Firmware management apparatus and method

• US 20060095825A1
• Filed: 07/07/2005
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BenQ Corporation (Qisda Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BenQ Corporation (Qisda Corporation)
• Inventors: Pan, Tien-Hui
• Application Number:
  US11/176,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20060095825A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/746
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1008 in individual solid state devices G06F11/1004 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus for firmware management. A non-volatile memory device stores encoded data comprising an instruction and an error correction code. A processing unit acquires the encoded data, and corrects the encoded data based on the error correction code when an error in the encoded data is detected. The processing unit subsequently acquires the instruction from the corrected data, and then executes the instruction.

Claims

1. An apparatus for firmware management, comprising:

a non-volatile memory device configured to store encoded data, the encoded data comprising an instruction and an error correction code; and

a processing unit coupled to the non-volatile memory device, acquiring the encoded data, correcting the encoded data based on the error correction code when an error in the encoded data is detected, acquiring the instruction from the corrected data, and executing the instruction.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processing unit acquires the instruction from the encoded data after detecting the encoded data is correct, and then executes the instruction.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the encoded data is corrected by an error correction method, and the instruction is acquired from the corrected data by a decoding method.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the processing unit further stores the corrected data to the non-volatile memory device.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the instruction is acquired from the encoded data by a decoding method after detecting the encoded data is correct.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5 further comprising a chip/chipset comprising the decoding method and the error correction method.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the encoded data and the corrected data correspond to Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code (CIRC), cyclic redundancy check code (CRCC), converlotion code, hamming code, Trelix code, Data Encryption Standard (DES) code.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the instruction comprises firmware of the apparatus.

9. A method for firmware management, executed by a processing unit of an apparatus comprising a non-volatile memory device, comprising:

acquiring encoded data comprising an instruction and an error correction code from the non-volatile memory device;

correcting the encoded data based on the error correction code when an error in the encoded data is detected;

acquiring the instruction from the corrected data; and

executing the instruction.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising:

acquiring the instruction from the encoded data after detecting the encoded data is correct; and

executing the instruction.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the encoded data and the corrected data correspond to Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code (CIRC), cyclic redundancy check code (CRCC), converlotion code, hamming code, Trelix code, Data Encryption Standard (DES) code.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the instruction comprises firmware of the apparatus.

13. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the encoded data is corrected by an error correction method, and the instruction is acquired from the corrected data by a decoding method.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 wherein the decoding method and the error correction method are implemented as a chip/chipset in the apparatus.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14 further comprising storing the corrected data to the non-volatile memory device.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15 further comprising:

acquiring the instruction from the encoded data after detecting the encoded data is correct; and

executing the instruction.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 wherein the instruction comprises firmware of the apparatus.

18. A method for firmware management, executed by a processing unit of an apparatus comprising a non-volatile memory device, comprising:

acquiring an instruction corresponding to firmware of the apparatus;

inserting an error correction code into the instruction to generate encoded data by an encoding method, the error correction code is employed to validate the instruction; and

storing the encoded data to the non-volatile memory device.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18 wherein the instruction is downloaded from a website.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19 wherein the encoded data and the corrected data correspond to Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon Code (CIRC), cyclic redundancy check code (CRCC), converlotion code, hamming code, Trelix code, Data Encryption Standard (DES) code.