Claims:We Claim:
1. A miniaturized computer system comprises of:
at least one customized microcontroller configured to work as a normal personal computer processing unit;
at least one memory to provide storage spaces for computer programs and operating system and data of user files; and
plurality of extensional slots, to allow insertion compatible interface connectors of computer components, external memory units, communication components or electronic devices.

2. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 1, wherein said microcontroller is a mini-board of a portable size.

3. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 1, wherein the miniaturized computer system comprises of a slot for providing power supply.

4. A method of accessing miniaturized computer system, said method comprising:
connecting input and output devices to the said miniaturized computer system board for provision of user interaction to input data, perform operations and display;
plugging in power supply to the said miniaturized computer system board;
booting of the said miniaturized computer system; and
selecting of at least one operating system from the display of list of operating systems based on the type of requirement.

5. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 5, wherein said input devices are keyboard, mouse and thereof for provision of user interaction to input data and perform operations.

6. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 5, wherein said output devices are audio and video media devices, where the audio and the media can be selected from list of devices like television, monitor, speakers and thereof for provision of video and audio operations performed.

7. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 4, wherein said operating systems may be pre-compiled in the miniaturized computer system.

8. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 4, wherein said operating systems are light weight operating systems as they occupy less memory space and thus reduce time consumed for booting.

9. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 4, wherein one of the said operating system supports conversion of miniaturized computer system into a web-server and also aid in development of games with or without coding.

10. Miniaturized computer system according to claim 4, wherein one of the operating system support basic functions of computer such as documentations, internet browsing and thereof.
, Description:Field of Invention
[0001] The present invention relates to computing systems and in particular to a miniaturized computer that is of a portable size with a provision to connect to a display device and an in house built secured operating system that provides the functioning of a normal personal computer with customized booting time and conversion to a web server.
Background of the Invention
[0002] Computers have been a well known and useful technology. Desktop type personal computers are very common and found everywhere for usage in various fields of technology. Desktop computers have been proved to be efficient and portable. Many manufactures are further working on the size of the computer for making it lighter, thinner, shorter and therefore more convenient to carry as per the requirements.

[0003] Although the focus is on a more portable computer device, there is always a compromise over the efficiency of the device. Computers like in the size of a card or a credit or debit card sized are available in the market. For example, US6154759A details a visiting cad sized computer, with all the components integrated in a small card sized dimensions, with mini keyboard and other cables. However though the sizes of the components are small, a mini sized keyboard and display has its own functional limitations.

[0004] Few of the mini sized computers known in the art eliminated the disadvantage of shirked display and the inconvenience to see a card sized display by facilitating the connection with display devices like For example US20060101176A1 details a card sized computer with a slot for plugging onto a television for display, further providing access for connection with other necessary components like mouse etc. The advantage is that essential board can be carried along. While the disadvantage being, there is a compromise on the efficiency of the system, the memory over load and its ability to accept multi-tasking like in normal desktop computers. Further the card shaped substrate doesn’t come with in-built software with provision to serve as a web-server.

[0005] Most of the convectional art belonging to card type computers are limited to a particular operation and doesn’t support essential features required for a home PC and way further doesn’t minimize the load nor support multi functioning.

[0006] Apart from the provision of a basic home PC features, no prior art provided a conversion module that has an ability to convert a card type computer into a web server. This feature requires customized configurations and an operating system to be able to store large data and also save cost. Further most of the prior art consumes much time for their start-up operation i.e. for booting as a result of more memory files.

[0007] Therefore, there is a need to develop a more enhanced miniaturized computer that minimizes the load of operations, improves memory allocation, facilitates multi-functioning like provision of games or other videos. Essentially there is a need for optimizing the memory unit of the computers for enhancing the start-up time and thereby performance. Further there is a need to develop an operating system that could convert a card type computer into a web server without compromising over the efficiency of the system.

