, the entire terminal is controlled by a microprocessor 6, and power to each circuit is supplied from a battery 7. The interrupt control circuit 8 selects an interrupt request signal issued from each input/output circuit, and the microprocessor 6 reads this signal to perform an interrupt. In the case of FIG. 2, the interrupt factors are a key-in interrupt signal 31 issued when a key is pressed on the keyboard 4, a transmission interrupt signal 34 issued from the serial interface circuit 12, and a voltage of the battery 7.
A battery alarm interrupt signal 36 issued from the battery alarm circuit 9 when the voltage reaches 4.5V, and a data transfer request interrupt signal 35 from the printer 2.
There is one. The ROM 10 stores programs for controlling the terminal. RAM11
This is where data input from the serial interface circuit 12 or the keyboard 4 is stored. The real-time clock 14 counts real time independently of the microprocessor 6, and the microprocessor reads the real time as necessary. The liquid crystal display 3 displays data or the internal state of the terminal as necessary. The keyboard control circuit 15 issues an interrupt request signal 31 to the interrupt control circuit 8 when a certain key on the keyboard 4 is pressed, and converts the state of the keyboard 4 into a form that can be read by the microprocessor 6. It is. The key-in timeout detection circuit 16 is activated by the key-in interrupt signal 31 issued from the keyboard control circuit 15.
This is to start the operation of the clock circuit 17. Clock circuit 17 provides a clock signal to the entire system. Reset circuit 18 delays the signal from key-in timeout detection circuit 16 and causes microprocessor 6 to start from a predetermined program address. If the key-in signal is input again after starting the operation and before outputting the key-in time-out signal, the key-in time-out detection circuit 16 starts counting from that time, so the key-in time-out detection circuit 16 starts counting at a time interval shorter than the time-out setting time. If the key-in signal 31 is input, the microprocessor 6 continues to operate. All of the integrated circuits in the device described above, except for a part of the serial interface circuit 12, are of CMOS structure.

The operation of the conventional portable terminal device having the above configuration will be briefly explained using FIG. 3. When the clock circuit 17 is not operating, all electrical signals within the device are fixed at high or low levels, so only a small leakage current flows through each circuit of the CMOS structure, making it difficult to turn off the power switch. The state is almost the same as when it was turned off, and the data RAM is
The contents of No. 11 are retained. In this state, time t ₁
Or, when the key is input at _t3 , the clock circuit 17 starts operating, the microprocessor 6 starts operating, and the reset circuit 1 starts operating a little later at time _t2 or _t4 .
8, the program is started from a predetermined address. At this time, keyboard control circuit 1
Since the key-in interrupt signal 31 is generated from the key-in interrupt signal 31, the microprocessor 6 reads the keyboard control circuit 15, learns which key has been keyed-in, and executes a predetermined process. clock circuit 1
If the key-in is performed again at time _t5 in FIG. 3 while the key-in timeout detection circuit 16 is operating, the key-in timeout detection circuit 16 is activated from that point on, and the clock circuit 17 continues to operate. When the set time T of the key-in timeout detection circuit 16 passes without any key-in (t ₆ , t ₇ in FIG. 3), the clock circuit 1
7 stops and enters a standby state.

A specific example of the key-in timeout detection circuit 16 and the clock circuit 17 is shown in FIG. Key-in timeout detection is performed by a one-shot circuit 20. The one-shot circuit 20 is triggered by the key-in interrupt signal 31, and the NAND gate 23 of the clock circuit 17 is opened to begin operation. When the time T set by the resistor 21 and capacitor 22 is reached, the NAND gate 23 is closed and the clock is stopped.

However, in the conventional portable terminal device as described above, the series of processing time for one key-in is fixed in hardware by the set time T of the key-in timeout detection circuit 16, which poses a problem. Normally, the key-in timeout time T is set to about one minute, but printer printing time and serial data transmission time often exceed one minute. If the timeout detection time T is lengthened according to this operating time, if the other processing time is short (normal processing time is about a few milliseconds), the battery will increase because the operation will continue for a while after the processing is finished. consumed in vain. Also, for example, even if the battery voltage drops during standby and a battery alarm interrupt is issued from the battery alarm circuit 9, the microprocessor is activated because, according to the conventional method, the device could only be started by key-in. Since the setter 6 is stopped, there is a problem in that it is not known when the battery alarm occurs, and it is not known whether the contents of the data RAM are retained until the device is operated.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-25703 uses a re-trigger type multivibrator to save power by turning off the power if no key-in occurs for a certain period of time. Disclose the technology to add. However, in the technology described in the above publication, the length of the calculation time is dealt with by changing the set-reset time width, and if there is a difference between the actual calculation time and the set-reset time width, waste of power is avoided. I couldn't help it.

