FIRMWARE UPDATE SYSTEM AND INFORMATION APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM

• US 20110179406A1
• Filed: 08/18/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Solutions Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Solutions Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ohama, Nobuyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,726,262 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/658 Incremental updates; Differential updates

Abstract

The present invention provides a firmware update process capable of realizing both recovery from an interruption of update and saving of a capacity of nonvolatile memory used for backup and storing difference data. Thus, intermediate data is included for always holding a status of firmware in rewriting in addition to the new and old firmware. In a case of updating all blocks configuring the firmware in an arbitrary order, the process successively compares blocks of the intermediate data and new firmware with each other; calculates an address of data for recovery from an interruption of update and a backup capacity required therefor; extracts difference data to be distributed, calculates a capacity thereof and creates an update procedure; and derives a processing order whose total of the backup capacity and the difference data capacity is the minimum (see FIG. 2).

Claims

1. A firmware update system updating old firmware in an information apparatus to new firmware, comprising:

a management apparatus generating firmware update data; and

an information apparatus acquiring the firmware update data and updating the old firmware to the new firmware,

wherein the management apparatus generates difference data from data of the old firmware and the new firmware, generates an update procedure document describing an update process for generating the new firmware from the old firmware and the difference data in the information apparatus, generates writing back reference information describing information for performing a process (writing back process) of recovering data in an update process in the information apparatus to a state before starting of the update process when the update process has been interrupted, and generates the difference data, the update procedure document and the writing back reference information as the firmware update data, and

the information apparatus updates the old firmware to the new firmware on the basis of the difference data, the update procedure document and the writing back reference information included in the firmware update data.

2. A firmware update system according to claim 1,

wherein the management apparatus divides the old firmware and the new firmware into a plurality of blocks, processes the blocks in units of blocks, and generates the firmware update data.

3. A firmware update system according to claim 2,

wherein the management apparatus provides a plurality of processing orders for performing an update process on the plurality of blocks,

generates intermediate data representing a status of each block in rewriting from the old firmware to the new firmware with respect to each processing order, and checks necessity of backup and necessity of extracting difference data in the units of blocks using the new firmware and the intermediate data, and

identifies the processing order whose total value of a capacity required for the backup and a capacity required for storing the difference data among the plurality of processing orders on the basis of a check result pertaining to the necessity of backup and the necessity of extracting the difference data is the smallest, and describes the identified processing order in the update procedure document.

4. A firmware update system according to claim 3,

wherein the management apparatus compares a processing target block and other blocks with each other in the intermediate data, and checks the necessity of backup according to whether the blocks match with each other or not, and

compares a processing target block in the new firmware and all blocks in the intermediate data with each other, and checks the necessity of extracting the difference data according to whether the blocks match with each other or not.

5. A firmware update system according to claim 2,

wherein the management apparatus describes the writing back reference information so as to instruct a reference position and a size of data for performing the writing back process in units smaller than a size of the block and thereby to allow data of the writing back process to be acquired from a plurality of positions.

6. A firmware update system according to claim 2,

wherein the management apparatus describes an update procedure of the update procedure document so as to instruct a reference position and a size of data for performing the update process in units smaller than a size of the block and thereby to allow data of the update process to be acquired from a plurality of positions.

7. A firmware update system according to claim 2,

wherein the information apparatus manages an update status including information representing that a backup has been completed and information representing that an update process has been completed in units of blocks in correspondence with a processing procedure of the update procedure document.

8. A firmware update system according to claim 7,

wherein, in a case of occurrence of a processing interruption, the information apparatus checks the update status, and identifies which processing procedure is being performed when the interruption has occurred,

refers to the update procedure document, and identifies the block in process according to the identified processing procedure, and

checks the writing back reference information, performs a data writing back process on the identified block in process, and makes the block be in a state before starting of the update process.

9. An information apparatus updating old firmware to new firmware on the basis of firmware update data,

wherein the firmware update data includes difference data generated from data of the old firmware and the new firmware, an update procedure document describing an update process for generating the new firmware from the old firmware and the difference data, and writing back reference information describing information for performing a process (writing back process) of recovering data in an update process to a state before starting of the update process when the update process has been interrupted,

the information apparatus comprises an update data acquisition section which acquires the firmware update data, and

an update process section which updates the old firmware to the new firmware on the basis of the difference data, the update procedure document and the writing back reference information included in the firmware update data, and

the update process section manages an update status including information representing that a backup has been completed and information representing that an update process has been completed in units of blocks acquired by dividing the old firmware and the new firmware into a plurality thereof in correspondence with a processing procedure of the update procedure document.

10. An information apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein, in a case of occurrence of a processing interruption, the information apparatus checks the update status, and identifies which processing procedure is being performed when the interruption has occurred,

refers to the update procedure document, and identifies the block in process according to the identified processing procedure, and

checks the writing back reference information, performs a data writing back process on the identified block in process, and makes the block be in a state before starting of the update process.

11. A program for causing a computer to function as the information apparatus according to claim 10.