System and method for updating and distributing information

• US 20060130046A1
• Filed: 01/19/2006
• Published: 06/15/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Neill, Patrick J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,719 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30003 Arrangements for executing specific machine instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30018 Bit or string instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30021 Compare instructions, e.g. Greater-Than, Equal-To, MINMAX
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30025 Format conversion instructions, e.g. Floating-Point to Integer, decimal conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3004 to perform operations on memory

Abstract

The present invention discloses efficient devices, systems, and methods for updating digital information sequences that are comprised by software (110a), devices (104a), and data (110c). In addition, these digital information sequences may be stored and used in various forms, including but not limited to files, memory locations, and/or embedded storage locations. The disclosed invention is thus suitable for updating many types of digital information sequences and in the context of updating software comprised of multiple files. Furthermore, the devices, systems, and methods described herein provide a developer skilled in the art with an improved ability to generate update information as needed and, additionally, allow users to proceed through a simplified update path, which is not error-prone, and may be performed more quickly than through the use of existing technologies.

Claims

1. A system for updating a plurality of distributed electronic devices with an updated operating code comprising a first plurality of digital information sequences wherein each of the plurality of electronic devices include a resident operating code comprising a second plurality of digital information sequences that are stored within the electronic device, the system comprising:

an update generator that compares an image of the first plurality of digital information sequences comprising the updated operating code to an image of the second plurality of digital information sequences comprising the resident operating code and identifies differences between the updated operating code and the resident operating code and thereafter generates an update package comprising an instruction set which specifies how to generate the updated operating code utilizing at least a portion of the second plurality of digital information sequences of the resident operating code;

a distribution system that distributes the update package to the electronic devices such that the update package is received by the electronic devices and stored therein; and

a plurality of client modules that are respectively resident on each of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the plurality of client modules access the distribution system and receive the update package and wherein the instruction set of the update package is executed by the client modules so as to generate the updated operating code by utilizing a least a portion of the second plurality of digital information sequences from the resident operating code.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the image of the updated operating code and the image of the resident operating code comprise substantially accurate representations of each respective code as it is stored in the electronic device such that information about the composition and position of the first and second plurality of digital information sequences is known by the update generator.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the update generator uses the information about the composition and position of the second plurality of digital information sequences to generate the instruction set and wherein application of the instruction set to the image of the resident operating code results in its transformation into the image of the updated operating code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified differences between the updated operating code and the resident operating code are assessed in a code-independent manner by directly comparing the respective code images and identifying discretely sized information patterns between the updated operating code and the resident operating code.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the discretely sized information patterns comprise information patterns that at least one byte in length.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the discretely sized information patterns comprise information patterns that are at least one bit in length.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the instruction set comprises a plurality of operations that access the second plurality of digital information sequences of the resident operating code and use these digital information sequences to generate at least a portion of the first plurality of digital information sequences by reusing and transforming the digital information sequences of the resident operating code into digital information sequences of the updated operating code.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein use of the instruction set reduces the size of the update package required to transform the resident operating code into the updated operating code by specifying operations which preferentially reuse the resident operating code present within the electronic device such that the size of the instruction set to be used in the update package is smaller than the size of the corresponding bit patterns used to transform the resident operating code into the updated operating code.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital information sequences comprise bit-wise patterns of information.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the update package is distributed by establishing a communication link between the distribution system and the electronic device over a communications medium.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the communications medium comprises a wireless network.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the communications medium comprises a wired network.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the communications medium comprises Internet-connected communications medium.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprise wireless devices selected from the group consisting essentially of:

mobile phones, cellular phones, personal digitals assistants, pagers, satellites, laptop computers, notebook computers and telematic devices.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprise electronic devices selected from the group consisting essentially of:

personal computers, server computers, desktop computers and telematic devices.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprise instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic devices.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprises a first collection of personalized information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of personalized information into a second collection of personalized information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first and second collections of personalized information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of personalized information.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the resident operating code comprise a first version of a software program and the updated operating code comprises a second version of the software program.

