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1. a digital audio file or a digital video file is located or retrieved The digital data file 114 can be located on the hard disk drive 112 the CD ROM drive 109 a DVD drive or any form of removable data storage such as a PC Card Compact Flash Memory Stick and the like Alternatively the digital data file 114 can be downloaded from the Internet obtained from an email or acquired by any other way of transmitting digital data to a portable computer system Next in step 206 the digital data file 114 is opened and loaded or read from the hard disk drive 112 or other applicable data storage medium to the SDRAM 105 main US 6 654 827 2 5 memory hard disk drive 112 should be used economi cally whereby the motor of the hard disk drive 112 15 only spun if raw digital data is being retrieved From step 206 control passes to step 210 where it is determined if a digital data control command is detected A digital data control command can for example be selected by any of the following exemplary digital data control buttons 126 a play pause button a fast forward next track button a rewind previous track button a volume up button a volume down button and a stop button These control buttons 126 are similar in operation to the CD buttons described in the commonly assigned U S Pat No 6 006 285 entitled COMPUTER CAPABLE OF PLAYING OF AUDIO CDS IN A CD ROM DRIVE INDEPENDENT OF AN OPER ATING SYSTEM previously incorporated he
2. standalone or portable digital audio players have largely become mainstream consumer devices Computer systems however are not especially positioned to benefit from the digital audio revolution given the nature of digital audio playing for computer systems PC based digital audio play ers are software applications that must operate with an operating system For a PC based digital audio player an operating system is necessary to provide high level func tionality to perform tasks such as retrieving digital audio files One drawback of the need for an operating system to play digital audio files with a computer system is the significant amount of time associated with loading an oper ating system This period of delay before digital audio playing is undesirable since users with standalone digital audio players are not accustomed to such a delay Another drawback is the power consumption associated with com ponents in the computer system which are normally powered when an operating system is running A PC based digital audio player has required that a main processor be running and that practically the entire computer system be powered Because of such power consumption issues the amount of time for which digital audio files may be played in a portable computer powered only by a battery is significantly less than the play time users are accustomed to with standalone digital audio players Essentially any PC like system with an operating system a
3. KEYBOARD CONTROLLER US 6 654 827 B2 101 HosTBUS 102 PpcIBUS ROM 108 110A BIOS DIGITAL DATA PLAYER MODULES 104 cA Bus 142 123 126 DIGITAL DATA CONTROL BUTTONS U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 6 of 7 US 6 654 827 2 DIGITAL AUDIO AUDIO CD MODE PROCESS 604 AUDIO CD PAUSED 608 AUDIO CD REMOVED AUDIO CD INSERTED 611 PLAY SELECTED 612 DECODE AND PLAY DIGITAL AUDIO FILE PLAY AUDIO CD 614 PROCESS COMPLETE FIG 6 U S Patent BIOS PLAYER MODULES 702 MP3 LOADER 704 FILE SYSTEM MODULE 06 7 FILE SYSTEM 708 IDEIHDD 1 0 DRIVER Nov 25 2003 Sheet 7 of 7 US 6 654 827 B2 MP3 PLAYER MP3 PLAY KEYBOARD INTERRUPT HANDLER MP3 RAW DATA BUFFER 720 MP3 DECODER AUDIO CD MODULE 722 WAVE OUT MP3 WAVE API DATA BUFFER AUDIO DRIVER 716 718 CD ROM I DRIVER MIXER API DRIVER 714 FIG 7 US 6 654 827 2 1 PORTABLE COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH AN OPERATING SYSTEM INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA PLAYER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention generally relates to digital data playing capabilities of portable computer systems and more particularly to a portable computer system with an operating system independent digital data player 2 Description of the Related Art With the recent explosive growth in digital audio playing
4. digital data command can be detected It should be understood that the illustrated steps can be per formed in a different order than that shown Referring to FIG 3 illustrative components of the por table computer system S for a hardware implemented oper ating system independent digital data player are shown Like in FIG 1 the digital data player 120 is shown coupled to the digital data control buttons 126 the digital data mode button 125 the mini display panel 142 and the audio controller 122 Also as shown in FIG 1 the keyboard controller 124 is coupled to the digital data mode button 125 and the power button 123 In the illustrated embodiment the digital data player 120 is dedicated digital player circuitry or general purpose digital signal processor The digital data player 120 provides digital audio information to the audio controller 122 The audio controller 122 converts the digital audio information to analog form The analog audio signals are passed from the audio controller 122 to the audio amplifier 128 which amplifies the signals for the speakers 130 It should be understood that the architecture of the portable computer system S relevant to operating system independent digital data playing will to some extent depend upon the nature of the digital data files 114 For example if the digital data files 114 are digital video files the video controller 132 and the main display panel 146 may be involved in addition to the c
5. 5 55 60 65 2 FIG 2 is a flow chart of an illustrative digital data playing process in connection with the operating system independent digital data player of FIG 1 FIG 3 is a block diagram of illustrative components of the portable computer system of FIG 1 for a hardware implemented operating system independent digital data player FIGS 4A and 4B are block diagrams of two illustrative hardware based embodiments involving the digital data player and the keyboard controller of FIG 3 FIG 5 is a block diagram of illustrative components of the portable computer system of FIG 1 for a software implemented operating system independent digital data player FIG 6 is a flow chart of an illustrative digital audio audio CD mode process in connection with an operating system independent digital audio player and FIG 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary architecture of an operating system independent MP3 player DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The following commonly assigned patents are incorpo rated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes U S Pat No 6 006 285 entitled COMPUTER SYS TEM CAPABLE OF PLAYING AUDIO CDS IN A CD ROM DRIVE INDEPENDENT OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM granted Dec 21 1999 and U S Pat No 5 838 983 entitled PORTABLE COM PUTER WITH LOW POWER AUDIO CD PLAYER granted Nov 17 1998 Turning now to the drawings FIG 1 shows an exemplary architecture of a por
