Methods and apparatus for distributing software applications

• US 20060075397A1
• Filed: 09/20/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kasahara, Eiji
• Granted Patent: US 8,176,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for enabling execution of software programs permit: obtaining identification information that is indicative of a version of a software program; determining whether processing capabilities of a processor on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program; and at least partially modifying the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly on the processor.

Claims

1. A method of enabling execution of a software program, said method comprising:

obtaining identification information that is indicative of a version of the software program;

determining whether processing capabilities of at least one processor on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program; and

at least partially modifying the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly on the at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing capabilities of the at least one processor are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program when at least one of the following processing conditions is incompatible with that needed for proper execution of the version of the software program:

a clock frequency, a memory map, a bus utilization, a bus bandwidth, a cache size, a cache organization, an instruction latency, an instruction throughput, a memory latency, a memory throughput, an endian, and an instruction type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is a part of the software program, and said obtaining step includes obtaining the identification information from the software program.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said obtaining step includes obtaining the identification information from a storage medium, and the storage medium is at least one of an optical disc medium, a magnetic medium, and an electronic medium.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining step includes determining the processing capabilities of the at least one processor based on the identification information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining step includes determining whether the at least one processor is capable of using processing resources from one or more external processors in executing the software program.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining step includes obtaining a processing identifier indicative of the processing capabilities of the at least one processor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

accessing a table, using the identification information and the processing identifier, to obtain the further version of the software program, said table associating;

(i) respective identification information for a plurality of software programs, (ii) processing identifiers, and (iii) modules having at least one of software programs and data that may be used to at least partially modify the version of the software program; and

using at least one of the associated modules to at least partially modify the version of the software program to obtain the more suitable version of the software program.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said modifying step includes at least partially overwriting the version of the software program in the storage medium.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the table is at least one of stored locally in a common location with said at least one processor, stored in a remotely located administrative entity, or stored in a further location for access by the remotely located administrative entity.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

establishing a link between the at least one processor and the administrative entity using a communications channel; and

transmitting the identification information and the processing identifier from the at least one processor to the administrative entity over the communications channel.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the administrative entity accesses the table using the identification information and the processing identifier to obtain the at least one associated module.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving the at least one associated module at the at least one processor over the communications channel from the administrative entity; and

using the at least one associated module to modify the version of the software program to obtain the more suitable version of the software program.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an encrypted decryption key over the communication channel from the administrative entity in response to the identification information;

decrypting the encrypted decryption key; and

decrypting the at least one associated module using the decryption key.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving registration data over the communications channel from the administrative entity in response to the identification information;

transmitting the registration data over the communications channel to a distributor;

receiving an encrypted decryption key and an encrypted virtual ID at the processing apparatus over the network from the distributor in response to the registration data;

decrypting the encrypted decryption key using the virtual ID; and

decrypting the at least one associated module, using the decryption key.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a non-activated decryption key from an administrator;

transmitting an activation request to the administrative entity over the communications channel;

receiving activation grant information from the administrative entity over the communications channel in response to the activation request;

converting the non-activated decryption key into an activated decryption key in response to the activation grant information; and

decrypting the at least one associated module, using the activated decryption keys.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the software program includes a game program.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information indicates a user right to execute the software program on any one of plurality of processing devices.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining the version of the software program using the identification information prior to said step of at least partially modifying the version of the software program.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the version of the software program is at least one of stored locally in a common location with said at least one processor, stored in a remotely located administrative entity, or stored in a further location for access by the remotely located administrative entity.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

establishing a link between the at least one processor and the administrative entity using a communications channel;

transmitting the identification information from the at least one processor to the administrative entity over the communications channel, the administrative entity using the identification information to obtain the version of the software program; and

receiving the version of the software program at the at least one processor over the communications channel from the administrative entity.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

establishing a link between a further device and the administrative entity using a communications channel;

transmitting the identification information from further device to the administrative entity over the communications channel, the administrative entity using the identification information to obtain the version of the software program; and

receiving the version of the software program at the at least one processor over the communications channel from the administrative entity.

23. A processing arrangement, comprising:

at least one processor operable to perform processing tasks and to;

(i) obtain identification information that is indicative of a version of a software program, (ii) determine whether processing capabilities of the processor are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program, and (iii) at least partially modify the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly.

24. A system, comprising:

a plurality of sub-processing units each operable to perform processing tasks;

a main processing unit operable to perform at least some management processing tasks over the sub-processing units; and

a data bus operatively coupling the main processing unit and the sub-processing units;

wherein at least one of the main processing unit and the sub-processing unit is operable to;

(i) obtain identification information that is indicative of a version of a software program, (ii) determine whether processing capabilities of the processing unit or the sub-processing unit on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program, and (iii) at least partially modify the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly.

25. A system, comprising:

a plurality of devices each including;

a plurality of sub-processing units each operable to performing processor tasks,

a main processing unit operable to perform at least some management processing tasks over the sub-processing units, and

a data bus operatively coupling the main processing unit and the sub-processing units;

wherein at least one of the main processing unit and the sub-processing units of at least one of the plurality of processing devices is operable to;

(i) obtain identification information that is indicative of a version of a software program, (ii) determine whether processing capabilities of the processing unit or the sub-processing unit on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program, and (iii) at least partially modify the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly.

26. A system, comprising:

a plurality of processing devices each including;

a plurality of sub-processing units each operable to perform processor tasks,

a main processing unit operable to perform at least some management processing tasks over the sub-processing units, and

a data bus operatively coupling the main processing unit and the sub-processing units;

a remotely located administrative entity; and

a communications channel operable to provide a communication link between each of the plurality of processing devices and the administrative entity;

at least one of the main processing unit and the sub-processing units of each of the plurality of processing devices being further operable to;

(i) obtain identification information that is indicative of a version of a software program, (ii) determine whether processing capabilities of the processing unit or the sub-processing unit on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program, and (iii) transmit the identification information and at least one processing identifier associated that processing device to the administrative entity over the communications channel;

the administrative entity being operable to;

(i) use the identification information and the at least one processing identifier to obtain at least one associated module having at least one of software programs and data that may be used to at least partially modify the version of the software program, and (ii) transmit the at least one module to the at least one of the main processing unit and the sub-processing units of the associated processing device;

the at least one of the main processing unit and the sub-processing units of the associated processing device being further operable to at least partially modify the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly.

27. An apparatus for enabling execution of a software program, said apparatus comprising:

means for obtaining identification information that is indicative of a version of the software program;

means for determining whether processing capabilities of at least one processor on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program; and

means for at least partially modifying the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly on the at least one processor.

28. A recording medium recorded with a first software program for performing a method of enabling execution of a second software program, said method comprising:

obtaining identification information that is indicative of a version of the second software program;

determining whether processing capabilities of at least one processor on which the second software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the second software program; and

at least partially modifying the version of the second software program to obtain a more suitable version of the second software program that will execute properly on the at least one processor.

29. A recording medium recorded with a software program modified by a method of enabling execution of the software program, said method comprising:

providing a version of a software program;

obtaining identification information that is indicative of the version of the software program;

determining whether processing capabilities of at least one processor on which the software program is to be executed are incompatible with proper execution of the version of the software program;

at least partially modifying the version of the software program to obtain a more suitable version of the software program that will execute properly on the at least one processor; and

storing the more suitable version of the software program on the recording medium.