Tri-phase boot process in electronic devices

• US 20050114852A1
• Filed: 09/01/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Choi, Young Hee, Chen, Shao-Chun, Gustafson, James P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,196,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an electronic device network including a plurality of electronic devices. The electronic devices may each have updating software adapted to update firmware/software resident in the electronic devices. The electronic devices may also employ additional software for updating the updating software in the electronic devices. The electronic devices may also have software adapted to determine whether a current version of the updating software is to be invoked or whether a previous backup version of the updating software is to be invoked. The determination may be made based upon status information resident in a update status indicator. The status information may indicate that an update upon the updating software is to be conducted, rather than a normal startup operation without performing any updates. The network may also include an update generator adapted to generate updates for use in updating the updating software in the electronic devices.

Claims

1. An update status indicator for use in updating one of firmware and software in a mobile electronic device, the update status indicator comprising:

an update address block of memory, the update address identifying where an updating software is stored in the electronic device;

a return block of memory comprising a value to be returned when updating the electronic device has been completed; and

an indicator block of memory comprising a plurality of status indicators.

2. The update status indicator according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of status indicators are employed by updating software for processing a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of firmware and software to a second version of one of firmware and software.

3. The update status indicator according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of status indicators is employed to indicate that an update is present in the electronic device and that an update is to be performed.

4. The update status indicator according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of status indicators is employed to indicate whether the one of firmware and software to be updated is valid and capable of being updated.

5. The update status indicator according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of status indicators is employed to indicate which phase of the update is currently performing.

6. The update status indicator according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of status indicators is employed to indicate that the update of the one of firmware and software to be updated is completed.

7. A memory configuration for a mobile electronic device comprising:

a software for booting the electronic device located in a first portion of memory;

an updating software for updating one of firmware and software in the electronic device located in a second portion of memory;

a reserved portion of memory usable for backing up one of code and information during an updating event; and

at least one additional portion of memory for storing an update usable by the updating software during the updating event, wherein updating one of software and firmware in the electronic device comprises executing a plurality of executable instructions for converting a first version of one of software and firmware to a second version of one of software and firmware.

8. The memory configuration according to claim 7, wherein the updating software is updatable in a fault tolerant manner.

9. The memory configuration according to claim 7, wherein the memory configuration comprises non-volatile memory.

10. The memory configuration according to claim 7, wherein software and firmware are stored in the memory configuration in a compressed form and are decompressed out of the memory configuration into random access memory for one of processing and updating.

11. An updating software employable for updating one of software and firmware in a mobile electronic device, the updating software comprising:

a software component adapted to survey and validate one of software and firmware to be updated in the electronic device to determine that the one of software and firmware are capable of being updated; and

the software component also being adapted to identify an update interruption.

12. The updating software according to claim 11, wherein identifying an update interruption provides a fault tolerant update and permits an interrupted update to be re-initiated where the interruption occurred.

13. An update software wrapper employable in conjunction with updating software for updating one of software and firmware in a mobile electronic device, the update software wrapper being adapted to facilitate interaction between electronic device specific software and application specific software.

14. The update software wrapper according to claim 13, wherein electronic device specific software comprises software adapted to operate in an electronic device of a pre-determined manufacturer.

15. The update software wrapper according to claim 13, wherein application specific software comprises software adapted to perform a specific function that is independent of an electronic device.

16. The update software wrapper according to claim 13, further comprising software interfacing one of proprietary electronic device firmware and software and proprietary application specific updating software independent of an electronic device of a particular manufacturer.

17. The update software wrapper according to claim 13, wherein the update software wrapper is adapted to perform a memory erase function before a memory write function for at least one component of a memory module.

18. The update software wrapper according to claim 13, wherein the update software wrapper is adapted to manage and adjust at least one of status information, update variables, and update functions.

19. A mobile electronic device comprising software adapted to update an updating software resident in the mobile electronic device in a non-fault-tolerant manner and a fault-tolerant manner.

20. The mobile device according to claim 19, wherein updating the updating software in a fault tolerant manner comprises storing a backup copy of the updating software in non-volatile memory prior to initiation of an update event.

21. A mobile electronic device comprising at least two program files stored in a non-volatile memory configuration, the at least two program files comprising at least one of code and data usable for booting the mobile electronic device, wherein the at least two program files are adapted to call associated boot instructions from different locations in memory depending upon a status of a software to be updated.

22. The mobile electronic device according to claim 21, wherein the at least two program files are binary files.

23. The mobile electronic device according to claim 21, wherein the at least two program files are adapted to perform boot activities at different times.

24. The mobile electronic device according to claim 21, wherein one of the at least two program files is adapted to boot updating software from a default start location in non-volatile memory and another of the at east two program files is adapted to boot updating software from a reserved backup location in non-volatile memory.

25. The mobile electronic device according to claim 21, wherein the at least two program files are each associated with an additional block of re-locatable code that is copied from a default location to a reserved backup location to provide fault tolerance prior to initiation of a fault tolerant update of updating software resident in the mobile electronic device.

26. The mobile electronic device according to claim 21, further comprising software for booting the mobile electronic device, wherein the software for booting is adapted to invoke at least one of the at least two program files to initialize and relocate updating software to be updated and an associated block of re-locatable code from storage in non-volatile memory to a random access memory for one of booting, processing, and updating.