6. L DATA CONTROL PLAYER DECODES COMMAND AND PLAYS DIGITAL DATA 218 OFF STATE OF DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON Y 2 EXIT OS INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA MODE 0S INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA PLAYING COMPLETE FIG 2 20 222 U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 3 of 7 US 6 654 827 2 ES 112 106 DIGITAL DATA PCI ISA BRIDGE FILES 114 104 sABUS 124 DIGITAL DATA AUDIO PLAYER KEYBOARD CONTROLLER DSP OR CONTROLLER DEDICATED CHIP 126 DIGITAL DATA CONTROL 123 128 BUTTONS POWER BUTTON DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON AUDIO AMPLIFIER 130 142 SPEAKERS FIG 3 U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 4 of 7 US 6 654 827 2 142 120 124 DIGITAL DATA PLAYER KEYBOARD CONTROLLER 123 DIGITAL DATA CONTROL BUTTONS POWER BUTTON DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON FIG 4A 142 DIGITAL DATA PLAYER KEYBOARD CONTROLLER DIGITAL DATA CONTROL BUTTONS 126 123 DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON POWER BUTTON FIG 4B U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 5 of 7 103 HOST PROCESSOR 100 BRIDGE HARD DISK 112 DRIVE 114 106 DIGITAL DATA FILES IDE PCI ISA 107 BRIDGE DIGITAL DATA PLAVER MODULES 110B DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON AUDIO CONTROLLER 128 AUDIO POWER AMPLIFIER BUTTON 130 SPEAKERS FIG 5 124
7. a United States Patent Zhang et al US006654827B2 US 6 654 827 B2 Nov 25 2003 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 75 73 21 22 65 51 52 58 56 JP PORTABLE COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH AN OPERATING SYSTEM INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA PLAYER Inventors Tim L Zhang Spring TX US Pablo J Salazar Spring TX US J Luke Mondshine Cypress TX US Eric M Kilponen The Woodlands TX US Assignee Notice Appl No Filed Hewlett Packard Development Company L P Houston TX US Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 427 days 09 752 039 Dec 29 2000 Prior Publication Data US 2002 0085835 A1 Jul 4 2002 Int tts G06F 13 10 GO6F 13 12 US Cle 710 62 710 8 710 10 710 13 710 14 710 72 710 74 Field of Search 710 8 10 13 4 821 260 4 942 607 5 132 992 5 321 729 5 384 811 5 455 833 5 519 435 5 557 538 710 62 72 74 14 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 1989 7 1990 7 1992 6 1994 1 1995 10 1995 5 1996 9 1996 gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt Klank et al Schroder et al Yurt et al Schroder et al Dickopp et al Herre et al Anderson Retter et al 725 92 List continued on next page FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 409101848 4 1997 5 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Microsoft Windows Tech
8. a player Like in FIG 4B the keyboard controller 124 detects signals from the digital data mode button 125 and the digital data control buttons 126 and provides signals to the mini display panel 142 Instead of providing the hardware implemented digital data player 120 as shown in FIGS 4A and 4B the portable computer system S provides digital data player software modules 110B in the hard disk drive 112 and other digital data player software firmware modules 110B in the BIOS ROM 108 In an alternative embodiment digital data player functions may be divided between hardware and software or digital data player functions may be handled by storage media other than the hard disk drive 112 and the BIOS ROM 108 Referring to FIG 6 an exemplary digital audio audio CD mode process in connection with the portable computer system S is shown The digital audio audio CD mode is a combined mode in which either a digital audio file or an audio CD is played in an operating system independent mode The digital audio portion of the combined mode is similar to the digital data mode described above in connec tion with FIG 2 The audio CD portion of the combined mode is similar to the audio CD play mode described in the commonly assigned U S Pat No 6 006 285 entitled COMPUTER SYSTEM CAPABLE OF PLAYING AUDIO CDS IN A CD ROM DRIVE INDEPENDENT OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM previously incorporated herein by reference In the combined mode the digital data mode b
9. al data mode button 125 is in an on state in step 201 the portable computer system S enters the operating system independent digital data mode In the digital data mode the digital data player operates indepen dently of the operating system Next in step 202 the digital data player digital data player software modules 110A and 110B or digital data player 120 is initialized This step can also involve initializing certain portions of the portable computer system S For example in a disclosed embodiment the hard disk drive 112 and the CD ROM drive 109 are powered the audio controller 122 and the keyboard controller 124 are initialized and the host processor 103 is placed in a reduced power mode A reduced power mode should be understood to encompass low power or speed states including an off power or speed state Any portion of the portable computer system S that is not needed for the digital data mode is placed in a reduced power mode that is preferably the most optimized power saving state Two advantages of placing selective portions of the portable computer system S in a reduced power state for an operating system independent digital data mode are minimizing sys tem power consumption and significantly extending digital data play time In the operating system independent digital data mode the operating system of the portable computer system S is not loaded From step 202 control proceeds to step 204 where a digital data file 114 e g
