Access to resource files stored in ROM
US6658647B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 12, 1999 |
| Grant date | Dec 2, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 12, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F9/44521
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system for accessing resources, such as bitmaps, fonts and sound files is provided. Typically, resources of this type are accessed as files from Java code. The data is read into dynamic (RAM) memory as a byte array in a Java object, and at least one other copy of the byte array is made in order to process the resource data, such as rendering an image to a display. The invention provides a mechanism for accessing the resource data directly from ROM, without making intermediate copies in RAM. Each resource can have a unique key or string in a logical table. Values associated with the keys are pointers to the data stored in ROM. The pointers are passed directly to the methods for processing the data on the hardware, bypassing the need to have the data become a temporary Java object. The saving in memory use is particularly advantageous for constrained memory devices. Applications developed for environments using traditional file access can be ported to a ROM-access environment by including a global switch redirecting resource calls to the logical table(s) containing the keys.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.