Abstract:
Disclosed is a method of displaying foreground visual data in foreground and executing system booting in background for a computer system, including the following steps: a computer system detecting a pre-configured hot key being pressed; the computer system being activated and executing the BIOS; the BIOS loading and executing the monitor driver, and loading a default animation related to the applications associated with the pre-configured hot key; the monitor displaying the default animation while operating system being loaded and executed; and finally, after the initialization of the operating system, the application programs associated with the pre-configured hot key being loaded and executed.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to a computer system booting method and, more particularly, to a method of displaying foreground visual data in foreground and executing system booting in background for a computer system.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     As the multimedia applications become ubiquitous, the computers have also become a daily household appliance. For many users, the computers are a part of daily life. As a result, a concept of digital life with the computers at the core is gaining popularity. The integration of using computers in other household appliances to improve the functionality or the ease of use is no longer a remote concept. For example, the instant play function enables the user experience the same ease of use of computers as other simple appliances by using a fast embedded program; hence, the user can enjoy the instant play of multimedia during the booting of the system.  
         [0003]     However, although the conventional instant play technology has greatly improved the booting speed, an obvious waiting period still incurs due to the difference between the computers and household appliances. The following disadvantages still exist: (1) the clear distinction between booting period and the ready-to-run period; (2) the booting period being wasted in waiting, instead of being utilized for informative instruction or commercial advertisement; and (3) the prolonged sense of waiting alienating the users and leading to low acceptance of computer-appliance integration.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     The present invention is provided to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the conventional technologies. The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method for execution of data displaying in foreground while the system booting in background. When a user boots a computer system, the BIOS of the computer loads a sequence of related animation of default application programs or other visual effects films to the monitor, and then the operating system takes over the activation operation of sequencing device and the activating the application programs.  
         [0005]     Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for utilizing the waiting period of system booting. By using smooth animation or visual effects film leading to the activation of applications and bringing the system up to the ready-to-use state, the user can see the progress of the system booting, and the sense of prolonged waiting is lessened.  
         [0006]     Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a method that improves the visual effects during the booting period without sacrificing the booting speed. The display of the sequence of default animation on the monitor does not affect the operating system initialization in the background.  
         [0007]     To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the present invention provides a method of booting a computer system, including the following steps: a computer system detecting a pre-configured hot key being pressed; the computer system being activated and executing the BIOS; the BIOS loading and executing the monitor driver, and loading a default animation related to the applications associated with the pre-configured hot key; the monitor displaying the default animation while operating system being loaded and executed; and finally, after the initialization of the operating system, the application programs associated with the pre-configured hot key being loaded and executed.  
         [0008]     In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the memory system of the computer system is configured to include a random access hard-disk region to speed up the activation of the programs. Furthermore, the animation related to the programs may also include audio information related to the programs.  
         [0009]     In comparison with the conventional methods, the present invention allows the BIOS of a computer system to load a sequence of animation related to the default application programs or other visual effects films to the monitor, and then the operating system takes over the activation operation of sequencing device and the activating the application programs. Therefore, when the user presses a pre-configured hot key to boot the computer system, the smooth animation or visual effects film leads to the activation of applications while the system is brought up to the ready-to-use state. The user can see the progress of the system booting, and the sense of prolonged waiting is lessened. Furthermore, the present invention improves the visual effects during the booting period without sacrificing the booting speed. The display of the sequence of default animation on the monitor does not affect the operating system initialization in the background. In practical application, the present invention can design the animation for various informative purposes.  
         [0010]     These and other objectives, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, from a reading of the following brief description of the drawings, the detailed description of the preferred embodiment, and the appended claims. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]     The present invention can be understood in more detail by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0012]      FIG. 1  shows a block diagram of a first embodiment of the method of the present invention;  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  shows a control flowchart of the method of the present invention;  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  shows a block diagram of a second embodiment of the method of the present invention;  
         [0015]      FIG. 4  shows a plurality of applications and related animation installed in a hard-disk of  FIG. 3 ;  
         [0016]      FIG. 5  shows the data of the related fields in the hot key mapping table of  FIG. 3 ; and  
         [0017]      FIG. 6  shows a control flowchart of the second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0018]     With reference to the drawings and in particular to  FIG. 1 , which shows a functional block diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention, a computer  100  includes a central processing unit  11 , a first bus bridge  12 , and a second bus bridge  13 . The central processing unit  11  is connected to the first bus bridge  12  through a system bus. The first bus bridge  12  is connected to a system memory  14  and connected to a display  15  through a display interface  150 .  
         [0019]     The second bus bridge  13  is connected to a basic input/output system memory  16  (BIOS memory). The BIOS memory  16  stores an BIOS program  161  and a power-on-self-test (POST) program  162 , required by computer  100  during booting.  
         [0020]     The second bus bridge  13  is connected to a hard-disk interface  170  through a bus. The hard-disk interface  170  is connected to a hard-disk  17 . The hard-disk  17  served as a data storage device is for storing data in the present invention. The hard-disk  17  is installed with an operating system  171  and other drivers and applications working under the operating system environment, such as a display driver  172 , a pre-configured hot key application program  173 , and so on. The pre-configured hot key application  173  can be a multimedia player application. The hard-disk  17  also includes at least a foreground visual data  174  and an audio data  175  for playing.  
         [0021]     The second bus bridge  13  is connected to a multimedia player  18  through an audiovisual interface  180 . The multimedia player  18  can be a DVD, MP3, CD, or TV. The second bus bridge  13  can also be connected to other peripheral devices through other types of interfaces (not shown).  