10. ally encoded data files are encoded with an audio or video codec 25 method of claim 24 further comprising the step of detecting selection of a plurality of digital data control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode 26 The method of claim 24 further comprising the step of signaling a mini display panel of the portable computer system to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode 27 method of claim 24 further comprising the step of placing selective portions of the portable computer system In a reduced power state in the operating system independent digital data mode 28 The method of claim 24 wherein the digitally encoded data files comprises digital audio files 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 55 60 65 12 29 The method of claim 24 wherein the digitally encoded data files comprise digital video files 30 The method of claim 24 wherein the data storage medium comprises a hard disk drive 31 The method of claim 24 wherein the data storage medium comprises a CD ROM drive 32 The method of claim 24 wherein the data storage medium comprises a DVD drive 33 The method of claim 24 wherein the data storage medium comprises removable data storage 34 A digital da
11. control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files 21 The digital data player of claim 19 further compris ing a means for signaling a mini display panel of the portable computer system to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode 22 The digital data player of claim 19 the means for decoding and playing comprising a file storage means for accessing the plurality of digitally encoded data files from a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system independent digital data mode 23 The digital data player of claim 19 further compris ing a means for placing selective portions of the portable computer system in a reduced power state in the operating system independent digital data mode 24 A method of digital data playing in a digital data mode of a portable computer system independent of an operating system the method comprising the steps of retrieving a plurality of digitally encoded data files from a data storage medium of a portable computer system in an operating system independent digital data mode decoding the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode and playing the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode wherein the digit
12. current posi tion for the CD in the CD ROM drive 109 and CD GetCDTrackinfo to fetch the track information for CD This list of APIs is illustrative and not exhaustive The audio CD module 726 can be used in connection with a combined digital audio CD audio mode as described above in connection with FIG 6 In a disclosed embodiment the MP3 player 700 runs in a version of real mode in which all segments have 4 GB limits This particular mode is commonly referred to as big real mode or flat real mode This mode can be generated by entering protected mode setting all of the segment limits to 4 GB and then returning to real mode It should be under stood that the described software components of the MP3 player 700 are illustrative and not exhaustive and that certain described software components can be omitted It should further be understood that the MP3 player architecture disclosed in FIG 7 can readily be adapted to support a digital video disc DVD player a digital audio player for an audio format other than MP3 or any other digital data player to play digital data files in a portable computer system independently of an operating system The foregoing disclosure and description of various embodiments are illustrative and explanatory thereof and various changes in the data storage media digital data formats digital data types decoding schemes power states APIs software or firmware modules initialization procedures code storage sc
13. ds 4 The portable computer system of claim 2 farther comprising a controller to detect selection of the plurality of digital data control commands and to provide the plurality of digital data control commands to the digital data player in the digital data mode independent of the operating system 5 The portable computer system of claim 4 wherein the controller comprises a keyboard controller 6 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a digital data loader module to load a digital data decoder on the data storage medium 7 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a file system module in BIOS to access the plurality of digitally encoded data flies from the data storage medium 8 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a digital signal processor 9 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a dedicated digital data player chip 10 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a digital audio player 11 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the digital data player comprises a digital video player 12 The portable computer system of claim 1 further comprising 20 25 a host processor in a reduced power mode in the digital data mode independent of the operating system 13 The portable computer system of cla
14. e used if the digital data playing is digital video playing The illustrated components are not exhaustive of components which may accommodate operating system independent data playing since removable storage media for example are not shown In a disclosed embodiment the mini display panel 122 is a liquid crystal display LCD panel provided on a case or housing of the portable computer system S An example of a mini display panel is described in connection with oper ating system independent audio CD playing in the commonly assigned U S Pat No 6 006 285 entitled COMPUTER CAPABLE OF PLAYING AUDIO CDS IN A CD ROM DRIVE INDEPENDENT OF AN OPERAT ING SYSTEM previously incorporated herein by refer ence For the illustrated portable computer system S the mini display panel 122 serves as a status display panel by displaying control status information associated with play ing of the digital data files 114 in an operating system independent digital data mode of the portable computer system S The hard disk drive 112 can be used to store both digital data files 114 also termed a playlist and select digital data player software modules 110B Other digital data player software firmware modules 110A can be stored in the BIOS ROM 108 As an alternative to the digital data player software modules 110A and 110B the portable computer system S can provide the digital data player 120 While the digital data player software modules 110A and 110B t
15. et al 5 742 735 A 4 1998 Eberlein et al 5 768 164 A 6 1998 Hollon Jr 5 793 980 A 8 1998 Glaser et al 5 815 679 A 9 1998 Liu 5 822 598 A 10 1998 Lam 713 324 5 835 375 A 11 1998 Kitamura 5 838 983 A 11 1998 Atkinson 5 890 124 A 3 1999 Galbi 5 917 782 A 6 1999 Kim et al 369 30 23 6 006 285 A 12 1999 Jacobs et al 6 029 126 2 2000 Malvar 6 336 149 B1 1 2002 6 401 183 B1 6 2002 5 6 518 979 2 2003 Spertus et al 345 762 6 598 172 B1 7 2003 VanDeusen et al 713 503 OTHER PUBLICATIONS ESS Technology Inc 53209 Video CD Companion Chip Product Brief 2000 p 104 Asian Sources Electronics Engineer PortalPlayer digital media platform enables direct recording of CD content in MP3 format posted Jun 5 2000 1999 2000 Trade Media Ltd p 1 2 Asian Sources Electronics Engineer We re being sur rounded by DSP posted Dec 1 1998 1999 2000 Trade Media Ltd p l 4 Cliff Sanchez et al Overview of Digital Audio Interface Data Structures AN22REV2 Feb 1998 Cirrus Logic Inc 1998 p 1 8 Cirrus Logic News Releases Cirrus Logic Industry s First Audio DSP Chip for Universal DVD Players http www cirrus com press news index efm NewsID 91 May 18 1999 2000 Cirrus Logic p 1 3 Cirrus Logic CS49300 Preliminary Production Informa tion Multi Standard Audio Decoder Family Nov 1999 DS3390pp1 Cirru
