Patent ID: 8764636

Claim:
An electronic endoscopic apparatus having multiple operation modes to be executed exclusively, the apparatus comprising: a control section that controls the execution of the multiple operation modes, the control section including an FPGA in which a CPU is configurable, a non-volatile memory, and a download section; a switching request detecting section that detects a switching request for switching to the operation mode to be executed; and an in-machine abnormality detecting section that detects an internal abnormality of the electronic endoscopic apparatus; wherein the download section includes a circuit that reads out configuration data of an operation mode to be executed from the non-volatile memory storing configuration data for the multiple operation modes and software and that downloads the read configuration data and the software to the FPGA; wherein an internal configuration of the FPGA is changed to include the CPU in accordance with the operation mode according to the switching request detected by the switching request detecting section, the CPU being capable of executing the downloaded software related to the operation mode according to the switching request; wherein the multiple operation modes include a safety mode; and wherein, when the electronic endoscopic apparatus has failed and the in-machine abnormality detecting section detects the internal abnormality while the control section is executing an operation mode other than the safety mode, the in-machine abnormality detecting section outputs an operation mode switching signal to the download section in order to switch the operation mode to the safety mode, and causes the download section to read out configuration data and software of the safety mode from the non-volatile memory and download the configuration data and software to the FPGA so that the internal configuration of the FPGA is changed to the safety mode which is an operation mode for a case where the electronic endoscopic apparatus has failed.