Patent ID: 8561018

Claim:
A method of generating an intermediate module, which comprises a plurality of structural components, in a plurality of modules to be installed in an electronic device, the plurality of modules including a higher-level module higher in level than the intermediate module, and a lower-level module lower in level than the intermediate module, the intermediate module having at least one function and designed to generate, for a plurality of input instructions input thereto, a plurality of output instructions, respectively, for the lower-level module, and pass, to the lower-level module, the plurality of output instructions, the method comprising: dividing the at least one function into a plurality of segmented functions each of which matches a corresponding one of combinations of one of the plurality of input instructions and one of the plurality of output instructions; specifying at least one commonalized group of segmented functions in a part of the plurality of segmented functions, the part of the plurality of segmented functions being response to a common one of the plurality of output instructions, the specified segmented functions in the at least one commonalized group to make common at least one of the structural components of the intermediate module; classifying the plurality of input instructions as at least one select input instruction and at least one basic input instruction, the at least one select input instruction being designed such that whether the at least one select input instruction is inputted or non-inputted to the intermediate module depends on a type of the higher-level module, the at least one basic input instruction being designed to be inputted to the intermediate module independently of the type of the higher-level module; eliminating at least one combination of segmented functions in all of the segmented functions in the at least one commonalized group specified by the specifying, the at least one combination of the segmented functions corresponding to at least one combination of only the at least one select input instruction non-inputted to the intermediate module; generating at least one combination component as one of the plurality of structural components of the intermediate module, the at least one combination component being shared by a corresponding combination of the remaining segmented functions in the at least one commonalized group after the elimination; generating at least one single component as one of the plurality of structural components of the intermediate module, the at least one single component implementing at least one segmented function in the plurality of segmented functions, the at least one segmented function being unclassified into the at least one commonalized group; and generating the intermediate module by linking the at least one combination component and the at least one single component with each other.