Electronic device

Abstract

The invention relates to an electronic device comprising - a plurality of peripheral elements which can be individually activated and deactivated, - a control device for controlling the peripheral elements and for controlling the activation and deactivation thereof, - a data set containing information relating to the mutual dependency of the peripheral elements, wherein the mutual dependency indicates which second peripheral elements have to be switched on when a first peripheral element is switched on in order to ensure the function of the first peripheral element, wherein the control device is designed - to allow a program to run, - to store a number of uses for each of the peripheral elements, - when a peripheral element is accessed by means of a program running in the control device, to increase the number of uses for the peripheral element and all further peripheral elements additionally required according to the data set, - for each of the peripheral elements, to activate the peripheral element if the number of uses increases to 1 and to deactivate the peripheral element if the number of uses drops to 0.

Description

[0001] 202505526

[0002] 1

[0003] Description

[0004] Electronic device

[0005] The invention relates to an electronic device with a plurality of peripheral elements.

[0006] Electronic devices can consist of one or more PCBs (printed circuit boards). These are equipped with passive and active peripheral components. Active peripheral components consume a certain amount of energy when they are activated (switched on). In many devices, the peripheral components are always active. Always active means that the peripheral components are always accessible and can be addressed by application programs via various bus systems.

[0007] In a low-power device, i.e., a device where minimal power consumption is paramount, the goal is to operate these peripheral components in passive mode as often and for as long as possible. The peripheral components should only be activated, used, and then deactivated in the cases specified by the application flow, thus achieving a power-saving architecture.

[0008] Often, the peripheral components in an electronic device are complexly interconnected, meaning they have complex interdependencies. Current solutions struggle to handle this and typically use simple solutions where the peripheral components are switched on and off completely, independently of their specific use. This means the potential for energy-saving operation is not fully exploited. In other solutions, the running software is responsible for switching the necessary peripheral components on and off, which is problematic when programs are running concurrently.

[0009] The object of the invention is to provide an electronic device with peripheral elements that overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages.

[0010] This problem is solved by an electronic device having the features specified in claim 1.

[0011] 2

[0012] The electronic device according to the invention comprises a plurality of individually switchable peripheral elements and a control device for controlling the peripheral elements and for controlling their switching on and off.

[0013] It also includes a data set with information on the mutual dependency of the peripheral elements, where the mutual dependency indicates which second peripheral elements must be switched on when a first peripheral element is switched on in order to ensure the function of the first peripheral element.

[0014] The control unit is further configured to run one or more programs and to store a usage count for each of the peripheral elements. When a program running in the control unit accesses a target peripheral element, the usage count for the target peripheral element and all additional peripheral elements required according to the data set is incremented. For each peripheral element, the peripheral element is switched on when the usage count reaches 1 and switched off when the usage count falls to 0.

[0015] The advantage of this approach is that each peripheral element is only activated when it is currently being used by a running program. All other peripheral elements remain deactivated. "Usage" here also includes registration for use. A program can register its use, i.e., announce it, although the actual use may then depend on the circumstances.

[0016] This also ensures that peripheral elements that are no longer needed are selectively switched off. Only those peripheral elements that are actually required remain active.

[0017] This results in a reduction in energy consumption compared to operating schemes where all peripheral elements are switched on and off together.

[0018] The usage count for a target peripheral element and all additional peripheral elements required according to the data set is appropriately reduced by 1 if it is determined that a program no longer uses the target peripheral element.

[0019] 3

[0020] Peripheral elements are defined as all elements that can be switched on and off by the control unit. The control unit can be, for example, a microcontroller or microprocessor. The peripheral elements can be specialized parts of the microcontroller. They can also be additional components located outside the microcontroller, such as chips, or even completely separate electronic devices. Examples of peripheral elements include communication elements such as Wi-Fi chips and antennas, GPIO connectors, UART or USB chips, and sensors, such as acoustic or optical sensors, for example, a radar sensor. A radar sensor, for instance, can be connected to both a UART chip and a GPIO connector of a microcontroller. The GPIO connector can combine several discrete I / O pins and thus be connected to other peripheral elements in addition to the radar sensor.

[0021] The dataset is expediently structured as a tree. The tree structure contains, as elements (nodes), identification data for peripheral elements, such as an identification number, and the connections between the elements symbolize their mutual dependencies. The tree structure is expediently designed so that a higher-level element (closer to the root element) requires all other elements located deeper in the tree structure. Therefore, the tree structure expediently allows for any number of connections between the elements. Instead of being described as a tree structure, the dataset can also be understood as a directed graph.