16. f the portable computer system contains an audio CD in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode playing the audio CD in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode if the CD ROM drive contains an audio CD and 5 10 14 decoding and playing digital audio files in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode if the CD ROM drive does not contain an audio CD 43 The method of claim 42 the decoding and playing step comprising the step of decoding and playing digital audio files on a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode 44 The method of claim 42 the decoding and playing step comprising the step of decoding and playing digital audio files on a data CD in the CD ROM drive in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode
17. hemes display techniques file loading techniques control buttons file storage schemes operating system interrupt techniques and the like as well as in the details of the illustrated hardware and software and construction and method of operation may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention What is claimed is 1 A portable computer system with an operating system independent digital data mode the system comprising an operating system data storage medium to store a plurality of digitally encoded data files and 10 a digital data player to retrieve the plurality of digitally encoded data files from the data storage medium and to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded data files in a digital data mode of the portable computer 5 system independent of the operating system wherein the digitally encoded data files are encoded with an audio or video codec 2 The portable computer system of claim 1 further comprising a digital data mode button to place the portable computer system in the digital data mode independent of the operating system and a plurality of digital data control buttons to select a plurality of digital data control commands for the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the digital data mode independent of the operating system 3 The portable computer system of claim 2 wherein the digital data player detects selection of the plurality of digital data control comman
18. ices Further the MP3 loader 702 may initialize software such as an SCI System Control Interrupt interrupt handler for ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface sup port and a timer interrupt handler After the MP3 working environment is initialized the MP3 loader 702 initializes the file system module 704 The file system module 704 contains a file system API Application Programming Interface 706 and an IDE HDD I O driver 708 The file system API 706 implements the 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 appropriate protocol for accessing the hard disk drive 112 The following APIs may be supported by the file system API 706 Search First Search Next Open by FilenamePath Open by Handle Read File Seek File Position and Close File These APIs are illustrative and not exhaustive and their functions are self explanatory to those of ordinary skill in the art based on the disclosure herein Access of any MP3 files on the hard disk drive 112 is handled by the file system module 704 without support from the operating system In a disclosed embodiment the file system module 704 supports the Microsoft FAT16 or FAT32 file system During the initialization of the file system module 704 it is determined whether the hard disk drive 112 is FAT16 compatible or FAT32 compatible FAT stands for File Allocation Table It should be understood that alternatively file systems other than FAT16 or FAT32 m
19. ight be supported Both the file system module 704 and the MP3 loader 702 are preferably compressed in the BIOS ROM 108 until needed The IDE HDD I O driver 708 which is linked to the file system module 704 handles IDE HDD programming The following functions may be defined for the driver 708 Get HDD Parameters Reset IDE and Read Data These functions as well are self explanatory to those of ordinary skill in the art based on the disclosure herein The driver 708 is given control when an IDE interrupt is detected Included in the driver 708 is an initialization procedure to initialize a hard disk drive interrupt handler and a standby timer of the hard disk drive 112 for automatic HDD motor spin down The driver 708 may use an IDE DMA direct memory access bus master mode for reading data from the hard disk drive 112 loader 702 calls the file system API 706 to load the MP3 play module 701 from the hard disk drive 112 into the SDRAM 105 The MP3 play module 701 which is configured for hidden file attributes and a read only function is stored in a designated directory path of the hard disk drive 112 By storing the MP3 play module 701 on the hard disk drive 112 BIOS ROM space is conserved In an alternative embodiment where BIOS ROM space is abundant the MP3 play module 701 may be stored in the BIOS ROM 108 In that way the entire MP3 player 700 could be stored in the BIOS ROM 108 The MP3 play module 701 includes a keyboa
20. im 1 wherein selective portions of the portable computer system are placed in a reduced power state in the digital data mode 14 The portable computer system of claim 1 further comprising a mini display panel to display control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the digital data mode independent of the operating system 15 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the data storage medium comprises a hard disk drive 16 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the data storage medium comprises a CD ROM drive 17 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the data storage medium comprises a DVD drive 18 The portable computer system of claim 1 wherein the data storage medium comprises removable data storage 55 60 US 6 654 827 2 19 digital data player for an operating system independent digital data mode of a portable computer system the player comprising a means for retrieving a plurality of digitally encoded audio or video media files from a hard disk drive of a portable computer system in an operating system independent digital data mode and a means for decoding and playing the plurality of digitally encoded data audio or video media files in the operating system independent digital data mode 20 The digital data player of claim 19 further compris ing a means for detecting selection of a plurality of digital data