Objectives of the Invention

[0008] An objective of the invention is to provide a miniaturized computer system that can be conveniently operated by connecting to a display device.

[0009] Another objective of the invention is to provide a miniaturized computer system that performs basic function of a home personal computer.

[0010] Another objective of the invention is to configure a miniaturized computer system that has the ability to develop games with or without a coding module.

[0011] Another objective of the invention is to allocate the memory with only the essential data required to perform basic personal computer (PC) activities by saving the data in a separate storage means.

[0012] Another objective of the invention is to make the memory light weight thereby reducing the booting time.

[0013] Also another objective of the invention is to build a secure operating system by developing the operating module from Linux kernels.

[0014] Also another important objective of the invention is to configure the miniaturized computer system convertible into a web server.

[0015] Another objective of the invention is to enable multi-tasking in the miniaturized computer system.

Summary of the Invention

[0016] The invention discloses a miniaturized computer system with a portable sized mini-board comprising upon the board at least one customized microcontroller configured to work as a normal personal computer processing unit, at least one memory to provide storage spaces for computer programs and operating system and data of user files wherein said memory can be an external memory unit, plurality of extensional slots to allow insertion of compatible interface connectors of computer components, communication components or electronic devices and a slot for providing power supply to the miniaturized computer system. The method of accessing the miniaturized computer system involves the steps of first connecting the input and output devices to the system, wherein the miniaturized computer system can be connected to a television for the purpose of display, plugging in power supply to the said miniaturized computer system board and booting of the said miniaturized computer system. The booting process of the miniaturized computer system is followed by the display options to at least one of the light weight operating system loaded in the system which occupies less memory space. One of the operating system facilitates conversion of miniaturized computer system into a web-server and also aid in development of games with or without coding. Another operating system is for supporting basic functions of computer such as documentations, internet browsing and thereof.
Detail Description of Drawings

[0017] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention, and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
[0018] Fig.1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of a miniaturized computer system according to the present invention.
[0019] Fig. 2 shows method of accessing booting miniaturized computer system according to the present invention.
[0020] Fig. 3 shows the process after boot initialization of an in house built operating system of miniaturized computer system according to the present invention.
[0021] Fig. 4 shows the functionality of light weight operating system according to the present invention.
[0022] Fig. 5 shows flow-chart of developing an in-house built Candy OS Pro operating system of a miniaturized computer system according to the present invention.
[0023] Fig. 6 shows flow-chart of developing an in-house built Candy OS Xinu operating system of a miniaturized computer system according to the present invention.

Detailed Invention Disclosure
[0024] The present invention discloses a miniaturized computer system that can be plugged into a display unit or any electrical media device for display support and functionality as a home PC. The miniaturized computer system though smaller in size is yet highly efficient, reliable and user-friendly. The added feature of an in-house built operating system further improves the efficiency, security and reduces the start up time i.e. booting.

[0025] The miniaturized computer system consists of a microcontroller board that’s customized to a functional CPU of credit card size, a memory, an operating system. Further the board consists of at least one slot for connection with an external display unit. The miniaturized computer system requires an external unit for its display. The external means can be any display device or an electronic unit, not limited to television.

[0026] According to the invention, in one embodiment, as shown in Fig. 1, the miniaturized computer system consists of a board 100 with RAM 101, provision 102 for connection with a display device not limited to HDMI television, a built-in USB Ethernet adapter 103, input and output ports 104 and 105 for video and audio devices, a USB port 106 and power connector 106. Further there is a slot for insertion of memory card 107 through which the operating system required for the working of the miniaturized computer system is loaded on to the system.

[0027] According to the invention, the miniaturized computer system may contain all of the components of a fully functional, conventional home personal computer. The term “Home personal computer” means that the computer contains sufficient hardware and software that will enable a user to do various things with the computer such as type documents, send e-mail, browse the Internet, play games and thereof.

