JP7073188B2 - Information processing equipment, its control method, and programs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a control method thereof, and a program.

An information processing device equipped with an HDD for storing a plurality of programs and data is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The HDD has a relatively low capacity unit price, but has a low data read / write speed. In an information processing device equipped with an HDD, in order to realize high-speed data access, frequently used data and recently used data are temporarily held in a disk cache having a relatively high data read / write speed. The timing of writing the data held in the disk cache to the HDD is controlled by the OS (Operating System) installed in the information processing apparatus. For example, when the information processing device is instructed to shut down while the data is held in the disk cache, the information processing device prevents each program running in the information processing device from making a request to write data to the HDD. , Stop all running programs. After stopping all the programs in operation, the information processing apparatus writes the data held in the disk cache to the HDD and cancels the recognition of the HDD (unmount) as the process of stopping the HDD. After that, the information processing device stops the system. Here, when the OS installed in the information processing device has a drawing function such as Windows, the information processing device uses the drawing function of the OS to indicate that the shutdown process is being performed until just before the system is stopped. Continues to be displayed on the display unit of the information processing apparatus. By switching the notification screen to non-display on the display unit, the user recognizes that the shutdown process has been completed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-59914

However, in the past, depending on the function of the OS installed in the information processing device, the user may misunderstand as if the shutdown process was completed. For example, when the OS mounted on the information processing device does not have a drawing function such as Linux (registered trademark), the information processing device cannot use the drawing function of the OS, so that the display control of the notification screen is controlled. It is performed by the drawing program stored in the information processing device. In the display unit of such an information processing device, the notification screen is switched to non-display when the drawing program is stopped. That is, the notification screen is switched to non-display even though the HDD stop processing performed after the drawing program is stopped has not been completed. The user who confirms the switching of the notification screen mistakenly recognizes that the shutdown process has been completed before the HDD stop process is completed. If the user disconnects the power cable of the information processing device from the outlet from the viewpoint of power saving and disaster prevention without completing the HDD stop processing, the HDD may be damaged.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, a control method thereof, and a program capable of reducing the risk of HDD failure due to a misunderstanding regarding the end of shutdown processing by a user.

In order to achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the present invention includes an OS (Operating System) having no drawing function, a storage means for storing a plurality of programs, and a program read from the plurality of programs. An information processing device including a data holding means for holding, a notification means for notifying that a process for shutting down the information processing device is being executed in response to a shutdown instruction of the information processing device, and the data holding means. A determining means for determining whether or not the operating program is a program related to the notification control by the notification means, a program stopping means for stopping the operating program, and after stopping the operating program. The program stopping means includes a stop processing control means for starting the stop processing of the storage means, and the program stop means has completed the stop processing of the storage means for a program related to the notification control by the notification means among the operating programs. It is characterized by stopping later.

According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the risk of HDD failure due to a misunderstanding regarding the end of the shutdown process by the user.

It is external drawing of the MFP as an information processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the controller part and the operation part of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the program stored in the HDD of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the notification screen displayed on the LCD of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the display-related program management list stored in the HDD of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the shutdown control processing executed by the MFP of FIG.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of an MFP 8 as an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the MFP 8 includes a controller unit 1, a scanner unit 2, a printer unit 3, and an operation unit 4. The controller unit 1 controls the entire MFP8. The scanner unit 2 reads the arranged document and generates image data. The printer unit 3 prints the image data or the like generated by the scanner unit 2 on paper. The printer unit 3 includes a paper cassette 5, an electrophotographic process 6, and a paper ejection tray 7. The paper cassette 5 feeds paper into the electrophotographic process 6. The electrophotographic process 6 reads the image data generated by the scanner unit 2 and copies and fixes the image data on the paper fed from the paper cassette 5 to generate a printed matter. The printed matter is discharged to the paper output tray 7. The operation unit 4 receives a job execution instruction or the like from the user.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing the configurations of the controller unit 1 and the operation unit 4 of FIG. In FIG. 2, the controller unit 1 includes a controller CPU 9, HDD 10 (storage means), and memory 12 (data holding means). The controller CPU 9 is connected to the HDD 10 and the memory 12. The operation unit 4 includes an operation unit CPU 15, a touch panel 14, a keyboard 18, an LCD 13, and a memory 16.

The controller CPU 9 reads the program stored in the HDD 10 and stores the program in the memory 12. The controller CPU 9 controls the MFP 8 by executing a program stored in the memory 12. The HDD 10 stores a digital image, a program, an OS 11, and the like. OS11 is, for example, Linux or Windows. The memory 12 is used as a work area of the controller CPU 9 and as a temporary storage area for each data. Further, the memory 12 has a higher data read / write speed than the HDD 10, and is used as a disk cache. In the present embodiment, in order to realize high-speed data access, frequently used data and the like are temporarily held in the memory 12 as a disk cache. The timing of writing the data held in the memory 12 to the HDD 10 is controlled by the OS 11.

