PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-9875150-B2
Application Number: US-201514728614-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Method and system for processing notifications amongst applications of a data processing system

Abstract:
An application manager of an operating system running within a data processing system receives a request from a first daemon via a first application programming interface (API) to present a notification message to a user. In response, the application manager identifies a first of a plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system based on a unique identifier extracted from the request. The application manager communicates, via a second API, with the first application to obtain a first view controller handle of a first view controller associated with the first application. The application manager invokes, via the first view controller handle, the first view controller to display the notification message obtained from the request. The first view controller is configured to display the notification message in a manner configured by the first application on a display device associated with a data processing system.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for managing notifications of applications of a data processing system, the method comprising:
 receiving, at an application manager of an operating system running within the data processing system, a request from a first daemon via a first application programming interface (API) to present a notification message to a user of the data processing system; 
 identifying by the application manager a first of a plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system based on a unique identifier extracted from the request; 
 communicating, via a second API, with the first application to obtain a first view controller handle of a first view controller associated with the first application; 
 invoking, via the first view controller handle, the first view controller to display the notification message obtained from the request, wherein the first view controller is configured to display the notification message in a manner configured by the first application on a display device associated with the data processing system; 
 receiving by the application manager a callback via the second API with a first status from the first application indicating that the notification message has been displayed; 
 transmitting the first status to the first daemon via the first API; and 
 causing the view controller to be terminated. 
 
     
     
       2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving by the application manager a user input from a second daemon associated with an input device of the data processing system, the user input indicating that a cancellation has been received from the user; and 
 transmitting a second status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and the user has issued a cancellation. 
 
     
     
       3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
 detecting by the application manager a predetermined period of time lapses during which no user input has been received; and 
 transmitting a third status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and no user input has been received with respect to the presented notification message. 
 
     
     
       4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the first application from the plurality of applications comprises:
 performing a lookup operation in an application registry based on the unique identifier, wherein the application registry includes a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding one of the plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system; and 
 retrieving an application identifier from one of the entries that matches the unique identifier, wherein the retrieved application identifier is used by the application manager to communicate with the first application. 
 
     
     
       5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the first application is part of an application bundle downloaded from an application store over a network and installed within the operating system, and wherein the unique identifier is a bundle identifier that uniquely identifies the application bundle. 
     
     
       6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the first application is provided by a first content provider, and wherein the first application is configured to render media content streamed from a content server associated with the first content provider to be presented to the display device. 
     
     
       7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 5 , wherein the application bundle includes the first application and a second application, wherein the request further includes a class identifier that identifies one of the first application and the second application, and wherein the first application is identified based on the unique identifier and the class identifier. 
     
     
       8. A computer-implemented method for managing notifications of applications of a data processing system, the method comprising:
 receiving, at an application manager of an operating system running within a data processing system, a request from a first daemon via a first application programming interface (API) to present a notification message to a user of the data processing system; 
 identifying by the application manager a first of a plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system based on a unique identifier extracted from the request; 
 communicating, via a second API, with the first application to obtain a first view controller handle of a first view controller associated with the first application; 
 invoking, via the first view controller handle, the first view controller to display the notification message obtained from the request, wherein the first view controller is configured to display the notification message in a manner configured by the first application on a display device associated with the data processing system; 
 receiving by the application manager a callback via the second API with a first status from the first application indicating that the notification message has been displayed; 
 transmitting the first status to the first daemon via the first API; and 
 causing the view controller to be terminated. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 receiving by the application manager a user input from a second daemon associated with an input device of the data processing system, the user input indicating that a cancellation has been received from the user; and 
 transmitting a second status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and the user has issued a cancellation. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 detecting by the application manager a predetermined period of time lapses during which no user input has been received; and 
 transmitting a third status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and no user input has been received with respect to the presented notification message. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 8 , wherein identifying the first application from the plurality of applications comprises:
 performing a lookup operation in an application registry based on the unique identifier, wherein the application registry includes a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding one of the plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system; and 
 retrieving an application identifier from one of the entries that matches the unique identifier, wherein the retrieved application identifier is used by the application manager to communicate with the first application. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 8 , wherein the first application is part of an application bundle downloaded from an application store over a network and installed within the operating system, and wherein the unique identifier is a bundle identifier that uniquely identifies the application bundle. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the first application is provided by a first content provider, and wherein the first application is configured to render media content streamed from a content server associated with the first content provider to be presented to the display device. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 12 , wherein the application bundle includes the first application and a second application, wherein the request further includes a class identifier that identifies one of the first application and the second application, and wherein the first application is identified based on the unique identifier and the class identifier. 
     