[0022] The usage count refers to a set of information indicating how many programs, users, or methods have registered or reported using a peripheral element. In the simplest case, this information can be a single number, but other information can also be used.

[0023] Advantageous embodiments of the device according to the invention are described in the dependent claims. The embodiment of the independent claims can be combined with the features of one of the dependent claims or, preferably, with those of several dependent claims. Accordingly, the following additional features can be provided:

[0024] The electronic device may be designed for battery operation. With such devices, it is particularly important and advantageous to be able to selectively switch the peripheral components on and off in order to achieve the longest possible operating time. 202505526

[0025] 4

[0026] The control unit can be designed to run multiple programs in parallel. Especially when several programs are running simultaneously, it is advantageous to be able to selectively switch peripheral elements on and off to avoid having to keep them all almost constantly switched on to ensure reliable operation.

[0027] The control device can be configured to execute exactly one peripheral control program, which alone has direct access to the peripheral elements, and furthermore, to execute any number of user programs, whereby the user programs must use a call to methods of the peripheral control program to access peripheral elements. The peripheral control program can, for example, be part of an operating system, but it can also be a separate component. The use of the peripheral control program and its access to the peripheral elements is similar to a driver program in PC environments, which abstracts access to a PC component. In this case, however, the peripheral control program does not serve to abstract the technical characteristics of the peripheral element, but only to register its use. The peripheral control program itself can be configured to use a driver program.By distributing access rights, the peripheral control program can ensure that the peripheral components are controlled correctly. User programs, in turn, do not need to worry about switching the peripheral components on and off; they simply request their use.

[0028] The peripheral control program can be configured to store an identification element of the user program for the peripheral element and all additional peripheral elements required according to the data set when a user program running in the control device accesses a peripheral element. For example, the identification element could be a thread identification number or a string containing the file name and line number of a calling method. This allows usage statistics to be corrected in case of improper logout or termination of the user program.

[0029] It is advantageous if, when a user program registers the use of a peripheral element, the control unit returns an object defined in an object-oriented programming language as a handle to the user program, and if the use is automatically deactivated via a destructor of the object. This ensures that the 202505526

[0030] 5

[0031] Data storage in the form of usage counts has been made more secure. Leaks that occur when user programs fail to properly log out of use are avoided, as logging out is unnecessary.

[0032] The data set can also include the control device itself as an element. This allows, for example, a low-energy mode to be used for the control device when the usage count is 0, meaning the microcontroller can be put into a sleep mode.

[0033] The invention will now be described and explained in more detail with reference to the exemplary embodiments shown in the figures. The figures show:

[0034] Figure 1 shows a battery-powered electronic device with a microcontroller and peripheral elements.

[0035] Figure 2 shows a diagram of the dependencies of the peripheral elements.

[0036] Figures 3 to 5 are diagrams for the user count of the peripheral elements.

[0037] Figure 1 shows a highly simplified representation of the components of an exemplary electronic device 10. The device 10 comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) 11. A microcontroller 12 is mounted on the PCB 11. Peripheral components 13A...F are also mounted on the PCB 11. The device 10 also includes a battery 15 for power supply. The various components are interconnected via suitable electrical wires, which are only indicated in Figure 1.

[0038] Figure 2 shows a diagram illustrating the dependencies of the peripheral elements 13A...F in the exemplary device 10, starting with a user program 20 as the root element of the tree structure. As can be seen in the diagram, peripheral element 13E does not require any of the other peripheral elements 13A...F for its operation. Peripheral element 13B requires peripheral element 13D for its operation. Peripheral element 13A requires peripheral elements 13C and D for its operation. Both peripheral elements 13C and D, in turn, require peripheral element 13F for their operation.

[0039] There are therefore direct and indirect dependencies, and to use one of the peripheral elements 13A...F, all elements listed further down in the diagram must always be present.

[0040] 6

[0041] The connected peripheral elements 13A...F are switched on. The peripheral elements 13A, B, E closest to the user program 20 are those elements that a user program 20 typically wants to use directly, for example, a sensor or a communication unit. The more distant peripheral elements 13C, D, F are peripheral elements that are necessary for this but are not typically addressed directly by a user program, for example, the I / O interfaces of a microcontroller.

