An embedded operating system is an independent operating system recorded in a non-volatile memory of a hardware device, and the software thereof is designed to adapt particularly to the hardware device to carry out certain tasks. Applications for the embedded operating system are broad, including common usage in car control devices, home appliances, digital cameras, mobile phones, and network firewall servers to more exotic uses such as in a space shuttle.
Generally speaking, the embedded operating system does not include I/O (input/output) devices such as keyboard, mouse, or display of a standard computer, since the main function of the embedded operating system is not to provide data editing as is provided by the standard computer. Currently, for a normal apparatus that includes a built-in embedded operating system, the only way to determine whether the system has started properly or not after turning on is by observing simple light signals or a LCD panel. For example, for a network firewall server, one can check whether the operating system has successfully booted up or not by means of a status light on the server. When the operating system has started successfully, power is supplied to turn on the status light to indicate the boot-up success.
However, the above status light or LCD panel are controlled by the supporting electronic hardware device, and the on/off status thereof has no direct correlation to the embedded operating system within the device. Therefore, even though the hardware-controlled status light is turned on, this does not indicate for sure that the embedded operating system is operable. Thus the status light does not allow users to definitely recognize whether the embedded operating system is working or down. That is, the users can not surely determine the current operating status of the operating system by observing the status light since the status light may give a false indication as it is not directly linked with a functioning mechanism of the operating system.
In view of the above drawbacks, the problem to be solved herein is to provide an operating status indication method and system, which can be controlled by an embedded operating system to indicate an operating status of the operating system.