     
       15. A data processing system, comprising:
 a processor; 
 a memory; and 
 an application manager loaded in the memory and executed by the processor to perform a method of managing applications within the data processing system, the method including
 receiving, at the application manager of an operating system, a request from a first daemon via a first application programming interface (API) to present a notification message to a user of the data processing system, 
 identifying by the application manager a first of a plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system based on a unique identifier extracted from the request, 
 communicating, via a second API, with the first application to obtain a first view controller handle of a first view controller associated with the first application, 
 invoking, via the first view controller handle, the first view controller to display the notification message obtained from the request, wherein the first view controller is configured to display the notification message in a manner configured by the first application on a display device associated with the data processing system; 
 receiving by the application manager a callback via the second API with a first status from the first application indicating that the notification message has been displayed; 
 transmitting the first status to the first daemon via the first API; and 
 causing the view controller to be terminated. 
 
 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving by the application manager a user input from a second daemon associated with an input device of the data processing system, the user input indicating that a cancellation has been received from the user; and 
 transmitting a second status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and the user has issued a cancellation. 
 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
 detecting by the application manager a predetermined period of time lapses during which no user input has been received; and 
 transmitting a third status to the first daemon via the first API indicating that the notification message has been presented and no user input has been received with respect to the presented notification message. 
 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 15 , wherein identifying the first application from the plurality of applications comprises:
 performing a lookup operation in an application registry based on the unique identifier, wherein the application registry includes a plurality of entries, each entry corresponding one of the plurality of applications that have been installed within the operating system; and 
 retrieving an application identifier from one of the entries that matches the unique identifier, wherein the retrieved application identifier is used by the application manager to communicate with the first application. 
 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 15 , wherein the first application is part of an application bundle downloaded from an application store over a network and installed within the operating system, and wherein the unique identifier is a bundle identifier that uniquely identifies the application bundle.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to data processing systems. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to managing notifications amongst applications running within a data processing system. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Streaming of content generally refers to multimedia content that is constantly transmitted from a server device and received by a client device. The content is usually presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by the streaming server. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. 
     Current streaming services generally require specialized servers to distribute “live” content to set-top boxes of end users. Special software running with a set-top box (e.g., Apple TV™ box) is configured to play the media content (e.g., movie, a television or TV program) that is streamed from a content provider server (e.g., Netflix® or Hulu®). Similar to a mobile application, such special software may be an application that is developed by a software developer associated with the content provider and distributed by another server associated with a device provider of the set-top box (e.g., iTunes™ from Apple Inc.®). 
     During the operations, there are some notification messages to be presented to a user of an end user device. Such notification messages may be specifically presented in a manner specified by a corresponding software component. In a conventional system, a launching logic responsible to launch certain software components bears the responsibility of how to present the notification messages to the user. Such a requirement tends to cause the launching logic to be more complex, especially on updating or modifying the manner to present the notification messages. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system for managing notification messages according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a media player device according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an example of an application registry according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a transaction diagram illustrating certain transactions of a media player device according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of managing notification messages according to one embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating a data processing system according to one embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described with reference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings will illustrate the various embodiments. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to provide a concise discussion of embodiments of the present inventions. 
     Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. 