[0042] The dependencies shown in the diagram according to Figure 2 are stored as a data set in the microcontroller 12.

[0043] These dependencies can also include the microcontroller 12 itself as an element, conveniently at the top level (instead of the user program 20). Depending on the number of users, the microcontroller 12 can be put into different low-power modes, for example, "Deep Sleep", "Light Sleep", or "Suspend".

[0044] Figure 3 shows the user count for an example initial state in which the first peripheral element 13A is used by a user program 20, therefore has a user count of 1, and is switched on. Figure 3 shows the respective user count 30A...F for each of the peripheral elements 13A...F. Based on the dependencies of the peripheral elements 13A...F shown in Figure 2, the peripheral elements 13C, D, and F also have a user count of 1, since the use of peripheral element 13A requires the use of these other peripheral elements. These are therefore also switched on.

[0045] Subsequently, a user program 20 will want to use the second peripheral element 13B. This increases the user count for the second peripheral element 13B to 1 and activates the peripheral element 13B. Based on the dependencies of the peripheral elements 13A...F, shown in Figure 2, the user counts for the other required peripheral elements 13D, F are also increased. This results in a user count situation as shown in Figure 4. Since the user counts of the fourth and sixth peripheral elements 13D, F have increased to 2, their operating state remains unchanged; they are and will remain activated.

[0046] As a result, the use of the first peripheral element 13A should now become unnecessary.

[0047] For example, user program 20, which had used the first peripheral element 13A, can be terminated. This reduces the user count for the first peripheral element 13A. Based on the dependencies of peripheral elements 13A...F, shown in Figure 202505526

[0048] 7

[0049] As shown in Figure 2, the user counts for the third, fourth, and sixth peripheral elements 13C, D, F are also reduced. This results in a user count situation as depicted in Figure 5. The user counts for the first and third peripheral elements 13A, C have now fallen to 0. Therefore, these two peripheral elements 13A, C are switched off. The fourth and sixth peripheral elements 13D, F remain switched on, as their user count has remained at 1 due to the operation of the second peripheral element 13B.

[0050] As a result, the peripheral elements 13A...F are advantageously switched on and off very specifically based on the requirements of user programs 20 and the system's inherent mutual dependencies.

[0051] 8

[0052] Reference sign

[0053] 10 electronic device 11 circuit board

[0054] 12 microcontrollers, 13A...F peripheral components, 15 battery

[0055] 20 User program 30A...F Number of users

Claims

202505526 9 Patent claims 1. Electronic device (10) with - a plurality of individually switchable peripheral elements (13A...F), - a control unit (12) for controlling the peripheral elements (13A...F) and for controlling their switching on and off, - a data set containing information on the mutual dependency of the peripheral elements (13A...F), wherein the mutual dependency indicates which second peripheral elements (13A...F) must be switched on when a first peripheral element (13A...F) is switched on in order to ensure the function of the first peripheral element, wherein the control device (12) is configured - to run a program, - to store a usage count for each of the peripheral elements (13A...F), - when a program running in the control unit (12) accesses a peripheral element (13A...F), to increase the number of uses for the peripheral element (13A...F) and all additional peripheral elements (13A...F) required according to the data set, - for each of the peripheral elements (13A...F) to switch on the peripheral element (13A...F) when the usage count increases to 1 and to switch off the peripheral element (13A...F) when the usage count falls to 0.

2. Electronic device (10) according to claim 1, designed for battery operation.

3. Electronic device (10) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control device (12) is configured to allow several programs to run in parallel.

4. Electronic device (10) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the control device (12) is configured, - to execute exactly one peripheral control program that has sole direct access to the peripheral elements (13A...F), - to execute any number of user programs (20), wherein the user programs (20) must use a call to methods of the peripheral control program to access peripheral elements (13A...F).

5. Electronic device (10) according to claim 4, wherein the control unit (12) is configured to, upon access to a peripheral element (13A...F) by a user program (20) running in the control unit (12), provide an identification element of the 202505526 10 to store the user program for the peripheral element (13A...F) and all additional peripheral elements (13A...F) required according to the data set.

6. Electronic device (10) according to claim 5, wherein the control unit (12) is configured to return an object according to an object-oriented programming language as a handle to the user program when a user program registers a use of a peripheral element and to automatically deregister the use via a destructor of the object.

Images