PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DOWNLOADING A FIRMWARE LOADER FROM A HOST COMPUTER

• US 20100241752A1
• Filed: 11/09/2009
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chi Mei Communication Systems Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Chi Mei Communication Systems Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: CHEN, CHI-HSIEN
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,223 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading

Abstract

A method for downloading a firmware loader from a host computer to a portable electronic device establishes a communication connection between the host computer and the portable electronic device. Transmission parameters between the portable electronic device and the portable electronic device are configured. The firmware loader is transmitted from the host computer to the portable electronic device according to the transmission parameters. The firmware loader is verified, where the portable electronic device obtains a start address of the firmware loader.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device, comprising:

a storage system;

at least one processor; and

a device downloading unit stored in the storage system and executable by the at least one processor, the device downloading unit comprising;

a device connecting module operable to establish a communication connection between a host computer and the portable device over an input/output (I/O) interface;

a device synchronizing module operable to communicate with the host computer to verify that the portable electronic device is ready to receive a firmware loader;

a device configuring module operable to configure a plurality of transmission parameters between the portable electronic device and the host computer;

a device transmitting module operable to receive the firmware loader from the host computer according to the transmission parameters, and store the firmware loader into the storage system;

a device checking module operable to verify the received firmware loader;

a device notifying module operable to obtain a start address of the firmware loader in the portable electronic device from the host computer; and

a device disconnecting module operable to terminate the communication connection with the host computer.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the storage system is selected from the group consisting of a smart media card (SMC), a secure digital card (SDC), a compact flash card (CFC), a multimedia card (MMC), a memory stick (MS), an extreme digital card (XDC), and a trans flash card (TFC).

3. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the transmission parameters comprise a data acknowledge parameter that determines if the portable electronic device is required to acknowledge a reception of the firmware loader.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 3, wherein the device transmitting module is further operable to acknowledge the reception of the firmware loader upon condition that the data acknowledge is enabled.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the firmware loader is divided into a plurality of data blocks to transmit.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 5, wherein each of the data blocks is transmitted to the portable electronic device along with a checksum.

7. A method for downloading a firmware loader from a host computer to a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

establishing a communication connection between the host computer and the portable electronic device over an input/output (I/O) interface;

communicating between the host computer and the portable electronic device to verify that the portable electronic device is ready to receive the firmware loader;

configuring transmission parameters between the portable electronic device and the host computer;

transmitting the firmware loader from the host computer to the portable electronic device according to the transmission parameters;

verifying the firmware loader received by the portable electronic device;

notifying the portable electronic device of a start address of the firmware loader in the portable electronic device; and

terminating the communication connection between the host computer and the portable electronic device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the transmission parameters comprise a data acknowledgement parameter to determine if the portable electronic device is required to acknowledge a reception of the firmware loader.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

acknowledging the reception of the firmware loader by the portable electronic device after the firmware loader is transmitted from the host computer to the portable electronic device, upon condition that the data acknowledgement is enabled.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the firmware loader is divided into a plurality of data blocks to transmit.

11. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the data blocks is transmitted to the portable electronic device along with a checksum.

13. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein the transmission parameters comprise a data acknowledgement parameter to determine if the portable electronic device is required to acknowledge a reception of the firmware loader.

14. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

acknowledging the reception of the firmware loader by the portable electronic device after the firmware loader is transmitted from the host computer to the portable electronic device, upon condition that the data acknowledgement is enabled.

15. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein the firmware loader is divided into a plurality of data blocks to transmit.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the firmware loader is divided into a plurality of data blocks to be transmitted.

12. A storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a portable electronic device, cause the portable electronic device to execute a method for downloading a firmware loader from a host computer to a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

establishing a communication connection between the host computer and the portable electronic device over an input/output (I/O) interface;

communicating between the host computer and the portable electronic device to verify that the portable electronic device is ready to receive the firmware loader;

configuring transmission parameters between the portable electronic device and the host computer;

transmitting the firmware loader from the host computer to the portable electronic device according to the transmission parameters;

verifying the firmware loader received by the portable electronic device;

notifying the portable electronic device of a start address of the firmware loader in the portable electronic device; and

terminating the communication connection between the host computer and the portable electronic device.