The LCD 13 is controlled by the controller CPU 9 and displays a graphical screen. The user can select each function by operating the icon on the screen displayed on the LCD 13 with a finger. A thin transparent film-shaped touch panel 14 is attached to the surface of the LCD 13. When the user selects an icon on the screen displayed on the LCD 13 with a finger, the touch panel 14 notifies the operation unit CPU 15 of the coordinate information indicating the user's touch position on the screen. The operation unit CPU 15 stores the notified coordinate information in the memory 16. Further, the operation unit CPU 15 converts the coordinate information into a data packet, and notifies the controller CPU 9 of the coordinate information converted into a data packet via the interface 17. When the controller CPU 9 receives the coordinate information, it evaluates the rectangular coordinates of the plurality of icons arranged on the screen displayed on the LCD 13 and detects the icon selected by the user.

The keyboard 18 is a hard button including a copy button, a stop button, a numeric keypad, a button for inputting characters, a cursor movement button, and the like. For example, when the copy button on the keyboard 18 is pressed by the user, the operation unit CPU 15 converts the key code corresponding to the copy button into a data packet. The operation unit CPU 15 notifies the controller CPU 9 of the key code converted into a data packet via the interface 17. Upon receiving the key code, the controller CPU 9 optically reads the arranged document by the scanner unit 2 to generate image data, and stores the image data in the memory 12. Further, the controller CPU 9 transmits the image data stored in the memory 12 to the printer unit 3 and causes the printer unit 3 to print the image data. The controller CPU 9 displays the progress of copying on the LCD 13 while printing by the printer unit 3 is being performed. Further, when the copy stop button on the keyboard 18 is pressed, copying is interrupted. In this way, the operation unit CPU 15 plays a role of collecting the input systems of the touch panel 14 and the keyboard 18 and assisting the notification to the controller CPU 9.

Further, in the MFP 8, when the user presses the power switch 19 in FIG. 2, the energization of each device of the MFP 8 is controlled. In FIG. 2, thick arrows indicate power paths. For example, when the user presses the power switch 19 while the MFP 8 is energized, the MFP 8 stops energizing each device such as the scanner unit 2, the printer unit 3, and the operation unit 4. Hereinafter, the user pressing the power switch 19 while the MFP 8 is energized is referred to as a “shutdown instruction”. On the other hand, when the user presses the power switch 19 while the power supply to the MFP 8 is stopped, the MFP 8 starts the power supply to each device. In the present embodiment, the controller unit 1 uses a power saving technique such as Suspend to Memory, and the energization of the controller CPU 9 and the memory 12 of the controller unit 1 is independently controlled.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a program stored in the HDD 10 of FIG. The HDD 10 stores a root program 300 that is a starting point of all programs executed by the MFP 8. Further, the HDD 10 stores a display content control program 301, a display unit control program 302, a data control program 303, a job control program 304, a scanner control program 305, and a printer control program 306.

The display content control program 301 determines the content to be displayed on the LCD 13, and notifies the display unit control program 302 of the determination result. The display unit control program 302 performs display control (notification control) on the LCD 13 based on the determination result notified from the display content control program 301. The data control program 303 exchanges information with the display content control program 301 and the display unit control program 302, and performs a process of reading data from the HDD 10 or a process of writing data to the HDD 10. The job control program 304 cooperates with the scanner control program 305 that controls the scanner unit 2 and the printer control program 306 that controls the printer unit 3 to execute a copy job or the like in response to an instruction from the user.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the notification screen 400 displayed on the LCD 13 of FIG. 2. The notification screen 400 is displayed on the LCD 13 when the MFP 8 receives the shutdown instruction. On the notification screen 400, a message indicating that the shutdown process according to the shutdown instruction is being executed is displayed. Upon receiving the shutdown instruction, the MFP 8 starts a shutdown process for stopping the energization of each device. In the shutdown process, the MFP 8 stops the operating program so that the operating program does not request to write data to the HDD 10. After stopping the running program, the MFP 8 writes the data temporarily stored in the memory 12 functioning as the disk cache to the HDD 10 as the stop processing of the HDD 10, and cancels the recognition of the HDD 10. After that, the MFP 8 stops the system and stops energizing each device of the MFP 8.

