1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to hardware platform systems and, more specifically, to a virtualized peripheral hardware platform system.
2. Description of Related Art
An embedded system, as a complex component in computer hardware and software, is known to be a device for controlling, monitoring or assisting apparatuses, machines or even factory operations, being particularly a system developed for a specific purpose. Among emerging embedded-system-based products, common ones include mobile phones, PDA, GPS, Set-Top-Box and embedded servers and thin clients.
Processors and chip sets for embedded systems are required to be compact, efficient in heat dissipation and power. Thus, a SoC (System-on-Chip) that is highly integrated is usually used as the processing core. In addition, in embedded systems, software and hardware are inseparable. However, the development process of software in the core processers used in most embedded systems is different from that for the programs of normal desktop computers. Therefore, in order to rapidly develop system software on various platforms, the developers of embedded systems usually provide simulation environments and hardware platform to their development staff so as to enable them to develop software programs, without using any physical hardware platform. These software programs are then to be integrated after being designed and verified on a hardware platform.
A common difficulty of the developers' hardware platform is that while a hardware platform supporting peripheral interface of multiple types is available, it is limited by space or cost considerations. Consequently, it is hard to make one hardware platform supporting peripheral interface of all available types. Even if the peripheral interface of all available types could be put on a single hardware platform, the resultant hardware platform would be too bulky to be portable, not to mention the problems related to its design complexity.
The present invention provides a virtualized peripheral hardware platform system, which merely provides a first hardware platform with hardware units that are required minimally, and regards a physical peripheral device connected to a second hardware platform as the peripheral device of the first hardware platform, so as to simplify the structural complexity of the first hardware platform.
The present invention provides the virtualized peripheral hardware platform system, wherein a software platform is executed on the second hardware platform, and operations of the peripheral device of the first hardware platform is simulated by means of the software platform, so as to reduce the number of input/output (I/O) interfaces required on the first hardware platform, and thereby downsize the first hardware platform.
The present invention provides the virtualized peripheral hardware platform system, wherein the usability of the first hardware platform can be improved because the complexity of the first hardware platform is reduced and the same first hardware platform is enabled to work with the software platform to simulate various peripheral signals.
For achieving the aforementioned effects, the present invention provides a virtualized peripheral hardware platform system, which comprises: a first hardware platform, which includes: a data-processing module for receiving and processing a signal data to generate a corresponding first peripheral signal; a first peripheral-converting module for acquiring and encoding the first peripheral signal and into a first interface signal; and a first interface module for receiving and transmitting the first interface signal; and a software platform configured to be executed in a second hardware platform, the second hardware platform being in signal communication with the first interface module, and connected to at least a physical peripheral device, and the software platform including: a second interface module for receiving and transmitting the first interface signal; and a second peripheral-converting module for receiving and decoding the first interface signal so as to generate a second peripheral signal, wherein the second peripheral-converting module then transmits the second peripheral signal to a virtual peripheral device or the corresponding physical peripheral device, wherein, when the second peripheral signal is transmitted to the virtual peripheral device, the virtual peripheral device simulates the second peripheral signal, and when the second peripheral signal is transmitted to the physical peripheral device, the physical peripheral device operates according to the second peripheral signal.
By implementing the present invention, at least the following progressive effects can be achieved:
1. The present invention connects the second hardware platform equipped with the software platform to the first hardware platform, so as to take the physical peripheral device connected to the second hardware platform as the peripheral device of the first hardware platform, thereby downsizing the first hardware platform.
2. The present invention uses peripheral-virtualizing technology to virtualize the peripheral device supported by the first hardware platform, thereby decreasing the manufacturing costs, simplifying the circuit structure, downsizing the platform and improving the usability of the hardware platform.
3. The present invention may combine peripheral-virtualizing and peripheral-expanding technologies to allow various peripheral devices to be easily applied to the hardware platform, thereby accelerating development of new peripheral interfaces at hardware-platform suppliers' side and reducing the costs required by developing new peripheral interface.
The invention as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
The first hardware platform 100 may be merely equipped with basic hardware units and execute the peripheral signals which are generated by the software platform 200 on the second hardware platform 300 to simulate the input or output signals of the peripheral devices. Therefore, the first hardware platform 100 is applicable for the development and testing of different systems with different functions, so developers need not to develop dedicated hardware platforms for meeting demands of different peripheral devices. The usability of the first hardware platform 100 is thus significantly increased.
Thereby, it is possible to simulate the operation of the peripheral device of the first hardware platform 100 by the software platform 200 with the assistance of peripheral-signal acquiring and virtualization technologies. When the first hardware platform 100 and the second hardware platform 300 come into signal communication, all of the peripheral signals sent out by the first hardware platform 100 will be transmitted to the software platform 200 on the second hardware platform 300, so that the software platform 200 can simulate the output data represented by the peripheral signal and display the data through a display interface of the software platform 200.
