Debug System and Driver Applied to the Debug System

Abstract

To provide a debugging system and a driver to be applied to the same.SOLUTION: A driver to be applied to a debugging system includes a drive controller and a drive universal input / output controlled by the drive controller. The drive universal input / output directly transmits a debug log of a status message of a touch screen to a host universal input / output of a host, and there is no need to exchange a handshake signal between the driver and the host.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a debugging system, and more particularly to a debugging system applicable to an in-vehicle touch screen.

Background Art

[0002] In-vehicle touch screens are becoming increasingly popular and are gradually replacing the conventional physical buttons in vehicles, enabling users to more flexibly control various vehicle functions such as navigation, radio, weather forecast, and various settings.

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0003] However, since electronic systems are more prone to errors and failures than physical buttons, debugging is necessary to ensure normal operation and meet user needs (i.e., to search for and solve errors and problems that interfere with accurate operation). Unfortunately, conventional debugging techniques have not been able to solve problems immediately or remotely, especially for TDDI (touch and display driver integration) circuits. The TDDI circuit is a technology that integrates a display driver and a touch control driver on a single chip. In addition to TDDI circuits, new debugging methods are also needed for other technologies. For example, system-on-chip (SoC) devices have become more complex, making it difficult to perform debugging using conventional debugging methods.

[0004] Therefore, the inventor of the present invention considered that the drawbacks of the conventional debugging system could be improved, and as a result of intensive studies, proposed the present invention that effectively improves the above problems through a rational design.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an example of the problem is to solve the above problems. That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a debug system that can immediately acquire the debug log of the status message remotely and perform debugging remotely.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] To solve the above problems, a debug system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a driver and a host. The driver controls the touch screen and includes drive general-purpose input / output. The host receives the debug log of the status message from the driver and includes host general-purpose input / output. The drive general-purpose input / output directly transmits the debug log to the host general-purpose input / output, and there is no need to exchange handshake signals between the driver and the host.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0007]

Figure 1

Figure 2A

Figure 2B

Figure 2C

Figure 3

Modes for Carrying Out the Invention

[0008] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications are possible within the described scope. Embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a debug system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The debug system 100 according to this embodiment is applicable to an in-vehicle touch screen, enabling a user to control various vehicle functions such as navigation, radio, weather forecast, and vehicle application settings.

[0010] The debug system 100 includes a driver 11 for controlling the (in-vehicle) touch screen 12. In this embodiment, the driver 11 includes a TDDI (touch and display driver integration) circuit in which a touch control driver and a display driver are integrated on a single chip, and is used to control a touch screen 12 such as the in-vehicle touch screen according to this embodiment.

[0011] The driver 11 according to this embodiment includes a drive controller 111 such as a microcontroller unit (MCU) applied in an embedded design. The driver 11 includes a drive memory device 112 such as a static RAM (SRAM), which is used to store data received from the drive controller 111 or data transmitted to the drive controller 111. The driver 11 includes a drive general-purpose input and output (GPIO) 113 controlled by the drive controller 111. The general-purpose input and output are (digital) signal pins of the drive controller 111 for controllable input or output.

[0012] The debug system 100 includes a host 13 (e.g., a personal computer) and is used to receive a debug log including status (or error) messages (from the driver 11), assisting developers in identifying and fixing errors. In this embodiment, the host 13 is an in-vehicle system or an application processor (AP) for vehicle use.

[0013] The host 13 according to this embodiment includes a host controller 131 such as a microcontroller unit (MCU) applied in an embedded design. The host 13 includes a host memory device 132 such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and is used to store data received from the host controller 131 or data transmitted to the host controller 131. The host 13 is equipped with a host general-purpose input / output (GPIO) 133 controlled by the host controller 131. The general-purpose input / output is a (digital) signal pin of the host controller 131 for controllable input or output.

[0014] According to one aspect of this embodiment, the drive general-purpose input / output 113 (of the driver 11) directly transmits the debug log of the status message to the host general-purpose input / output 133 (of the host 13) via a unidirectional bus, and there is no need to exchange (previously) handshaking signals between the driver 11 and the host 13.

[0015] In a certain embodiment, the status message is encoded by ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). The encoding represents letters, numbers, and symbols in 8-bit display. For example, the letter "A" is displayed as binary 01000001 (or hexadecimal 41, or decimal 65) by ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).

[0016] In this embodiment, the drive general-purpose input / output 113 and the host general-purpose input / output 133 adopt asynchronous serial communication such as the universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) protocol and do not need to be synchronized by a clock frequency signal. The drive general-purpose input / output 113 transmits state messages to the host general-purpose input / output 133 one bit at a time and includes a start bit and a stop bit. Next, the state message is displayed on the touch screen 12. FIG. 2A shows the data format of the universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) protocol according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2B is a waveform for transmitting the letter "A" of the alphabet using the universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) protocol according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0017] In this embodiment, the universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) protocol with different transmission speeds is adopted for the transmission of the state message. FIG. 2C shows the duration associated with the transmission speed displayed at several baud rates (bits per second).

[0018] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a debug system 300 (in a state where the mechanism of FIG. 1 is not used) according to an embodiment of the present invention. In operation, the inter-integrated circuit (I2C) 331 of the in-vehicle system 33 transmits an access command to the inter-integrated circuit (I2C) 311 of the TDDI circuit 31. Next, the inter-integrated circuit (I2C) 311 analyzes or examines the access command and executes it by the microcontroller unit (MCU) 312 of the TDDI circuit 31, and transmits a state message to the inter-integrated circuit (I2C) 331 of the in-vehicle system 33. The state message is displayed on the touch screen 32. Therefore, before transmitting their respective state messages, the TDDI circuit 31 and the in-vehicle system 33 exchange handshaking signals (or access commands) to establish a communication connection.

[0019] When compared with the debug system 300 (see Fig. 3), the debug system 100 (see Fig. 1) according to this embodiment immediately acquires the debug log of the status message. However, since the debug system 300 exchanges handshaking signals between the TDDI circuit 31 and the in-vehicle system 33, it can only passively acquire the status message. In addition, after receiving the debug log, the debug system 100 according to this embodiment remotely detects an error and updates the firmware of the driver 11 as necessary. By doing so, remote debugging is realized, but the debug system 300 can only perform on-site debugging.

[0020] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope shown in the claims. Embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

Description of Reference Numerals

[0021] 100 Debug system 11 Driver 111 Drive controller 112 Drive memory device 113 Drive general-purpose input / output 12 Touch screen 13 Host 131 Host controller 132 Host memory device 133 Host general-purpose input / output 300 Debug system 31 Touch display driver integrated circuit 311 Integrated bus circuit 312 Microcontroller unit 32 Touch screen 33 In-vehicle system 331 Integrated bus circuit

Claims

1. a driver for controlling a touch screen, the driver including a driver generic input / output; a host receiving a debug log of status messages from the driver, the host including a host generic input / output; A debug system, comprising: a drive generic input / output that unidirectionally transmits the debug log directly to the host generic input / output, eliminating the need for exchanging handshake signals between the driver and the host.

2. The driver is a drive controller for controlling the drive generic input / output; 2. The debugging system of claim 1, further comprising: a drive memory device for storing data received from the drive controller or data transmitted to the drive controller.

3. The host is a host controller for controlling the host generic input / output; 2. The debugging system of claim 1, further comprising: a host memory device for storing data received from the host controller or data transmitted to the host controller.

4. 2. The debugging system according to claim 1, wherein the status message is encoded in ASCII.

5. 2. The debugging system of claim 1, wherein the drive generic input / output and the host generic input / output adopt a Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) protocol.

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