21. in the digital data mode The computer system further includes a digital data button to place the portable computer system in the digital data mode and a plurality of digital data control buttons to select a plurality of digital data control commands for the plurality of digitally encoded data files Selective portions of the portable computer system are placed in a reduced power state for the digital data mode 44 Claims 7 Drawing Sheets 103 148 HOST 4 PROCESSOR 101 7101 KOST BUS p 100 05 127 CARDBUS INTERFACE ti BRIDGE SDRAM 92 RDDIK 474 109 Saal DIGITAL DATA 17 107 T 11 jiet wow i mi mama or 11 peru oa _ BRIDGE 1 MODULES AUDID eos PLAYER MODULES Kees 104 ISA BUS a 136 reo 422 1 1 sa See jus H 1 i 1 f CONTROLLER H TT AWO 130 SPEAKERS l H r sea a H job uei DAT CONTROLLER US 6 654 827 B2 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 559 834 A 9 1996 Edler 5 560 024 9 1996 Harper et al 5 579 430 A 11 1996 Grill et al 5 633 843 5 1997 Gupta et al 711 4 5 649 029 7 1997 Galbi 5 701 346 A 12 1997 Herre et al 5 703 999 A 12 1997 Herre et al 5 706 309 A 1 1998 Eberlein et al 5 736 943 A 4 1998 Herre
22. ms of digital audio or video files In this way an operating system independent digital data player may support playing of digital data files with multiple audio or video formats Referring to FIG 7 an exemplary architecture of an MP3 player 700 is shown MP3 is understood to be a common digital audio format The MP3 player 700 which is an operating system independent player that plays MP3 files includes system BIOS MP3 player modules 110A 1 and an MP3 play module 701 The system BIOS MP3 player modules 110 1 represent the portion of the MP3 player stored in the BIOS ROM 108 In a disclosed embodiment the BIOS ROM 108 is of sufficient size to store the BIOS MP3 player modules 110A 1 in addition to standard BIOS software These modules 110A 1 include an MP3 loader 702 and a file system module 704 For the operating system independent MP3 mode of the portable computer system S the system BIOS transfers control to the MP3 loader 702 In a disclosed embodiment the MP3 loader 702 initializes any logic of the portable computer system S necessary or useful for an MP3 working environment For example the key board controller 124 the audio controller 122 and an IDE controller of the hard disk drive 112 can be initialized by the MP3 loader 702 The MP3 loader 702 may also initialize logic or functions such as an interrupt controller stack and data segment registers a timer caches power management functions and System Management Bus SMBus dev
23. nd digital audio playing capabilities has been subject to these sort of drawbacks PC based digital audio players thus have been unsuited to playing digital audio files as quickly as easily or as long as allowed by standalone digital audio players Further PC based digital video players have similar drawbacks SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly a portable computer system provides an operating system independent digital data player The computer sys tem includes an operating system a data storage medium to store a plurality of digitally encoded data files and a digital data player to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded data files in an operating system independent digi tal data mode The data storage medium may be any of the storage media for the computer system such as a hard disk drive a CD ROM drive a DVD drive or removable data storage The operating system independent digital data player enables portable computer users to more quickly and easily play digital data files and to increase digital data playing time BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment is considered in conjunction with the following drawings in which FIG 1 is block diagram of an illustrative portable computer system adapted for an operating system independent digital data player 10 15 20 25 30 35 4
24. ng of a digital audio file and insert an audio CD in the CD ROM drive 109 and the portable computer system S recognizes that playing an audio CD is desired Details regarding playing an audio CD in a low power mode can be found in the commonly assigned U S Pat No 5 838 983 entitled PORTABLE COMPUTER WITH LOW POWER AUDIO CD PLAYER previously incorporated herein In step 602 if the digital audio playing is not paused then control remains in step 602 In step 606 if an audio CD has not been inserted into the CD ROM drive 109 then control proceeds to step 614 where the process is completed The same control buttons on the portable computer system S may be used for digital audio playing and audio CD playing It should be understood that the disclosed process can readily be adapted to support a combined digital audio audio CD digital video disc mode for playing digital audio files audio CDs and digital video files independently of an operating system Similarly the disclosed process can readily be adapted to support a combined digital audio digital video disc mode or a combined audio CD digital video disc mode A combined digital audio digital video disc mode generally shows that digital data files may be decoded and played from a variety of independent storage media depending upon the particular data storage medium where such files are stored Further the disclosed process can readily be adapted to support a mode for playing multiple for
25. nologies Music Web Page http www microsoft com windows windowsmedia en music de fault asp last updated Jul 13 2000 p 1 2 Douglas Boling Flux Digital Audio a Fact of Life Microsoft Internet Developer Jul 1999 http msdn mi crosoft com library periodic period99 flux0799 htm p 1 2 Sonic Foundrv and Microsoft Provide First Music Jukebox Based Solely on Windows Media Audio http www mi crosoft com PressPass press 1999 Aug99 AonicFMSpr asp 2000 Microsoft Corporation p 1 3 ESS Technology Inc 51946 PCI AudoDrive Notebook Solution Product Brief 1999 p 1 4 ESS Technology Inc Maestro 2 PCI Audio Accelerator Product Brief May 1997 p 1 4 List continued on next page Primary Examiner Rehana Perveen 57 ABSTRACT A portable computer system provides an operating system independent digital data player The computer system includes an operating system a data storage medium to store a plurality of digitally encoded data files and a digital data player to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded data files in an operating system independent digital data mode The data storage medium may be any of the storage media for the computer system such as a hard disk drive a CD ROM drive a DVD drive or removable data storage A mini display panel of the portable computer system displays control status information associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files