[0028] The miniaturized computer system components may contain at least one memory, wherein the memory may be a random access memory. The memory of the said miniaturized computer system is separated into sections to support basic functioning of the said miniaturized computer system and additional features like games, videos and thereof. The memory allocation in the RAM is customized to enable fast booting of the said miniaturized computer system in less than 5 seconds. The term “booting” herein indicates faster start-up of the said miniaturized computer system.

[0029] According to the invention, loaded from an external memory, preferably onto the memory card or an SDcard is in-house built-in software that is executed in the central processing unit. Further the external memory unit may come as a total package along with the miniaturized computer system or can be externally inserted on to the miniaturized computer system. Such software may include application software such as libre office, word processors, system software such as operating systems, which interface with hardware to provide the necessary services for application software, and middleware which controls and coordinates distributed systems.

[0030] Fig. 2 shows the steps of operating the miniaturized computer system according to the invention. The operation includes the following steps. Step 201 involves connection of said miniaturized computer system board input devices such as keyboard, mouse and thereof. In Step 202 miniaturized computer system is connected to a television or any external media device to serve as display unit to the miniaturized computer system. In step 203, a USB power cable is connected to the miniaturized computer system to supply power to the system and the miniaturized computer system is turned on. In step 204, the booting process of the miniaturized computer system is initialized. As termed booting is a process or set of operations that loads and hence starts the operating system, starting from the point when user switches on the power button.

[0031] Fig. 3 shows the process after boot initialization and accessing of miniaturized computer system. After the booting process, a display window 301 appears over the screen. In step 302, the display window displays list of operating systems preinstalled and read from the external memory unit that can be inserted into the miniaturized computer system. The user can then select the operating system as in step 303 based on the requirement and type of operation to be performed. The operating systems include Candy OS Pro and Candy OS Xinu.

[0032] Candy OS Pro is designed to support basic home computer features, which facilitates the user to do various things with the computer such as type documents, send e-mail, browse the Internet, play games and thereof. While the Candy OS Xinu converts the miniaturized computer system into a web-server which gives the access of storing large volume of data. Both the Candy OS and Candy OS Pro use graphical user interface and are made light weight, which mean the operating systems consume less space, wherein said operating systems are highly secure.

[0033] Fast booting is performed on the miniaturized computer system by using memory split process. Only the essentials required for operating as a home PC are converted into separate “Init Files”. These files rather occupy less space in the RAM, which enable faster booting of the miniaturized computer system. A shown in Fig. 4, 401 indicates the memory containing shell script files. Few of the shell script files are modified and converted into separate “Init Files” 402. The files are only the essential files required for start-up. The occupancy of space in the memory is reduced by separating the files and storing in a different location. As a result, when the system starts booting, to load the operating system, only a few files are to be checked which gets completed in less than 30seconds. As a result the miniaturized computer system takes less time for booting as indicated in 403.

[0034] Further according to Fig. 4, the miniaturized computer system, when there is an occurrence of error in the booting process of “init files” 402, the booting process loops back to the shell script files of step 401 to check and load all the shell script files.

[0035] In one embodiment, the computer comprises the hardware necessary to run the aforementioned software. In other embodiments, this hardware is a part of the miniaturized computer system reader. Application software may include libre office and draw, business software, educational software, medical software, databases, word processing software, computer games and all LINUX based softwares. The software includes an in-built operating system Candy OS Pro and Candy OS XINU pre-compiled in an external memory device that can be read by the miniaturized computer system more elaborately described in below sections.

[0036] The operating system may be capable of using the TCP/IP networking protocols, has a graphical interface and device drivers. The operating system may be placed on the external memory unit by the manufacturer or later downloaded by the user. Synchronization can be completed using the operating system's intrinsic tools. This will transfer user parameters, data files, e-mail settings, etc. to the miniaturized computer system.