     According to some embodiments, instead of having a centralized launching logic to render and present a notification message, a communication mechanism is provided to allow a source of the notification message (e.g., a game daemon) to invoke, via the communication mechanism, another application (e.g., a gaming application) that is capable of presenting the notification message to render and present the notification message to a user in a specific manner that is known to and/or specified by the application. For example, in an online gaming situation, a notification message is often delivered amongst the game participants as end users. A game daemon that coordinates the games running within a data processing system can invoke a gaming application to render and present the notification message in a manner that is specifically tailored to a specific gaming situation at the point in time. The gaming application may be provided by a game developer as a client application for participating in the game. Such a gaming application knows how to render and present a notification under a specific gaming situation. As a result, an operating system that hosts the game would not have to know exactly how to present the notification messages and the operating system is decoupled from rendering and presenting or displaying the notification messages. 
     According to one embodiment, an application manager running within an operating system is configured to coordinate the communications between a source or producer of a notification message and a presenter or consumer of the notification message. The presenter associated with the notification message is identified and invoked by the application manager to render and present the notification message. As a result, the application manager does not need to know how to render and present notification messages initiated from a variety of sources, as the application manager manages many applications that may issue notification messages. Such architecture enables the corresponding applications as experts to handle their respective notifications in their own manners. 
     In one embodiment, when a request for presenting a notification message is received from a daemon via a first application programming interface (API), an application manager identifies one of the applications that have been installed in the system. The identified application may be associated with the requested notification message and capable of presenting the notification message in a specific manner. The application may be identified by a unique identifier that is extracted from the request received from the daemon (e.g., source). The application may be provided by a content provider (e.g., Netflix®, Hulu®) providing media content that can be downloaded or streamed to a user device. The application manager launches the identified application if the application is not running and communicates via a second API with the application requesting rendering and presenting a notification message. 
     In return, in one embodiment, the application manager receives a view controller handle or a view controller object representing a view controller or view controller instance (e.g., a graphical user interface or GUI presentation object) from the application. The view controller may be created by the application that is responsible for rendering and displaying content as a GUI view at a display device, for example, by sending the content and proper graphics commands to a graphics subsystem of the data processing system. The view controller is configured to display the notification message in a manner configured by the application on a display device associated with a data processing system. In one embodiment, view controller and/or the application controls the timing of presenting the notification message. Once the notification message has been presented, the application manager receives a result or status of presenting the notification message from the view controller and/or the application. The application manager then notifies the source of the notification message. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a system for managing notification messages according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to  FIG. 1 , system  100  includes media player device  101  communicatively coupled to content servers  102 - 103  and app store server  104  over network  105 . Content servers  102 - 103  may be associated with a variety of content providers, such as Netflix® and Hulu®, etc., which provide content (e.g., movies, songs, images) to be streamed over network  105  and rendered and played at media player device  101 . Network  105  may be a variety of networks, such as local area network (LAN), wide area network (LAN), or a combination thereof. Media player device  101  can be a variety of electronic devices, appliance devices, or data processing systems that are capable of accessing network  105 . For example, media player device  101  may be a desktop (e.g., iMac™), a laptop (e.g., MacBook™), a tablet (e.g., iPad™), a server, a mobile phone (e.g., iPhone™), a media player (e.g., iPod™ or iPod Touch™), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Smartwatch (e.g., Apple Watch™), a gaming device, a set-top box (e.g., Apple TV™ box), or a combination thereof. 
     In one embodiment, media player device  101  includes an application manager  110 , which is executed by processing resources (e.g., memory, processor(s)), to manage applications  114  and daemons  116  that are running within media player device  101 . Processing resources may present one or more processors or processor cores. A physical processor typically refers to an integrated circuit, which potentially includes any number of other processing elements, such as cores or hardware threads. A core often refers to logic located on an integrated circuit capable of maintaining an independent architectural state, where each independently maintained architectural state is associated with at least some dedicated execution resources. A processor may be a general-purpose processor such as a central processing unit (CPU). 
     Application manager  110  and/or daemon  116  may be a part of an operating system (OS) running and executed by the processing resources within the system. An operating system is a collection of software that manages computer hardware resources and provides common services for computer programs. The operating system is an essential component of the system software in a computer system. Application programs usually require an operating system to function. Amongst many functionalities of an operating system, scheduling is the method by which threads, processes or data flows are given access to system resources (e.g. processor time, communications bandwidth). This is usually done to load balance and share system resources effectively or achieve a target quality of service. In addition, an operating system may further include other core components, such as a scheduler, a device manager, a kernel, etc. In order not to unnecessarily obscure embodiments of the present invention, these components are not shown herein. An operating system may be any kind of operating systems, such as, for example, iOS™ from Apple®, Android™ from Google®, Windows™ from Microsoft®, or other operating systems (e.g., UNIX, LINUX, real-time or embedded operating systems). 