26. ogether represent a software implemented digital data player the digital data player 120 represents a hardware implemented digital data player Depending on the voltage of devices off the ISA bus 104 voltage translation buffers may be employed if the digital data player 120 is coupled to the ISA bus 104 As shown the CD ROM drive 109 can house a data CD containing the digital data files 114 or can house an audio CD Thus the digital data files 114 can be stored on the hard disk drive 112 on a data CD in the CD ROM drive 109 or on a DVD CD in a DVD drive The digital data files 114 can also be stored on any form of removable data storage Operating system independent digi tal data playing thus may function or accommodate a variety of independent non volatile storage media for the digital data files 114 The digital data mode button 125 places the portable computer system S in the operating system independent digital data mode to play the digital data files 114 In this mode a user can press the digital data control buttons 126 to select digital data control commands associated with playing the digital data files 114 The keyboard controller 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 124 can detect user selection or actuation of the digital data mode button 125 and the digital data control buttons 126 Alternatively the digital data player 120 can detect user selection or activation of the digital data mode b
27. omponents of FIG 3 FIGS 4A and 4B illustrate uses of the keyboard controller 124 and the digital data player 120 for two embodiments of 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 a hardware implemented operating system independent digital data player In FIG 4A the digital data player 120 detects signals from the digital data mode button 125 and the digital data control buttons 126 and provides signals to the mini display panel 142 In contrast in FIG 4B the keyboard controller 124 detects signals from the digital data mode button 125 and the digital data control buttons 126 and provides signals to the mini display panel 142 The keyboard controller 124 may be connected to the digital data player 120 with a serial bus such as an C bus Compared to the embodiment in FIG 4A certain functions are more central ized with the keyboard controller 124 in FIG 4B FIGS 4A and 4B in combination represent that in connection with operating system independent digital data playing certain functions may be allocated to the keyboard controller 124 or the digital data player 120 As an alternative to providing the keyboard controller 124 distinct from the digital data player 120 as shown in FIGS 4A and 4B the keyboard controller 124 and the digital data player 120 may be integrated FIG 5 shows illustrative components of the portable computer system S for a software implemented operating system independent digital dat
28. puter system with an operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode the system com prising an operating system a CD ROM drive a digital audio audio CD mode button to place the por table computing system In an operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode a means for detecting if the CD ROM drive contains an audio CD in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode a means for playing the audio CD in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode if the CD ROM drive contains an audio CD and a means for decoding and playing digital audio fifes in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode if the CD ROM drive does not contain an audio CD 40 The portable computer system of claim 39 the means for decoding and playing comprising a means for decoding and playing digital audio files on a hard disk drive of the portable computer system in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode US 6 654 827 2 13 41 portable computer system of claim 39 the means for decoding and playing comprising a means for decoding and playing digital audio files data CD in the CD ROM drive in the operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode 42 A method of audio playing in an operating system independent digital audio audio CD mode of a portable computer system the method comprising the steps of detecting If a CD ROM drive o
29. r include an audio driver 714 and an audio CD module 726 The audio driver 714 includes a wave out API 716 and a mixer API 718 The wave at API 716 is used to provide wave out data and the mixer API 118 is used for volume control The audio driver 714 receives decoded wave data from the MP3 decoder 720 The audio CD module 726 includes an audio CD API 728 and a CD ROM I O driver 730 The audio CD module 726 may further include an initialization procedure to identify the CD ROM drive 109 and to initialize the appropriate interrupt service The CD ROM I O driver 730 provides commands to the CD ROM drive 109 associated with play ing an audio CD in an operating system independent mode of the portable computer system S In a disclosed embodiment the CD ROM I O driver 730 is implemented as an ATAPI AT Attachment Packet Interface driver The CD API 782 implements the appropriate protocol for com municating with the CD ROM drive 109 For example the CD API 782 may support the following APIs CD TestDriveReady to test if a CD is ready in the CD ROM drive 109 CD TestIfAudioCD to test if the CD is an audio CD CD Eject to eject or close the CD tray of the CD ROM drive 109 DoorLock to lock or unlock the door of the CD ROM drive 109 CD PlayFromTrackNum to play a track indicated by the audio track number CD PauseResume to pause or resume audio CD playing CD StopPlay to play an audio CD or stop audio CD playing GetCurrentPosition to detect the