[0037] The miniaturized computer system is loaded with an in-house built software application named as “Candy OS Pro” which is light weight operating system as it occupies less space on the drive compared to other operating systems. The operating system is developed on Pidora Remix kernel. The operating system specially runs on ARM 11 Processor. Fig. 5. shows the flow-chart of developing the operating system, accordingly boot loader first boots the operating system kernel from the “Init” files as shown in step 501. As shown in step 502, open suseLinux or pidora mix kernel. The File repositories of the Linux are adapted by redhat linux as in step 503 to obtain root.tar.xz package shown in step 504. In step 505, a JASON file is used to concatenate both the root and boot packages of steps 501 and 504. The timing for the system to boot and root is fixed in step 506 using a Linux terminal 507. Finally obtained packages of root and boot files are converted into image .img extensions as shown in step 508. The .img extension format is used to distribute operating system in the miniaturized computer system.

[0038] The Candy OS Pro occupies less storage space in the drive and assists in reducing the booting time, wherein said Candy OS Pro boots in less than 50seconds. The following are the some of the exemplary advantages of Candy OS Pro.
a. Provides a complete home pc
b. Includes documentation software’s (libre office and draw)
c. Custom GUI
d. Facilitates internet browser (Fire Fox)
e. Further includes ABI word processor
f. Inbuilt security functions(virus free) as the operating system is built on Linux kernels
g. Also the Candy OS Pro has network modules used for networking
h. Further the Candy OS Pro facilitates multi tasking operations.

[0039] According to another aspect of the invention, the miniaturized computer system can be converted into a web-server by using a converting module named as “Candy OS Xinu”, wherein said converting device enables the miniaturized computer system to store large data. The operating system is built on Debian Weezy Kernel which helps in providing high security. The operating system though built on Linux kernels, provides easy interaction with the user providing a graphical user interface instead of command lines.

[0040] The flow chart of developing the operating system is shown in Fig. 6. Accordingly, a boot loader first boots the operating system kernel from the “Init” files as shown in step 601. The operating system is built on Debian Weezy Kernel, as shown in step 602; a file system is created by eliminating few of the audio and video files from the libraries as shown in step 603. In step 604 file transfer protocol packages are added to obtained file in step 603. The finally obtained root.tar.xz package of step 605 is linked with the boot.tar.xz package of step 601 as shown in step 606 using a JASON file. The timing for the system to boot and root in step 607 is fixed using a linux terminal 608. Finally obtained packages of root and boot files are converted into image .img extensions as shown in step 609. The .img extension format is used to distribute operating system in the miniaturized computer system.

[0041] According to the invention, the miniaturized computer system has better functioning using the Candy OS Xinu operating system. The following are some of the exemplary advantages of Candy OS Xinu
a. Converts raspberry pi or similar micro-controller to server
b. Build games using coding or with-out coding.
c. Inbuilt python modules for programming
d. Completely secured Kernel
e. Multi tasking
f. Includes wolfram frame work
g. Networking modules
h. Internet browser
i. Complete developer friendly
j. Custom GUI
k. Booting less than 30 sec

[0042] In accordance with the invention, both the Candy OS Pro and Candy OS Xinu are graphical user interfaces and use Linux kernels which helps in providing high security but unlike any other Linux operating systems Candy OS Pro and Candy OS Xinu are highly user friendly and easy to access.

[0043] The miniaturized computer system consists of a microcontroller board that’s customized to a functional CPU of credit card size. According to the invention, the microcontroller board can be a raspberry pi customized so that it can work as a total functional CPU.

[0044] According to the invention, the above mentioned features of the invention enable the miniaturized computer system to function as a home PC as well as a web server. Further there is a provision for development of games either with or without coding. Also the miniaturized computer systems being run on Linux kernels there is an additional security yet the access is not limited to commands but through a graphical user interface.

[0045] While we have shown and described only a few examples herein, it is understood that numerous changes and modifications as known to those skilled in the art could be made to the present invention. The scope of the present invention is not only limited to any particular industry and it can be applied or used in any other system within the spirit of the invention.