For example, when the OS 11 mounted on the MFP 8 has a drawing function such as Windows, the MFP 8 continues to display the notification screen 400 on the LCD 13 by using the drawing function of the OS 11 until immediately before the system is stopped. By switching the notification screen 400 to non-display on the LCD 13, the user recognizes that the shutdown process has been completed. However, when the OS 11 mounted on the MFP 8 does not have a drawing function like Linux or the like, the MFP 8 cannot use the drawing function of the OS 11, so that the display control of the notification screen 400 is controlled by a drawing program such as the display unit control program 302. Do it by. In such a case, in the LCD 13, the notification screen 400 is switched to non-display when the drawing program is stopped. That is, the notification screen 400 is switched to non-display on the LCD 13 even though the stop processing of the HDD 10 performed after the drawing program is stopped has not been completed. The user who confirms the switching of the notification screen mistakenly recognizes that the shutdown process has been completed before the shutdown process of the HDD 10 is completed.

By the way, in an office or the like, from the viewpoint of power saving and disaster prevention, the power cable of the MFP 8 may be unplugged from the outlet when returning home. Further, in a field where speed is required such as a production process in a factory, the operation may be performed so that the power cable is unplugged from the outlet immediately after the worker recognizes that the shutdown process of the MFP 8 is completed. In such an operation mode, even if the power cable is unplugged from the outlet after the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed, the HDD will not be damaged. However, if the power cable is unplugged from the outlet before the HDD 10 stop process is completed, the HDD 10 may be damaged. That is, there arises a problem that the risk of HDD failure increases due to the user's misunderstanding regarding the end of the shutdown process.

Corresponding to this, in the present embodiment, the notification screen 400 is displayed in response to the shutdown instruction of the MFP 8, and the program related to the display control among the operating programs is stopped after the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed. ..

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display-related program management list 500 stored in the HDD 10 of FIG. 2. The display-related program management list 500 manages information about the program stored in the HDD 10. The display-related program management list 500 includes process names 501, roles 502, and display-related 503 as items. The process name 501 is set to the process name corresponding to the program stored in the HDD 10. Information about the function of the program stored in the HDD 10 is set in the role 502. Information indicating whether or not the program stored in the HDD 10 is a program related to display control is set in the display-related 503. In the display-related 503, "Yes" indicating to that effect is set for a program related to display control, such as a display content control program 301 and a display unit control program 302. Further, "No" indicating that effect is set for a program that is not related to display control, such as the scanner control program 305. Information about all the programs stored in the HDD 10 is set in the display-related program management list 500.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the shutdown control process executed by the MFP 8 of FIG. The process of FIG. 6 is performed by the controller CPU 9 reading the program stored in the HDD 10 and storing it in the memory 12 and executing the program stored in the memory 12. The process of FIG. 6 is executed when the MFP 8 receives a shutdown instruction by the user.

In FIG. 6, first, the controller CPU 9 acquires the display-related program management list 500 from the HDD 10 (step S101). Next, the controller CPU 9 initializes the program ID, specifically, sets the program ID to 0 (step S102). The program ID indicates the number of programs for which stopability determination has been made by the process of step S103 described later. Next, the controller CPU 9 determines whether or not all the programs stored in the HDD 10 have been determined to be stopped (step S103).

As a result of the determination in step S103, when the stop possibility determination of any of the programs stored in the HDD 10 has not been made, the controller CPU 9 identifies one program from the programs for which the stop possibility determination has not been made. Next, the controller CPU 9 acquires information about one specified program (step S104). For example, the controller CPU 9 acquires the process name of one program from the process information under / proc in Linux. Next, the controller CPU 9 searches for the acquired process name from the process name 501 in the display-related program management list. The controller CPU 9 refers to the matching item display-related 503, and determines whether or not one program is a program related to display control (step S105). For example, when one program is a program corresponding to "Xorg" or "ui_cont" in the display-related program management list 500, the controller CPU 9 determines that one program is a program related to display control. On the other hand, when one program is a program corresponding to "print_cont", "scan_cont", and "job_cont" in the display-related program management list 500, the controller CPU 9 determines that one program is not a program related to display control. ..

As a result of the determination in step S105, when one program is a program related to display control, the controller CPU 9 suspends the stop of one program and returns to the process of step S103. As a result of the determination in step S105, when one program is not a program related to display control, the controller CPU 9 stops one program (step S106) (program stop means). Next, the controller CPU 9 increments the program ID (step S107), and returns to the process of step S103.

As a result of the determination in step S103, when it is determined whether or not to stop all the programs stored in the HDD 10, the controller CPU 9 writes out the disk cache (step S108) (stop processing control means). Specifically, the controller CPU 9 writes the data held in the memory 12 functioning as a disk cache to the HDD 10. Next, the controller CPU 9 cancels the recognition of the HDD 10 (step S109) (stop processing control means), and prepares to stop the energization of each device of the MFP 8. Next, the controller CPU 9 stops the program whose stop has been suspended, specifically, the program related to the display control (step S109) (program stop means). Next, the controller CPU 9 stops the system (step S110) and ends this process. When the process of FIG. 6 is completed, the MFP 8 stops energizing each device.