         [0022]     The second bus bridge  13  is connected to a hot key  19  through a hot key detection interface  190 . The hot key  19  corresponds to a pre-configured hot key application program  173  pre-configured to the hot key. In other word, when the hot key  19  is pressed, the computer  100  detects the state of the hot key  19 , and loads and executes the pre-configured hot key application program  173  stored in the hard-disk  17 .  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  shows a control flowchart of the embodiment of the present invention. The following description refers to  FIGS. 1 and 2 .  
         [0024]     In step  101 , the computer  100  detects whether the hot key is pressed. When the hot key is pressed, the computer  100  is activated, as in step  102 . The activation of the computer  100  can be booting the computer or awaking from a preset sleep mode. After the activation, the computer  100  executes the BIOS, as in step  103 . That is, the central processing unit  11  loads the BIOS program  161  and the POST program  162  from the BIOS memory  16 . Step  104  is for the BIOS program  161  to detect the devices connected to the computer  100 , such as the display  15 , the hard-disk  17 , and the multimedia player  18 .  
         [0025]     Step  105  is to configure a random access hard-disk region  141  in the system memory  14  of the computer  100  for the space required for executing the operating system, the display driver and the hot key pre-configured application so that the execution speed can be improved.  
         [0026]     Step  106  is for the BIOS program  161  to load and execute the display driver  172  so that the display  15  can start to operate. Step  107  is for the BIOS program  161  to load the foreground visual data  174  related to the pre-configured hot key application program  173  to a visual data buffer  151  of the display  15 , and step  108  is for the display  15  to display the foreground visual data  174 .  
         [0027]     In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the foreground visual data  174  can be a sequence of animation for product introduction, operation instruction, or advertisements. In the mean time, an audio data  175  can be played on the multimedia player  18  when during the display of the foreground visual data  174 .  
         [0028]     Step  109  is executed in parallel with step  107 . Step  109  is to load and execute the operating system  171  stored in the hard-disk  17  in background in order to complete the initialization of the operating system. Step  110  is to load and execute the pre-configured hot key application program  173  corresponding to the hot key  19 . When the pre-configured hot key application program  173  starts execution, the display  15  can stop the displaying of the foreground visual data  174 .  
         [0029]     The pre-configured hot key application program  173  associated with the hot key  19  can be a multimedia play program, and the hot key  19  can be configured to activate a button of the multimedia player. When the hot key  19  is pressed, the computer  100  executes the process.  
         [0030]      FIG. 3  shows a functional block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, many of the blocks are similar to those of  FIG. 1 . The difference is that the second bus bridge  13  of the computer  100  is connected to a plurality of multimedia players, such as a DVD player  18   a , a CD player  18   b , a TV  18   c , through interfaces  180   a ,  180   b ,  180   c , respectively.  
         [0031]     The second bus bridge  13  is connected to a plurality of hot keys  19   a ,  19   b ,  19   c  through a decoder  20 . The hot keys  19   a ,  19   b ,  19   c  correspond to pre-configured hot key application programs  173   a ,  173   b ,  173   c , respectively, and the pre-configured hot key application programs  173   a ,  173   b ,  173   c  correspond to the control of DVD player  18   a , CD player  18   b , TV  18   c . The hard-disk  17  is installed with pre-configured hot key application programs  173   a ,  173   b ,  173   c  as well as associated foreground visual data  174   a ,  174   b ,  174   c  and audio data  175   a ,  175   b ,  175   c.    
         [0032]     The hard-disk  17  stores a hot key mapping table  176 .  FIG. 5  shows the data of the related fields of the hot key mapping table, including a plurality of hot keys  19   a ,  19   b ,  19   c  and corresponding event code #1, event code #2, event code #3, pre-configured hot key application program #1, pre-configured hot key application programs #2, pre-configured hot key application programs #3, foreground visual data #1, foreground visual data #2, foreground visual data #3, and audio data  31 , audio data #2, audio data #3.  
         [0033]      FIG. 6  shows a control flowchart of the second embodiment of the present invention. Many steps of the flowchart are similar to those in  FIG. 2 . The difference is that the computer  100  detects any hot key  19   a ,  19   b ,  19   c  being pressed, as in step  101   a , the decoder  20  decodes the detected hot key, as in step  101   b , and the computer  100  determines which hot key is being pressed, as in step  101   c . After that, step  102  to step  106  are identical to that in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0034]     Step  107  is for the BIOS program  161  to load one of the foreground visual data  174   a ,  174   b ,  174   c  and one of the audio data  175   a ,  175   b ,  17   c  related to the pre-configured hot key application programs  173   a ,  173   b ,  173   c  to a visual buffer  151  of the display  15 , and step  108  is for the display  15  to display one of the foreground visual data  174   a ,  174   b ,  174   c.    
         [0035]     Step  109  is executed in parallel with step  107 . Step  109  is to load and execute the operating system  171  stored in the hard-disk  17  in order to complete the initialization of the operating system. Step  110  is to load and execute one of the pre-configured hot key application programs  173   a ,  173   b , or  173   c  corresponding to the hot keys  19   a ,  19   b , or  19   c . When the pre-configured hot key application program  173   a ,  173   b , or  173   c  starts execution, the display  15  can stop the displaying of the foreground visual data  174   a ,  174   b ,  174   c.    
         [0036]     While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to the best modes for carrying out the present invention and preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment and process, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangement included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.