PROVIDING FIRMWARE UPDATES TO PORTABLE MEDIA DEVICES

• US 20080052698A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hayter, Kjersten Johansen, Olson, Kipley J., Sadovsky, Vlad, Kiilerich, Dennis A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,770,165 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/572 Secure firmware programming, e.g. of basic input output system [BIOS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44536 Selecting among different versions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44589 Program code verification, e.g. Java bytecode verification, proof-carrying code high-level semantic checks G06F8/43; testing and debugging software G06F11/36

Abstract

A system for providing a firmware upgrade to a portable media device by comparing a version number of the firmware on the portable media device to the version number of an available firmware upgrade. The available firmware upgrade is provided by the manufacturer of the portable media device or some other trusted source and compiled in a firmware database. The firmware database is accessed when the portable media device is connected to the personal computing device. Additionally, a digital signature may be associated with a certified version of the media device firmware and used by a multimedia management application to verify the functionality of the portable media device.

Claims

1. A system for providing a firmware upgrade to a portable media device wherein the portable media device includes a firmware and an identifier, said firmware including a version number, and said identifier associated with a model of the portable media device;

said system comprising;

a server for providing the firmware upgrade for the portable media device, said firmware upgrade including a version number, said firmware upgrade associated with the identifier of the portable media device;

a firmware link server including a firmware database, said firmware database including the identifier of the portable media device, the version number of the firmware upgrade, and an address where the firmware upgrade may be accessed; and

a computing device connected to the portable media device, said computing device;

receiving the installed firmware version number and a device identifier from the portable media device;

sending a request to the firmware link server, said request including the device identifier from the portable media device;

receiving the firmware upgrade version number and the location of the firmware upgrade from the firmware database; and

selectively applying the firmware upgrade to the connected portable media device as a function of the firmware upgrade version number and the installed firmware version number.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said selectively applying including determining if the firmware upgrade should be applied to the connected portable media device as a function of the firmware upgrade version number and the installed firmware version number;

and

if it is determined that the firmware upgrade should be applied to the portable media device;

retrieving the firmware upgrade from the received location;

copying the retrieved files to the portable media device player; and

signaling the portable media device to apply the copied firmware upgrade.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the firmware upgrade is applied to the connected portable media device if the installed firmware version number is less than firmware upgrade version number.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the portable media device can play files in at least one of the following formats:

MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), DivX, XviD, MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer

     3), WAV (Waveform audio format), Ogg Vorbis, JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), WMA (Windows Media Audio), WMV (Windows Media Video), ASF (Advanced Systems Format or Advanced Streaming Format) and GIF (Graphics Interchange Format).

5. The system of claim 1 wherein firmware upgrade is stored in a flash ROM of the portable media device.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein firmware upgrade is implemented via a Media Transfer Protocol.

7. A method for upgrading a firmware of a portable media device the portable media device including a firmware and an identifier, said firmware for operating said portable media device, said firmware including a version number, and said identifier associated with a hardware identifier of the portable media device, said portable media device being connected to a computing device, comprising:

receiving the firmware version number and the identifier from the portable media device;

sending a request to a firmware database, said request including the identifier from the portable media device;

receiving a firmware upgrade version number and a location of the firmware upgrade, said firmware upgrade version number being associated with the firmware upgrade wherein the location indicates an address where the firmware may be accessed;

determining if the firmware upgrade should be applied to the connected portable media device as a function of the firmware upgrade version number and the installed firmware version number; and

if it is determined that the firmware upgrade should be applied to the portable media device;

retrieving the firmware upgrade files from the received location;

copying the retrieved files to the portable media device player; and

signaling the portable media device to apply the copied firmware upgrade.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

storing the date of the last request sent to the firmware database in a device table in a media library of a multimedia management application of the computing device; and

sending a request to the firmware database as a function of the number of days since the last sent request.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the request to the firmware database is a web request.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the received firmware upgrade version number and the received location of the firmware upgrade are within an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the received XML document further includes at least one of the following:

a hardware identifier;

a manufacturer name;

a model name;

a date of firmware update;

a description of the firmware update; and

URL to web site that provides more information on the firmware update.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the request further includes at least one of the following:

a system locale of the operating system of the personal computing device;

a unique identification number for a geographical region, country, city, or location of the operating system of the personal computing device;

a version of a multimedia management application of the computing device;

a locale of the current user;

a hardware identifier of the portable media device;

a firmware version of the portable media device;

a model identifier of the portable media device; and

a manufacturer identifier of the portable media device.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein location to retrieve the firmware upgrade is in a URL format.

14. The method of claim 7 wherein the firmware upgrade is in a compressed and archived format.

15. The method of claim 7 wherein the retrieved firmware upgrade file is digitally signed to verify it is from a trusted source.

16. The method of claim 7 wherein the copied firmware upgrade file is tagged as a firmware update.

17. A method for verifying the functionality of a firmware installed on a portable media device produced by a manufacturer, comprising:

testing the firmware for a required functionality, said firmware being associated with a version number, said firmware being installed on the portable media device, said portable media device associated with a hardware identifier;

if the tested firmware had the required functionality;

generating a digital signature as a function of the firmware version number, the hardware identifier, and a manufacturer identifier, said manufacturer identifier being associated with the manufacturer of the portable media device;

providing the digital signature to the manufacturer, said manufacturer installing the firmware and said digital signature on subsequently manufactured portable media devices associated with the hardware identifier;

connecting the portable media device to a computing device, said computing device managing multimedia for the portable media device;

receiving, by the computing device, the digital signature, the hardware identifier and the firmware version number associated with the portable media device; and

selectively enabling the features, by the computing device, as a function of the digital signature, the hardware identifier and the firmware version number.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein selectively enabling comprises verifying, by the computing device, the received digital signature as a function of the received hardware identifier and the received firmware version number;

and

if the device is verified, enabling features, by the computing device, on the computing device associated with the functionality of the tested firmware; and

if the device of not verified, disabling features, by the computing device, on the computing device associated with the functionality of the tested firmware.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein generated digital signature is encrypted with a private key and received digital signature is decrypted with a corresponding public key.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the ability to upgrade the firmware of the portable media device is selectively enabled as a function of the digital signature, the hardware identifier and the firmware version number.