Non-Overlapping RAM Regions for Portable Terminal Debugging

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Solution Overview

Problem

In portable terminals, program malfunctions often result in data loss during rebooting due to overlapping boot loader and OS regions in RAM, making debugging impossible.

Innovation Solution

A booting method and apparatus that configures separate, non-overlapping regions in RAM for the boot loader and OS, allowing data to be dumped and transmitted for debugging purposes during rebooting.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If the boot loader and OS share the same RAM region, then memory utilization is improved, but data loss occurs during rebooting making debugging impossible

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvememory utilizationVSAvoiddata loss during rebooting

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the RAM into separate non-overlapping regions: a boot loader region for storing boot loader code and an OS region for storing operating system code. This segmentation prevents the boot loader from overwriting OS data during rebooting, thereby preventing data loss while maintaining efficient memory utilization through dedicated spaces for each component.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Loss of information

If the boot loader region and OS region are separated, then data preservation during rebooting is improved, but memory allocation complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata preservation during rebootingVSAvoidmemory allocation complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent defines preset start addresses and sizes for both the boot loader region and OS region before the booting process begins. This preliminary configuration of memory regions eliminates the need for dynamic memory allocation management during rebooting, simplifying the overall memory allocation process while ensuring data preservation through fixed, non-overlapping addresses.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Reliability

If rebooting is performed to resolve OS error, then system reliability is improved, but debugging capability is lost due to data deletion

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem reliabilityVSAvoiddebugging information loss

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting RAM into distinct boot loader and OS regions with non-overlapping addresses, the patent enables safe rebooting to resolve OS errors while preserving OS data in the dedicated OS region. The boot loader region remains separate and does not overwrite OS data, thereby maintaining both system reliability through error recovery and debugging capability through data preservation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS8806279B2Method and apparatus for booting to debug in portable terminal

Publication Date: 2014.08.12 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD

AI summary

A booting method and an apparatus thereof for debugging in a portable terminal are provided. The method includes, when a booting event occurs, stacking a boot loader in a preset boot loader region of a Random Access Memory (RAM), and executing, and stacking an Operating System (OS) in a preset OS region of the RAM, wherein the boot loader region and the OS region of the RAM are set such that they do not overlap each other.