[Purpose of the invention]

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, to operate without wasting battery power through unnecessary operations, to operate without time-out during the required operating time, and to reduce battery power even in standby mode. To provide a portable terminal device which can be activated by an alarm.

[Summary of the invention]

According to the present invention, when the control section is triggered by a certain code being keyed in from the keyboard while the internal circuits including the microprocessor are all in a fixed standby state, the control section enters the operating state, and then enters a predetermined state. During the microprocessor processing operation, the portable terminal device, which is configured to return to the standby state if the control section is not triggered again within the set time, is programmed to The present invention is also characterized by comprising soft trigger signal generating means for periodically triggering the control section at short intervals.

[Embodiments of the invention]

5 and 6 show an embodiment of the device of the present invention, which differs from the conventional example shown in FIG. 2 in that an address decoder 13 is provided, and the output of the soft trigger signal 39 The input request signal 37 is input to the key-in timeout detection circuit 16A, which is different from the conventional one, and the interface connector 5
A transmission start request interrupt signal 38 is output from A (other interrupt factors are the same as in FIG. 2).
The other circuits are the same as those in FIG. 2, have the same reference numerals, and operate in the same manner.

Figure 6 shows the key-in timeout detection circuit 16A.
and details of the clock circuit 17 are shown. This circuit 16
A is the key-in timeout detection circuit 1 in FIG.
6 with an OR gate 19 added thereto. The key-in timeout time T of this circuit 16A is set by a resistor 21 and a capacitor 22 as in the conventional case. However, the soft trigger signal 39 and the microprocessor 6 can be programmed to lengthen the set time.
An interrupt request signal 37 is input to the OR gate 19, and its output and the key-in signal 31 are further ORed, and the retriggerable one-shot circuit 20 is activated by the falling edge of the output. Therefore, the one-shot circuit 20 is activated by any of the soft trigger signal 39, interrupt request signal 37, and key-in interrupt signal 31, and its output 28 becomes high level, causing the clock circuit 17 to start or continue operation. The structure is such that it is possible to do so. Also, interface connector 5A
The interrupt signal 38 from the terminal A is fixed at a low level, for example, and when the connector is connected, this low level voltage is output as the signal 38.