According to the above-described embodiment, the notification screen 400 is displayed in response to the shutdown instruction of the MFP 8, and the program related to the display control among the operating programs is stopped after the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed. As a result, at least for a period in which there is an extremely high risk of damage to the HDD 10 due to the power cable of the MFP 8 being unplugged from the outlet, specifically, a period until the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed, the notification screen 400 is displayed on the LCD 13. Can continue to be displayed. As a result, it is possible to reduce the risk of failure of the HDD 10 due to the user's misunderstanding regarding the end of the shutdown process.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the stop processing of the HDD 10 includes a processing of writing the data held in the memory 12 to the HDD 10 and a processing of canceling the recognition of the HDD 10. As a result, it is possible to reduce the risk of failure of the HDD 10 while writing the data temporarily held in the memory 12 to the HDD 10 without losing the data.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, it is determined whether or not one program is a program related to display control based on the display-related program management list 500. This makes it possible to easily identify a program related to display control from the running programs. As a result, only the programs related to the display control among the operating programs can be easily stopped after the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the above-described embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, the display-related program management list 500 may include only the process name 501 and the display-related 503 as items.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the display-related program management list 500 may include only information related to the program related to the display control among all the programs stored in the HDD 10. By doing so, it is possible to reliably identify the program related to the display control from the plurality of programs.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to an MFP as an information processing device will be described, but the present invention is not limited to the MFP, and may be applied to, for example, a device equipped with an OS having no drawing function. good.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the process when the shutdown instruction of the MFP 8 is received has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the program related to the display control may be stopped after the stop processing of the HDD 10 is completed when the restart instruction of the MFP 8 is received.

The present invention supplies a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiment to a system or device via a network or storage medium, and one or more processors in the computer of the system or device read the program. It can also be realized by the processing to be executed. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (for example, ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

8 MFP
9 Controller CPU
10 HDD
11 OS
12 memory 13 LCD
400 Notification screen 500 Display related program management list

Claims (6)

An information processing device including an OS (Operating System) having no drawing function, a storage means for storing a plurality of programs, and a data holding means for holding a program read from the plurality of programs.
A notification means for notifying that the process of shutting down the information processing device is being executed in response to the shutdown instruction of the information processing device.
A discriminating means for determining whether or not the program operating in the data holding means is a program related to the notification control by the notification means, and
A program stop means for stopping the running program, and
A stop processing control means for starting the stop processing of the storage means after stopping the operating program is provided.
The program stop means is an information processing apparatus characterized in that, among the running programs, a program related to notification control by the notification means is stopped after the stop processing of the storage means is completed. The data holding means temporarily holds data to be written to the storage means at a speed of reading and writing data faster than that of the storage means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stop processing of the storage means includes a process of writing the data held in the data holding means to the storage means and a process of canceling the recognition of the storage means. .. The storage means stores a management list containing information indicating whether or not each program is related to notification control by the notification means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the discrimination means determines whether or not the operating program is a program related to notification control by the notification means based on the management list. .. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the management list includes only information about a program related to notification control by the notification means among the plurality of programs. A control method for an information processing apparatus including an OS having no drawing function, a storage means for storing a plurality of programs, and a data holding means for holding a program read from the plurality of programs.
A notification step for notifying that the process of shutting down the information processing device is being executed in response to the shutdown instruction of the information processing device, and a notification step.
A determination step for determining whether or not the program operating in the data holding means is a program related to notification control in the notification step, and a determination step.
A program stop step for stopping the running program, and
It has a stop processing control step for starting the stop processing of the storage means after stopping the operating program.
The program stop step is a control method for an information processing apparatus, which comprises stopping a program related to notification control in the notification step among the running programs after completing the stop processing of the storage means. A program that causes a computer to execute a control method of an information processing apparatus including an OS having no drawing function, a storage means for storing a plurality of programs, and a data holding means for holding a program read from the plurality of programs. And
The control method of the information processing device is
A notification step for notifying that the process of shutting down the information processing device is being executed in response to the shutdown instruction of the information processing device, and a notification step.
A determination step for determining whether or not the program operating in the data holding means is a program related to notification control in the notification step, and a determination step.
A program stop step for stopping the running program, and
It has a stop processing control step for starting the stop processing of the storage means after stopping the operating program.
The program stop step is a program characterized in that the program related to the notification control in the notification step among the operating programs is stopped after the stop processing of the storage means is completed.

Images