30. rated p 1 4 O Micro Breathing Life into Mobility OZ165 AudioDJ Sep 24 1999 1999 by OZ165 DS 1 1 p 1 34 and 7 pages of attachments Erich Luening Thomson plans portable digital music player CNET com News Personal Technology 3 1999 p 1 2 Paul Festa et al RealNetworks launches Jukebox CNET com News Entertainment amp Media May 3 1999 p 1 2 Peter Clark EE Times Jul 21 2000 Internet audio plat form delivers 5 chip http www edtn com story prod OEG20000721 T 2000 CMP Media Inc p 1 3 Richard Shim ZDNet News Updated May 3 2000 Digital music awaits new wave of Rios http www zdnet com zdnn stories news 0 4586 2560863 00 html 2000 ZD Inc p 1 4 EBN Staff Electronic Buyers News May 02 2000 S3 to drive Rio audio player into home car http www edt n com story prod OEG200005020022 R 2000 CMP Media Inc 1 2 Rio Home Web Page pg00003 htm Rio Receiver p 1 CNN com Technology May 1 2000 Move MP2 to your home stero http www cnn com 2000 TECH computing 05 01 mp3 stereo idg index html O Cable News Network p 1 3 empeg car the future of car audio has arrived http www empeg com products product car html http Awww empeg com products product specs htmi http www empeg com products product car player html http www empeg com products product_car_download html and http www empeg com products index h
31. rd interrupt handler 710 an MP3 raw data buffer 712 an MP3 decoder 720 an MP3 wave data buffer 722 and an audio wave driver 724 The keyboard interrupt handler 710 is used to detect MP3 commands associated with playing the MP3 files The MP3 buttons for selecting MP3 control commands are similar to the digital data control buttons 126 described above Likewise the MP3 control commands are similar to the digital data control commands described above The MP3 raw data buffer 712 is used to store raw data from an MP3 file The MP3 raw data buffer 712 is polled periodically to determine if loading of data from selected MP3 files should be resumed The MP3 decoder 720 is used to decode data from an MP3 file The MP3 decoder 720 is given control when the HDD IDE I O driver 708 is awaiting an interrupt or when the MP3 raw data buffer 712 is full The MP3 wave data buffer 722 is used to store decoded wave data In a disclosed embodiment the MP3 wave data buffer 722 and the MP3 raw data buffer 712 use extended memory audio wave driver 724 is used to process wave data from the MP3 wave data buffer 722 The MP3 decoder 720 ensures that wave data is played smoothly The following APIs may be supported by the decoder 720 Start Decode Pause Resume Decode and Stop Decode US 6 654 827 2 9 These APIs self explanatory to those of ordinary skill in the art based on the disclosure herein The MP3 play module 701 may furthe
32. rein by ref erence Pressing the volume up button and the volume down button simultaneously mutes the sound in the digital data mode The keyboard controller 124 or the digital data player 120 can detect selection of a digital data control command If a digital data control command is detected in step 210 then in step 212 the command is provided to the digital data player In step 214 the digital data player decodes the digital data control command Next in step 216 the digital data player decodes the digital data file 114 For example if the command is a play command then the digital data player decodes and plays digital data from the digital data file 114 Techniques for decoding digital data are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art Playing of the digital data should be understood to encompass any functions associated with playing digital data e g next track previous track stop and pause In step 218 it is determined if the digital data mode button 125 has been placed in an off state If so then the operating system independent digital data mode is exited in step 220 When the digital data mode button 125 is placed in an off state a soft off command may be used to shutdown power to the portable computer system S From step 220 operating system independent digital data playing is com pleted in step 222 If the digital data mode button 125 has not been placed in an off state then control returns to step 210 where another
33. s Logic Inc 1999 p 1 2 amp p 20 22 CS4630 Crystal Clear Soundfusion PCI Audio Accel erator http www cirrus com design products overview index cfm ProductID 42 2000 Cirrus Logic p 1 2 CS4281 CrystalClear PCI Audio Interface http ww w cirrus com design products overview index cfm Produc tID 20 2000 Cirrus Logic p 1 2 CS4299 CrystalClear Soundfusion Audio Codec 97 http www cirus com design products overview index cfm ProductID 25 2000 Cirrus Logic p 1 2 CS4235 CrystalClear Low Cost ISA Audio System http www cirrus com design products overview index cfm Pro ductID 14 2000 Cirrus Logic 1 2 ESS Technology ES3210 Video CD Processor Chip Product Brief SAMO128 071597 1 2 Intel Pentium Processor User s Manual Vol 3 Archi tecture and Programming Manual Intel Corporation 1994 Chapter 20 System Management Mode p 20 1 20 9 Margaret Quan Internet audio takes center stage at CES EETIMES COM http www eet com story OEG2000010780046 Jan 11 2000 2000 CMP Media Inc p 1 5 Oh Hong Lye Anatomy of a multi format digital audio player Multimedia Technology MP4 AUDIO Electronics Engineer Apr 2000 p 1 4 Asian Sources Electronies Engineer Digital audio domi nates multimedia trends Posted Dec 1 1999 2000 Trade Media Ltd p 1 4 Jason Kridner et al A DSP Powered Solid State Audio System Texas Instruments Incorpo
34. ta media player for an operating system independent digital data mode of a portable computer system the player comprising a file system module to retrieve a plurality of digitally encoded media files from a hard disk drive of a portable computer system in an operating system independent digital data mode a digital data decoder to decode and play the plurality of digitally encoded media files in the operating system independent digital data mode and a digital data loader to load the digital data decoder from the hard disk drive wherein the digitally encoded media files are encoded with an audio or video codec 35 The digital data player of claim 34 further compris ing an interrupt handler to detect selection of a plurality of digital data control commands associated with playing of the plurality of digitally encoded data files in the operating system independent digital data mode 36 The digital data player of claim 34 wherein the digital data loader initializes selective portions of the portable computer system for the operating system independent digi tal data mode 37 The digital data player of claim 34 wherein the digital data loader and the file system module are stored In system BIOS of the portable computer system 38 The digital data player of claim 34 the file system module comprising a hard disk drive driver to read the plurality of digitally encoded data files from the hard disk drive 39 A portable com