     Referring back to  FIG. 1 , applications  114  may be provided by a variety of content providers, such as, for example, Netflix®, Hulu®. Applications  114  are used to access (e.g., browse, download, and/or stream) content (e.g., video clips or movies, audio clips or songs, video games, photos) from a corresponding content server (e.g., servers  102 - 104 ), which may be presented at a media user interface (e.g., display, audio jack, or both, not shown) of media player device  101 . Display device  107  may be coupled to media player device  101  internally or locally, via an interconnect (e.g., a high definition multimedia interface or HDMI cable), or via a wireless connection. Application  114  may be as part of application bundles downloaded from a content distribution server such as server  104 . 
     For example, a user of media player device  101  can launch a client application that is provided by a content provider (e.g., Netflix®) and has been downloaded from an App store (e.g., iTunes) and installed within media player device  101 . Through the client application, the user can access content (e.g., menus or items of movies, songs, or video games) from the corresponding content server (e.g., content servers  102 - 103 ) to select, subscribe, and/or purchase media content. The selected media content can then be streamed over network  105  to media player device  101 . The media content can be rendered by a content rendering framework (not shown) of media player device  101  and presented at a user interface device, such as display device  107 . 
     According to one embodiment, dependent upon the specific types of media content to be streamed and rendered, one of daemons  116  is selected and configured to coordinate and manage the communications between presenting the media content and user interactions with the presented media content. One of the communications is related to notification messages that a daemon wants to present or display to a user. For example, a game daemon configured to handle online gaming situations may want to display a notification message (which may be received from another remote user as a game participant) to a local user of media player device  101 . Typically in a conventional system, it would require application manager  110  to handle all of the necessary tasks of rendering and presenting the notification messages. As application manager  110  manages a growing number of applications and each of the applications may have a different way to present notification messages, it tends to make application manager  110  more complex and difficult to maintain or upgrade. 
     According to one embodiment, application manager  110  coordinates communications between a source or producer of a notification message and a target or consumer of the notification message via a proper set of APIs. In one embodiment, when a source or producer (e.g., a game daemon) wants to send a notification message to be presented to a user of media player device  101 , it sends the notification message to application manager  110 . In response, application manager  110  identifies an application as a target or consumer that is capable of rendering and presenting the notification message. Application manager  110  then invokes the identified application to present the notification message. Once the notification message has been presented, application manager  110  will receives a result and/or status from the application. Application manager  110  then relays the result or status back to the source. As a result, application manager  110  does not need to know the details regarding how to render and present notification messages. Rather, it is up to the corresponding applications, which may be provided by the corresponding content providers, to render and present the notification messages in a specific way they prefer. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a media player device according to one embodiment of the invention. Media player device  200  may represent at least a portion of media player device  101  of  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIG. 2 , device  200  includes, but is not limited to, one or more processors  201 , memory  202 , and persistent storage device  203  (e.g., hard disks). Storage device  203  stores application bundles such as application bundle  215  downloaded from a content distribution server (e.g., iTunes) such as server  104  of  FIG. 1 , application registry  112 , and other software (e.g., operating system, application manager  110 ). 
     In one embodiment, application manager  110  is loaded in memory  202  and executed by processor(s)  201 . Application manage  110  may be a part of application launching logic (e.g., Springboard of iOS) responsible for launching and terminating applications. When daemon  116  sends a notification message to be presented to a user, it sends a request (e.g., a first request) for presenting the notification message via a first API to application manager  110 . In response to the request, application manager  110  identifies one of applications  114  that is capable of rendering and presenting the notification message requested. In one embodiment, application manager  110  looks up in application registry  112  based on a unique identifier (ID) specified by the request. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an example of an application registry according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to  FIG. 3 , application registry  112  includes multiple entries, each corresponding to one of applications  114  that have been installed and registered within media player device  200 . Each entry maps an application ID  303  to a unique ID  301 . In one embodiment, unique ID  301  may be part of an application bundle ID representing an application bundle (e.g., application bundles  215  of  FIG. 2 ). If an application bundle includes multiple applications, the corresponding entry may include an optional class ID  302  that identifies a type of the corresponding application. Thus, application registry  112  may include multiple entries for a particular application bundle that has multiple types of applications therein. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 2-3 , based on a unique ID obtained from the request, application manager  110  looks up based on unique ID  301  to locate a matching entry and to retrieve the corresponding application ID  303 . If the application identified by application ID  303  has not been launched, application manager  110  will launch the application as one of applications  114 . If the application bundle identified by unique ID  301  includes multiple applications, application manager  110  may further match class ID  302  to identify the matching entry, where the class ID  302  may also be specified and extracted from the request. Application manager  110  then sends another request (e.g., a second request) to the application via a second API, where the request includes a notification message that is received from daemon  116  (e.g., source) and proper information or command to request the application to render and present the notification message. 