The operation of the above embodiment will be explained using the time chart shown in FIG. When the keyboard 4 is keyed in as shown at times t ₁ and t ₂ , the key-in interrupt signal 31 is issued from the keyboard control circuit 15 and at the same time the key-in timeout detection circuit 16A is activated and the clock circuit 17 starts operating to enter the standby state. is released. If the processing time is shorter than the timeout setting time T, if the state is left as is, the clock circuit 17 is stopped by the key-in timeout signal and returns to the standby state.
If the processing time is longer than the timeout setting,
A specific address is programmed to be accessed periodically during processing at a cycle shorter than the set time T, and this access activates the address decoding circuit 13, which issues a soft trigger signal 39. The one-shot circuit 20 is retriggered (this situation is not shown in FIG. 7);
The timeout setting time becomes equivalently longer. Then, when the processing is completed, the periodic retrigger is also stopped, so the system enters a standby state. The next time the printer is operating, the printer interrupt signal 35 is output at time t ₇
As shown in ~ _t10 , it is output from the printer periodically (the period is also smaller than T, the same applies hereafter), and this signal 35 re-trigger the one-shot circuit 20 in the same way as the soft trigger. . Therefore, as long as the printer is operating, the terminal will not go into standby mode, and will go into standby mode once the printer is finished operating. The same applies when the serial interface circuit 12 is operating, and the transmission interrupt signal 34 is periodically issued from time _t3 to _t6 , so as long as the serial interface circuit 12 is operating. The device never goes into standby mode. If a battery alarm occurs while the terminal is in standby mode (t=t ₁₁ ), battery alarm interrupt signal 3 is sent from battery alarm circuit 9.
6 is issued, and an interrupt request signal 37 is issued from the interrupt control circuit 8 to the microprocessor 6. The one shot circuit 20 is activated by this interrupt request signal and the standby state is released. Therefore, the microprocessor 6 detects that there is an interrupt request, reads the interrupt control circuit 3, and learns that there is a battery alarm interrupt. At this time, if you prepare a program on the printer that prints the battery alarm occurrence and the date and time and start it, even if the terminal is left unattended when the battery battery alarm occurs. , the data is used to determine the elapsed time after the battery battery alarm occurred.
The state of data held in RAM11 can be determined. Note that the date, time, etc. necessary for this process can be known by accessing the real-time clock 14. In addition, when the voltage of the battery 7 becomes low and the battery is charged, the circuit goes into standby mode, but when the battery alarm circuit 9 detects that the voltage has exceeded the specified voltage due to charging, the circuit goes into standby mode. It is also possible to issue an interrupt signal 36 from 9 to release the device from the standby state and put it into operation. When a cable is connected to the interface connector 5A, an interrupt signal 38 is output due to the connection, thereby canceling the standby state of the terminal. Therefore, the microprocessor can start a program for serial transmission in response to this interrupt, and no key operations are required for this purpose.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the setting time of the key-in timeout can be equivalently extended as necessary according to the program processing time and the response time of the input/output device. After the end of the process or after the end of the response of the input/output device, there is no need to maintain the operating state needlessly, and unnecessary waste of battery can be avoided.
Furthermore, since the standby state can be canceled not only by the keyboard but also by the battery status and external terminal connection, there is an advantage that the operation of the terminal can be automatically started.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external view of a general portable terminal device, Fig. 2 is a control block diagram of a conventional portable terminal device,
3 is an operation time chart of the device shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional key-in timeout detection circuit and a clock circuit, FIG. 5 is a control block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 7 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the key-in time-out detection circuit and clock circuit of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is an operation time chart of the embodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6. 1...portable device, 2...printer, 4...
... Keyboard, 5A ... Interface connector, 6 ... Microprocessor, 7 ... Battery, 8 ... Interrupt control circuit, 9 ... Battery alarm circuit, 12 ... Serial interface circuit, 13 ... Address decoding Circuit, 14...Real time clock, 15...Keyboard control circuit, 16A...Key-in timeout detection circuit,
17...Clock circuit, 18...Reset circuit,
19...OR gate, 20...One shot circuit, 21...Resistor, 22...Capacitor, 23
...Nand gate, 37...Interrupt request signal, 38
...Transmission start request interrupt signal, 39...Soft trigger signal.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. When the internal circuit including the microprocessor is all in a fixed standby state, when the control section is triggered by keying in some code from the keyboard, it enters the operating state;
In a portable terminal device configured to return to a standby state when the control section is not triggered again within a predetermined set time thereafter,
The mobile phone is characterized by comprising a soft trigger signal generating means for periodically triggering the control unit at a cycle shorter than the set time according to a program specification during the processing operation of the microprocessor. type terminal device. 2. When an input/output device other than a keyboard, such as a serial data transmission device or a printer, is in operation, each input/output device has a function that generates a trigger signal that triggers the control unit at a cycle shorter than the above-mentioned set time from the input/output device in operation. The portable terminal device according to claim 1, characterized in that the portable terminal device is included in an output device. 3. Claim 1, characterized in that the connector for connection with the outside has a structure that outputs a signal that triggers the control unit from one terminal when a connection cord is connected to the connector. The portable terminal device described. 4 battery alarm trigger means for detecting when the power supply voltage falls below a certain level during the standby state and outputting a signal to trigger the control section; 2. The portable terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of outputting a comment indicating the time of occurrence and the voltage drop to a printer. 5. A rechargeable battery is used as a power source, and when the device is in a standby state and the battery is being charged, detects that the battery voltage has reached a specified value and charging is completed, and at that time, the controller is activated. 5. The portable terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the battery alarm triggering means has a triggering function.