35. table computer system S adapted for operating system independent digital data or media playing The portable computer system S includes a host bus 101 coupled upstream to a host processor 103 and a L2 cache 148 and coupled downstream to a synchronous dynamic random access memory SDRAM 105 and a host PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect bridge 100 The host PCI bridge 100 bridges the host bus 101 to a PCI bus 102 that is connected to a video controller 132 a CardBus or other PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card Interna tional Association interface 127 and a PCIASA Industry Standard Architecture bridge 106 An IDE Integrated Drive Electronics bus 107 connected to the PCI ISA bridge 106 is coupled to a CD ROM drive 109 and a hard disk drive 112 Coupled downstream of the PCI ISA bridge 106 is an ISA bus 104 coupled to an audio controller 122 a Basic Input Output System BIOS read only memory ROM 108 containing system BIOS a keyboard controller 124 and a Super I O controller 134 The audio controller 122 which typically includes an audio coder decoder CODEC is coupled to an audio amplifier 128 that provides audio signals to speakers 130 The keyboard controller 124 controls a keyboard 144 and the Super I O controller 134 controls a variety of ports such as a parallel port 138 and an asynchro nous serial port 140 A main display panel 146 is coupled to the video controller 132 and a universal serial bus USB port 136 is coupled
36. tml 6 pages http Avww riohome com cited by examiner U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 1 of 7 US 6 654 827 2 103 148 HOST PROCESSOR 101 HOST BUS 127 100 105 CARDBUS INTERFACE BRIDGE 102 pciBus HARDDISK Oy DINE 2 _ 108 CD ROM DIGITAL DATA ae ee 144 DRIVE FILES oe Sisa BIOS DIGITAL DATA CD i DATA PLAYER I R DIGITALDATA MODULES AUDIO CD PLAYER MODULES 3 110 1044 ISABUS 136 F Up LUE 1 l 124 l 120 kN i MAN p ooa I DIGITAL i aes DISPLAY USB I PANEL KEYBOARD AUDIO L i CONTROLLER 1 PLAYER i CONTROLLER bnt 2 med 134 128 1254 7252 pO SUPER 1 0 DIGITAL AMPLIFIER DATA MODE CONTROL 1 p 130 PARALLEL ONE POWER KEYBOARD SERIAL KEYBOARD BUTTON SPEAKERS SERIAL I 140 S 3 7182 _ MN DISPLAY PANEL FIG 1 U S Patent Nov 25 2003 Sheet 2 of 7 US 6 654 827 B2 0S INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA PLAYING 200 STATE OF DIGITAL DATA MODE BUTTON Y 201 ENTER OS INDEPENDENT DIGITAL DATA MODE 202 INITIALIZE DIGITAL DATA PLAYER 204 LOCATE DIGITAL 212 DATA FILE SEND DIGITAL DATA 206 CONTROL COMMAND OPEN AND LOAD TOFLALER DIGITAL DATA FILE 214 PLAYER DECODES DIGITAL DATA CONTROL COMMAND DETECT 216 DIGITA
37. to the PCI ISA bridge 106 X symbols are show in FIG 1 to indicate where the intersection of two lines does not imply a connection between the lines While not shown the system S may also include a digital video disc DVD drive and support for a variety of removable media Certain typical components of a portable computer system are not shown for sake of clarity Further it should be understood that the illustrated computer system architecture US 6 654 827 2 3 is exemplary as 1 certain components may be located off different busses 2 certain components may be integrated 3 certain components may be eliminated and or 4 certain components may be coupled to a different set of components as well as other architectural variations which will be readily appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art For ease of illustration certain components which can play a role in supporting operating system independent digital data playing for the illustrated portable computer system S are shown in dashed line These components include the hard disk drive 112 the CD ROM drive 109 the BIOS ROM 108 the keyboard controller 124 the audio controller 122 the audio amplifier 128 the speakers 130 the video controller 132 the main display panel 146 a digital data player 120 a digital data mode button 125 digital data player control buttons 126 and a mini display panel 122 The video controller 132 and the main display panel 146 may b
38. utton 125 and the digital data control buttons 126 The keyboard controller 124 also monitors or detects user selection or actuation of a main power button 123 since the main power button 123 is maintained in an off state for the operating system independent digital data mode Actuation of the main power button 123 in the digital data mode triggers exiting of the digital data mode and powering up of the portable computer system S in the normal manner The involvement of these particular components in operating system independent digital audio playing for the portable computer system S is described in more detail below It should be understood that these components are not exhaus tive of the components that can support operating system independent digital data playing for the portable computer system S and that certain components can be omitted One advantage of an operating system independent digital data player of a portable computer system is enabling portable computer users to more quickly and easily play digital data files Referring to FIG 2 an exemplary operating system independent digital data playing process for the portable computer system S is shown Beginning in step 200 it is determined if the digital data mode button 125 has been placed in an on state The digital data mode button 125 is preferably selected when the portable computer system S is in a reduced power state such as a soft off state or a hibernation state If the digit
39. utton 125 is used to launch operating system independent digital audio playing or audio CD playing Beginning in step 600 it is determined if a digital audio file is playing If not then control proceeds to step 604 where it is determined if playing of an audio CD is paused If so then in step 608 it is determined if an audio CD is removed If an audio CD has been removed then control proceeds to step 611 where it is determined if a digital audio audio CD play button has been selected If so then in step 612 a digital audio file is decoded and played In this way a user can pause playing of an audio CD and remove the audio CD from the CD ROM drive and the portable computer system S recognizes that decoding and playing of a digital audio file is desired In step 611 if the digital audio audio CD play button is not selected control remains in step 611 In step 604 if the playing of an audio CD is not paused then control remains in step 604 In step 608 if an audio CD is not removed then the process proceeds to step 614 where the process is completed US 6 654 827 2 7 From step 600 if it is determined that a digital audio file is playing then control proceeds to step 602 to determine if the digital audio playing is paused If digital audio playing is paused then in step 606 it is determined if an audio CD has been inserted into the CD ROM drive If so then in step 610 the audio CD is played In this way a user can pause playi

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