     In one embodiment, in response to invoking the application via a second API, application manager  110  receives a handle of a view controller (e.g., view controllers  221 - 222  managed by presentation layer  210 ) to render and present information on a graphical user interface (not shown). The view controller may be allocated or created by the application. Application manager  110  then instructs the view controller via a corresponding view controller handle (e.g., view controller object or view controller instance) to present the notification message. The view controller then renders and presents the notification message on a display. As described above, the view controller and/or the associated application are responsible to render and control the timing of notification message. Once the notification message has been presented, the application notifies application manager  110  regarding the status or result of presenting the notification message. In response, application manager  110  in turn notifies the source of the notification message, i.e., daemon  116 . 
       FIG. 4  is a transaction diagram illustrating certain transactions of a media player device according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to  FIG. 4 , when a source or producer of a notification message, in this example, daemon  116 , likes to send the notification message to a user, daemon  116  sends a request to present the notification to application manager  110  via transaction  401 . In response, application manager  110  looks up in the application registry to identify an application as a target or consumer that is capable of consuming the notification message based on the request. Application manager  110  may launch the identified application and communicates with the application via transaction  402  requesting the application to render and present the notification. 
     In response, application  114  creates or launches view controller  221  if it has not been launched via transaction  403 . Application  114  returns a handle of view controller  221  back to application manager  110  via transaction  404 . Using the view controller handle received from application  114 , application manager  110  can instruct view controller  221  to render and present the notification message to a graphical user interface via transaction  405 . For example, the handle of view controller  221  may be a handle of a view controller object or class representing view controller  221 . Application manager  110  can invoke a function member of the view controller object by passing content of the notification message to the function member to allow the view controller object to render and present the content of the notification. 
     As described above, application  114  is responsible for creating and managing view controller  221 , where view controller  221  renders and presents the content in a specific or customized manner. Application  114  can also control timing of presenting the notification by communicating with view controller  221 . Once the notification has been rendered and presented, subsequently, in response to a user action (e.g., activate, decline or cancellation action received from a user interface device such as a remote control) or timeout, application manager  110  instructs view controller  221  to dismiss the displayed content via transaction  406 . In response, view controller  221  dismisses the displayed content and returns a status or result of such an action back to application manager  110  via transaction  407 . In response, application manager  110  terminates or instructs application  114  to terminate view controller  221  via transaction  408 . Application manager  110  also in turn notifies the source of the notification message, i.e., daemon  116  in this example, via transaction  409 . 
     For example, a user may click or activate a cancel button displayed and such a user action is captured by an input device, such as a keyboard or remote control. The input device transmits a signal to application manager  110  indicating the user action. Furthermore, according to another embodiment, after a predetermined period of time during which no user action or callback from application  114  and/or view controller  221  is received, application manager  110  may terminate or cause application  114  to terminate view controller  221  and notify daemon  116  accordingly. Other configurations may exist, which may be configured as a set of rules. 
       FIG. 5  is a flow diagram illustrating a process of managing notification messages according to one embodiment of the invention. Process  500  may be performed by processing logic that includes hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination thereof. For example, process  500  may be performed by application manager  110  of  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIG. 5 , at block  501 , in response to a request received from a daemon (e.g., game daemon) as a source or message producer requesting for presenting a notification message to a user, processing logic identifies an application as a target or a message consumer based on an ID (e.g., application bundle ID) specified by the request. The identified application is capable of rendering and presenting the notification message. At block  502 , processing logic launches the application (if it is not running) and communicates with the application to receive a handle of a view controller. Processing logic may send a request to the application for the purpose of presenting a notification message. In return, processing logic receives a handle of a view controller object or instance. At block  503 , processing logic sends the content of the notification message to the view controller to allow the view controller to render and present the content in a graphical user interface. In response to a first signal indicating that the displayed content is no longer needed (e.g., job completes, user action, timeout), at block  504 , processing logic instructs the view controller to dismiss the displayed content. In response to a second signal received from the view controller indicating that the displayed content has been dismissed, at block  505 , processing logic terminates or cause the application to terminate the view controller. At block  506 , processing logic notifies the source the status or result of the request of rendering and presenting the notification message. 
