Image-formation device firmware having modular upgrade capability

• US 20040210894A1
• Filed: 04/17/2003
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Zarco, Maria F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,249,353 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

A method of one embodiment of the invention is disclosed that includes providing an image-formation device having firmware with a modular upgrade capability. The method also includes providing a user-accessible manner by which to install further capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device, via the modular upgrade capability of the firmware.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing an image-formation device having firmware with a modular upgrade capability; and

,

providing a user-accessible manner by which to install further capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device via the modular upgrade capability of the firmware.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the image-formation device having the firmware with the modular upgrade capability comprises providing the image-formation device having the firmware initially without any actual image-formation capabilities.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the image-formation device having the firmware comprises further providing the image-formation device having the firmware with a boot-up capability so that the image-formation device is initially able to boot up.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the image-formation device having the firmware with the modular upgrade capability comprises further providing the image-formation device having the firmware with an embedded web server capability through which the modular upgrade capability is accessible.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device comprises providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device via the modular upgrade capability as accessed through the embedded web server capability.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the image-formation device comprises providing a printer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further firmware capabilities within the image-formation device comprises providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further firmware capabilities within the image-formation device without having to reinstall existing firmware capabilities of the image-formation device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further firmware capabilities within the image-formation device comprises providing an optical disc with the image-formation device on which the further firmware capabilities are stored and that are accessible through the modular upgrade capability of the firmware.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the user-accessible manner by which to install the further firmware capabilities within the image-formation device comprises providing a server over a network with which the image-formation device is able to communicate and having the further firmware capabilities that are accessible through the modular upgrade capability of the firmware.

10. A method comprising:

booting up an image-formation device; and

,

initially upgrading firmware of the image-formation device so that the image-formation device has actual image-formation capabilities.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising periodically and modularly upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein periodically and modularly upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises:

selecting one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to install within the firmware of the image-formation device;

causing the firmware to acquire the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to the image-formation device; and

,

causing the firmware to install the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein periodically and modularly upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises periodically and modularly upgrading firmware of each of a group of image-formation devices, including the firmware of the image-formation device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein periodically and modularly upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises inserting a computer-readable medium having modular firmware capabilities into the image-formation device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein periodically and modularly upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device further comprises causing the firmware to install the modular firmware capabilities stored in the computer-readable medium.

16. The method of claim 10, further initially comprising connecting the image-formation device to a computing device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein connecting the image-formation device to the computing device comprises one of indirectly and indirectly connecting the image-formation device to the computing device.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein booting up the image-formation device comprises booting up a printer.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein booting up the image-formation device comprises turning on the image-formation device and waiting for the image-formation device to initialize.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises accessing the firmware through a web-browsing program on a computing device connected to the image-formation device.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises accessing the firmware through a previously installed program on a computing device connected to the image-formation device and designed to communicate with the image-formation device.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises inserting an optical disc into an optical disc device of a computing device connected to the image-formation device and having stored thereon modular firmware capabilities including an actual image-formation capability.

23. The method of claim 22, where initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device further comprises:

selecting one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to install within the firmware of the image-formation device;

causing the firmware to transfer the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to the image-formation device; and

,

causing the firmware to install the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device.

24. The method of claim 10, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises accessing a server over a network having modular firmware capabilities including an actual image-formation capability.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein accessing the server over the network comprises accessing the server through the image-formation device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein accessing the server over the network comprises accessing the server through a computing device connected to the image-formation device.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device further comprises:

selecting one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to install within the firmware of the image-formation device;

causing the firmware to download the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities to the image-formation device; and

,

causing the firmware to install the one or more of the modular firmware capabilities within the firmware of the image-formation device.

28. The method of claim 10, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device comprises inserting a computer-readable medium having modular firmware capabilities into the image-formation device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein initially upgrading the firmware of the image-formation device further comprises causing the firmware to install the modular firmware capabilities stored in the computer-readable medium.

30. An image-formation device comprising:

a non-volatile memory capable of storing modular firmware having a firmware upgrade module;

an image-formation mechanism capable of forming an image onto media; and

,

a controller operatively coupled to the non-volatile memory and to the image-formation mechanism and capable of executing the modular firmware to cause the image-formation mechanism to form the image onto the media.

31. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the modular firmware initially has no image-formation modules such that the controller is initially unable to cause the image-formation mechanism to form the image onto the media.

32. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the modular firmware further has a boot-up module.

33. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the modular firmware further has a embedded web server module.

34. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the firmware upgrade module is capable of acquiring and installing other modules within the modular firmware without reacquiring and reinstalling any already installed modules within the modular firmware.

35. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the firmware upgrade module is capable of initially acquiring and installing at least one image-formation module within the modular firmware so that the controller is able to cause the image-formation mechanism to form the image onto the media.

36. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the image-formation mechanism is a laser-printing mechanism and the image-formation device is a laser-printing device.

37. The image-forming device of claim 30, wherein the controller comprises a processor capable of executing modules of the modular firmware.

38. An image-formation device comprising:

a non-volatile memory capable of storing firmware;

an image-formation mechanism capable of forming an image onto media;

a controller operatively coupled to the non-volatile memory and to the image-formation mechanism and capable of executing the firmware to cause the image-formation mechanism to form the image onto the media; and

,

means for initially acquiring and installing at least one image-formation module within the firmware so that the controller is able to cause the image-formation mechanism to form the image onto the media.

39. The image-formation device of claim 38, wherein the means is further for subsequently acquiring and installing other modules within the firmware without reacquiring and reinstalling any already installed modules within the firmware.

40. The image-formation device of claim 38, wherein the image-formation mechanism is a laser-printing mechanism and the image-formation device is a laser-printing device.

41. A computer-readable and writable medium having modular firmware for an image-formation device stored thereon comprising a firmware upgrade module programmed to at least initially acquire and install at least one image-formation module within the modular firmware so that the image-formation device is able to form images onto media, the modular firmware initially having no image-formation modules.

42. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 41, the modular firmware further comprising a boot-up module.

43. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 41, the modular firmware further comprising an embedded web server module.

44. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 41, wherein the medium is a semiconductor memory.

45. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 44, wherein the semiconductor memory is a flash memory.

46. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 41, wherein the medium is a magnetic memory.

47. The computer-readable and writable medium of claim 46, wherein the medium is a hard disk drive.

48. A computer-readable medium connectable to a connector of an image-formation device and having stored thereon at least one image-formation module providing at least one corresponding modular firmware capability, the module acquirable by modular firmware of the image-formation device while the medium is connected to the connector of the image-formation device for installation within the image-formation device.

49. The computer-readable medium of claim 48, wherein the medium is a semiconductor memory.

50. The computer-readable medium of claim 49, wherein the semiconductor memory is a flash memory.