Forcibly downloading program in mobile communications terminal

• US 20060048146A1
• Filed: 08/22/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Oh, Hyung-Suk
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,166 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1433 during software upgrading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/654 using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories

Abstract

The present invention relates to forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communications terminal. Preferably, a memory of the terminal is divided into a boot binary region and a main binary region. A boot program and a main program of a binary program are then downloaded to the boot binary region and the main binary region, respectively. Whether the downloading of the binary program is successful or not is then recorded in a particular address of the memory. After, it is determined whether to enter a forcible download mode by checking a value of the particular address.

Claims

1. A method for forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communications terminal, comprising:

dividing a memory of the terminal into a boot binary region and a main binary region;

downloading a boot program and a main program of a binary program to the boot binary region and the main binary region, respectively;

recording in a particular address of the memory whether the downloading of the binary program is successful or not; and

determining whether to enter a forcible download mode by checking a value of the particular address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal is a personal digital assistant (PDA) having a mobile phone function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the boot binary region comprises a function related to a booting sequence.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the boot binary region comprises:

an initialization driving algorithm;

a program related to initialization of RAM and ROM;

a program related to initialization of a communication port; and

a function for allowing to set a continuous, particular data Baud rate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the boot binary region comprises a corresponding driver for allowing the download of a program through a communication port for the transmission and reception of data between a communication module and a PDA module.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication port is UART2.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the main binary region comprises functions except for a function related to a booting sequence.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein in the dividing step, the binary region is obtained by dividing the memory of the terminal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein in the recording step, the particular address is located in the boot binary region.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in the recording step, a value being recorded in the particular address when the binary program is successfully downloaded to the terminal is different from a value being recorded in the particular address when the binary program is not successfully downloaded to the terminal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein in the determining step, the terminal enters the forcible download mode if the value of the particular address is read and corresponds to a case where the binary program is incompletely downloaded.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein in the determining step, normal booting is performed if the value of the particular address is read and corresponds to a case where the binary programs is successfully downloaded.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a communication port through which the binary program is downloaded when the terminal enters the program forcible download mode; and

downloading the program through the selected communication port.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein in the selecting step, the communication port is selected by retrieving a value of a particular port of the communication module inside the terminal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the value of the particular port is determined by a user switch operation.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein in the selecting step, the communication port comprises a communication port for the transmission and reception of data between a PDA module and a communication module.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein in the selecting step, the communication port comprises a communication port connected to a PC by using an external interface connector such that the binary program may be downloaded.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein in the downloading step, after the program is downloaded to a PDA module by connecting the terminal to a PC without a separate external interface connector, the program is downloaded again through the communication port for performing communication between the PDA module and a communication module.

19. A method for forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communications terminal when a program is downloaded to the mobile communications terminal, comprising:

dividing a memory into a boot binary region and a main binary region and implementing a merge program for merging the binaries;

downloading a predetermined binary program to the terminal; and

recording a predetermined value in a particular address of the memory according to whether or not the downloading is successful.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

entering a forcible download mode if the value of the particular address is read when the terminal is rebooted and corresponds to a case where the binary program is incompletely downloaded.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the particular address is located in the boot binary region.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the value recorded in the particular address is read whenever power is supplied to the terminal and the terminal is booted.

23. A method for forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communication terminal when an update program is downloaded to the terminal, comprising:

separating a boot program from the program;

downloading the separated boot program to a boot binary region of a memory; and

recording whether the downloading is successful or not in a particular address of the boot binary region.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein when power is supplied to the terminal, the terminal is booted by the boot program stored in the boot binary region.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein when the terminal is booted, a value in the particular address is read and the terminal enters a forcible download mode in order to download the program again according to the read value.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the boot program checks whether the program is normally updated or not whenever the terminal is booted.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the boot program includes a function for allowing a mode of the terminal to be switched to a forcible download mode when it is determined that it is difficult to operate the terminal because of an incomplete program update.

28. A method for forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communications terminal when the mobile communications terminal enters a forcible download mode, comprising:

downloading the program to a communication module again through a communication port selected by a user after the program is downloaded to a PDA module from a PC.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein if a user sets a communication port through which the program is downloaded by a switch provided on the terminal, a port by which the program is forcibly downloaded is determined according to a level value of a particular port of the communication module.

30. An apparatus for forcibly downloading a program in a mobile communications terminal, comprising:

a memory divided into a boot binary region where a booting program for performing a booting sequence is stored and a main binary region, the boot binary region including a particular address in which information regarding whether a previous update of the program has been successful or not is recorded whenever the terminal is booted; and

a switch for selecting a communication port through which a program is downloaded when the mobile communications terminal enters a program forcible download mode.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the switch is a pull down-pull up switch.

32. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the switch determines a level value of a particular port of the communication module.

33. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the particular port is GPIO (General Purpose Input and Output).