     Note that some or all of the components as shown and described above (e.g., application manager  110  of  FIG. 1 ) may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. For example, such components can be implemented as software installed and stored in a persistent storage device, which can be loaded and executed in a memory by a processor (not shown) to carry out the processes or operations described throughout this application. Alternatively, such components can be implemented as executable code programmed or embedded into dedicated hardware such as an integrated circuit (e.g., an application specific IC or ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA), which can be accessed via a corresponding driver and/or operating system from an application. Furthermore, such components can be implemented as specific hardware logic in a processor or processor core as part of an instruction set accessible by a software component via one or more specific instructions. 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating an example of a data processing system which may be used with one embodiment of the invention. For example, system  1500  may represents any of data processing systems described above performing any of the processes or methods described above. System  1500  can include many different components. These components can be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules adapted to a circuit board such as a motherboard or add-in card of the computer system, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of the computer system. 
     Note also that system  1500  is intended to show a high level view of many components of the computer system. However, it is to be understood that additional components may be present in certain implementations and furthermore, different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations. System  1500  may represent a desktop (e.g., iMac™ available from Apple Inc.® of Cupertino, Calif.), a laptop (e.g., MacBook™), a tablet (e.g., iPad™), a server, a mobile phone (e.g., iPhone™), a media player (e.g., iPod™ or iPod Touch™), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a Smartwatch (e.g., Apple Watch™), a personal communicator, a gaming device, a network router or hub, a wireless access point (AP) or repeater, a set-top box (e.g., Apple TV™ box), or a combination thereof. Further, while only a single machine or system is illustrated, the term “machine” or “system” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines or systems that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     In one embodiment, system  1500  includes processor  1501 , memory  1503 , and devices  1505 - 1508  via a bus or an interconnect  1510 . Processor  1501  may represent a single processor or multiple processors with a single processor core or multiple processor cores included therein. Processor  1501  may represent one or more general-purpose processors such as a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), or the like. More particularly, processor  1501  may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or processor implementing other instruction sets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor  1501  may also be one or more special-purpose processors such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a cellular or baseband processor, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), a network processor, a graphics processor, a network processor, a communications processor, a cryptographic processor, a co-processor, an embedded processor, or any other type of logic capable of processing instructions. 
     Processor  1501 , which may be a low power multi-core processor socket such as an ultra-low voltage processor, may act as a main processing unit and central hub for communication with the various components of the system. Such processor can be implemented as a system on chip (SoC). Processor  1501  is configured to execute instructions for performing the operations and steps discussed herein. System  1500  may further include a graphics interface that communicates with optional graphics subsystem  1504 , which may include a display controller, a graphics processor, and/or a display device. 
     Processor  1501  may communicate with memory  1503 , which in one embodiment can be implemented via multiple memory devices to provide for a given amount of system memory. Memory  1503  may include one or more volatile storage (or memory) devices such as random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), or other types of storage devices. Memory  1503  may store information including sequences of instructions that are executed by processor  1501 , or any other device. For example, executable code and/or data of a variety of operating systems, device drivers, firmware (e.g., input output basic system or BIOS), and/or applications can be loaded in memory  1503  and executed by processor  1501 . An operating system can be any kind of operating systems, such as, for example, Windows® operating system from Microsoft®, Mac OS®/iOS® from Apple, Android® from Google®, Linux®, Unix®, or other real-time or embedded operating systems such as VxWorks. 
     System  1500  may further include IO devices such as devices  1505 - 1508 , including network interface device(s)  1505 , optional input device(s)  1506 , and other optional IO device(s)  1507 . Network interface device  1505  may include a wireless transceiver and/or a network interface card (NIC). The wireless transceiver may be a WiFi transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a WiMax transceiver, a wireless cellular telephony transceiver, a satellite transceiver (e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) transceiver), or other radio frequency (RF) transceivers, or a combination thereof. The NIC may be an Ethernet card. 