Additionally, referring to
Referring to
The data-processing module 110 is configured to receive and process a signal data to generate a corresponding first peripheral signal. The signal data may be generated through a default program preset in the first hardware platform 100. As shown in
Referring to
Referring back to
As shown in
The first interface-signal control unit 121 serves to identify the type of the first peripheral signal sent out by the data-processing module 110, and to acquire a first content data of the first peripheral signal for registering it in the first data-registering unit 122. The first data-processing unit 123 converts the first content data to the first interface signal, and then the data-transmitting control unit 124 transmits the first interface signal to the first interface module 130.
Referring to
As shown in
When the second peripheral-converting module 220 acquires the first interface signal from the second interface module 210, the second interface-signal control unit 223 decodes the first interface signal to obtain a first content data of the first interface signal. The first content data may be registered in the second data-registering unit 222, and then be converted by the second data-processing unit 221 into second peripheral signal to be transmitted to the virtual peripheral device 500 or the corresponding physical peripheral device 400.
When the second peripheral signal is transmitted to the virtual peripheral device 500, the virtual peripheral device 500 can simulate and display the second peripheral signal. Therein, the virtual peripheral device 500 further comprises a display interface module 510 for displaying the simulation result of the second peripheral signal. In addition, when the second peripheral signal is transmitted to the physical peripheral device 400 connected with the second hardware platform 300, the physical peripheral device 400 operates according to the second peripheral signal.
Moreover, the first hardware platform 100 can also process the signals outputted by the software platform 200. Therein, the physical peripheral device 400 operates and sends out the corresponding third peripheral signal that is transmitted to the first hardware platform 100 by means of the software platform 200 for processing. A user may also input signals to be processed by means of the software platform 200 so as to generate a corresponding user-set command (as shown in
As shown in
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As shown in
Therefore, the signal data may be generated by the default program preset in the first hardware platform 100 or be acquired the signal output by the software platform 200. As shown in
Referring to
The foregoing operation unit 113a or 113b may be an FPGA circuit or a SoC chip. Alternatively, the operation unit 113a or 113b and the storage unit 112b or 112d may be integrated on a SoC chip. Preferably, the operation unit 113a or 113b, the storage unit 112b or 112d and the peripheral control unit 111b or 111d may be also integrated on a SoC chip.
In the course of manufacturing the first hardware platform 100 (for example, an embedded system development board), limited by requirements for the manufacturing costs, product area, R&D schedule and others, the developer may not equip the first hardware platform 100 with all peripheral wires and connectors. For example, in the event that the developer initially provided the development board with merely the peripheral interface for UART, VGA and PS2 and later desires to add USB interface, the developer has to make a new development board. However, as to the first hardware platform 100 of the present embodiment, for additionally supporting USB interface, the developer has only to update the software platform 200 but not replace the entire first hardware platform 100. Thus, the developer can forestall all its competitors by launching products first and then updating the products through adding the software platform with additional peripheral interface, while also shortening the manufacturing schedule and reducing the manufacturing costs.
Moreover, by preserving the core hardware unit in the first hardware platform 100 for processing peripheral signals, the efficiency of signal processing can be ensued. Also, by regarding the peripheral devices (e.g. displays, audio devices, keyboards, etc.) connected to the second hardware platform 300 as those connected to the first hardware platform 100, the number of physical I/O interfaces required on the first hardware platform 100 can be significantly reduced, thereby simplifying the complexity of the overall circuit. In addition, the software platform 200 can simulate the operation of the peripheral devices so as to save space on the first hardware platform 100 and reduce the complexity of the overall circuit.
By reducing the number of I/O interfaces and simplifying the circuit, the first hardware platform 100 can be downsized to be as small as a flash drive, being portable by a development engineer so the development engineer can easily build a ready development environment by connecting the first hardware platform 100 with an in-situ second hardware platform 300 of a software platform 200. To developers, the reduced manufacturing costs allow them to put the first hardware platform 100 into mass production, and thereby popularize the development platforms on the mass market. Meantime, the developers need not make different first hardware platforms for different peripheral devices, and may use the same first hardware platform 100 to simulate input and output signals of all peripheral devices, thereby enhancing the usability of the first hardware platform 100.
The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments and it is understood that the embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Moreover, as the contents disclosed herein should be readily understood and can be implemented by a person skilled in the art, all equivalent changes or modifications which do not depart from the concept of the present invention should be encompassed by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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099136010 | Oct 2010 | TW | national |