Task switching with state preservation for programs running on an electronic device

Abstract

A method and system providing switching between a plurality of installed programs in a computer system. Embodiments include a jump function comprising the steps: (1) determining a jump program that is to be the next program to be run, possibly from a plurality of possible choices; (2) creating input data for the jump program based on data in the current program; (3) storing the program state of the currently running program into a context packet and saving the context packet to memory; (4) releasing temporary memory that is used by the program, so as to allow other programs to use the memory; (5) calling the jump program with the created input data as input and terminating the currently running program.

1 . A method of managing a memory device in an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:
 storing a first program and a user data of the first program in the memory device during execution of the first program;   determining a second program to be executed by the electronic device;   storing a program state of the first program into a first context packet in a response to a selection of the second program;   saving the first context packet in the memory device;   releasing temporary memory used for the first program so as to allow other programs to use the temporary memory after storing the program state of the first program into the first context packet;   storing the second program and a user data of the determined second program in the memory device; and   upon receiving a request to execute a third program, suspending or terminating the execution of the second program and executing the third program based on a second context packet.