     Input device(s)  1506  may include a mouse, a touch pad, a touch sensitive screen (which may be integrated with display device  1504 ), a pointer device such as a stylus, and/or a keyboard (e.g., physical keyboard or a virtual keyboard displayed as part of a touch sensitive screen). For example, input device  1506  may include a touch screen controller coupled to a touch screen. The touch screen and touch screen controller can, for example, detect contact and movement or break thereof using any of a plurality of touch sensitivity technologies, including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensor arrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contact with the touch screen. 
     IO devices  1507  may include an audio device. An audio device may include a speaker and/or a microphone to facilitate voice-enabled functions, such as voice recognition, voice replication, digital recording, and/or telephony functions. Other IO devices  1507  may further include universal serial bus (USB) port(s), parallel port(s), serial port(s), a printer, a network interface, a bus bridge (e.g., a PCI-PCI bridge), sensor(s) (e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, a magnetometer, a light sensor, compass, a proximity sensor, etc.), or a combination thereof. Devices  1507  may further include an imaging processing subsystem (e.g., a camera), which may include an optical sensor, such as a charged coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor, utilized to facilitate camera functions, such as recording photographs and video clips. Certain sensors may be coupled to interconnect  1510  via a sensor hub (not shown), while other devices such as a keyboard or thermal sensor may be controlled by an embedded controller (not shown), dependent upon the specific configuration or design of system  1500 . 
     To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, one or more operating systems and so forth, a mass storage (not shown) may also couple to processor  1501 . In various embodiments, to enable a thinner and lighter system design as well as to improve system responsiveness, this mass storage may be implemented via a solid state device (SSD). However in other embodiments, the mass storage may primarily be implemented using a hard disk drive (HDD) with a smaller amount of SSD storage to act as a SSD cache to enable non-volatile storage of context state and other such information during power down events so that a fast power up can occur on re-initiation of system activities. Also a flash device may be coupled to processor  1501 , e.g., via a serial peripheral interface (SPI). This flash device may provide for non-volatile storage of system software, including a basic input/output software (BIOS) as well as other firmware of the system. 
     Storage device  1508  may include computer-accessible storage medium  1509  (also known as a machine-readable storage medium or a computer-readable medium) on which is stored one or more sets of instructions or software (e.g., module, unit, and/or logic  1528 ) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. Module/unit/logic  1528  may represent any of the components described above, such as, for example, application manager  110  of  FIG. 1 . Module/unit/logic  1528  may also reside, completely or at least partially, within memory  1503  and/or within processor  1501  during execution thereof by data processing system  1500 , memory  1503  and processor  1501  also constituting machine-accessible storage media. Module/unit/logic  1528  may further be transmitted or received over a network via network interface device  1505 . 
     Computer-readable storage medium  1509  may also be used to store the some software functionalities described above persistently. While computer-readable storage medium  1509  is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The terms “computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term “computer-readable storage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, or any other non-transitory machine-readable medium. 
     Module/unit/logic  1528 , components and other features described herein can be implemented as discrete hardware components or integrated in the functionality of hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs or similar devices. In addition, module/unit/logic  1528  can be implemented as firmware or functional circuitry within hardware devices. Further, module/unit/logic  1528  can be implemented in any combination hardware devices and software components. 
     Note that while system  1500  is illustrated with various components of a data processing system, it is not intended to represent any particular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components; as such details are not germane to embodiments of the present invention. It will also be appreciated that network computers, handheld computers, mobile phones, servers, and/or other data processing systems which have fewer components or perhaps more components may also be used with embodiments of the invention. 
     Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the ways used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. 
     It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as those set forth in the claims below, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system&#39;s registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. 
     Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readable storage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices). 
     The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may be performed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although the processes or methods are described above in terms of some sequential operations, it should be appreciated that some of the operations described may be performed in a different order. Moreover, some operations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially. 
     Embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the invention as described herein. 
     In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20150602
Publication Date: 20180123
Grant Date: 20180123
Priority Date: 20150602
Inventors: LUE-SANG RONALD D.
Gardner Megan M.
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "G06F9/54", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06F9/54", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06F9/542", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G06F9/542", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 57452625