20. A system for updating an electronic device containing a first plurality of data sequences comprising a first code version to a second code version comprising a second plurality of data sequences using a update package comprising a plurality of transformation instructions which transform the first code version into the second code version, the system comprising:

an update generator that performs a version comparison between the first code version and the second code version to identify pattern differences between the first plurality of data sequences and the second plurality of data sequences, wherein the identified pattern differences are encoded using the transformation instructions which identify portions of the first plurality of data sequences that can be used in the construction of the identified pattern differences, and thereafter forming the update package using the transformation instructions;

a distribution system that receives the update package from the update generator and distributes the update package to the electronic device; and

an update agent resident on the electronic device that executes the transformation instructions of the update package thereby transforming the first code version resident in the electronic device into the updated second code version.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the transformation instructions of the update package are selected by evaluating an efficiency of applying one or more comparison functions to resolve the identified pattern differences in order to convert the first code version to the second code version.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the efficiency of the comparison functions are based upon the resulting size of the transformation instruction compared to the size of the pattern difference to which the transformation instruction applies.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the transformation instruction with the highest efficiency is selected by the update generator for incorporation in the update package.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the first and second code versions comprise instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic device.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein the first code version comprises a first collection of information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of information into a second collection of information represented in the second code version.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the first and second collections of information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of personalized information.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the first code version is a software program and the second code version comprises an updated version of the software program.

28. A system for updating a plurality of distributed electronic devices with an updated operating code that comprises a plurality of data blocks wherein each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices include a resident operating code that is stored as a plurality of data blocks, the system comprising:

an update generator that compares the plurality of data blocks of the resident operating code with the plurality of data blocks of the updated operating code and thereby generates an update package comprising an instruction set which indicates how to generate the updated operating code utilizing at least in part the plurality of data blocks of the resident operating code;

a distribution system that includes the update package and is accessible by each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices; and

a plurality of client modules that are respectively resident on each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices, wherein the plurality of client modules accesses the distribution system so as to be able to receive the update package, wherein the instruction set provides instructions to the client modules such that the client modules generates at least a portion of the plurality of data blocks comprising the updated operating code by utilizing the plurality of data blocks comprising the resident operating code.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the update generator compares the plurality of data blocks of the resident operating code and the plurality of data blocks of the updated operating code and identifies sequence differences between the operating codes.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the update generator forms the instruction set to efficiently transform the sequence differences between the operating codes using portions of the data blocks comprising the resident operating code to thereby reduce the size of the update package compared to directly including the sequence differences in the update package.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the sequence differences comprise bit-wise differences.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the sequence differences comprise byte-wise differences.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the distribution system and the plurality of distributed electronic devices exchange information over a communications medium.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein at least part of the information exchanged by the distribution system and the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprises the update package.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the communications medium comprises a wireless network.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the communications medium comprises a wired network.

37. The system of claim 33, wherein the communications medium comprises Internet-connected communications medium.

38. The system of claim 28, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprise wireless devices selected from the group consisting essentially of:

mobile phones, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, satellites, laptop computers, notebook computers and telematic devices.

39. The system of claim 28, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprise electronic devices selected from the group consisting essentially of:

personal computers, server computers, desktop computers and telematic devices.

40. The system of claim 28, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprises instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic devices.

41. The system of claim 28, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprises a first collection of personalized information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of personalized information into a second collection of personalized information.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the first and second collections of personalized information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of personalized information.

43. The system of claim 28, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of a software program and the updated operating code comprises a second version of the software program.

44. The system of claim 28, wherein the resident operating code conveys a first functionality to the electronic device and the updated operating code conveys a second functionality to the electronic device.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are the same functional species or application type.

46. The system of claim 44, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are different functional species or application types.

47. The system of claim 44, wherein the resident operating code and the updated operating code comprise different versions of the operating code.

48. The system of claim 28, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of firmware and the updated operating code comprises a second version of firmware.

49. A system for updating a plurality of distributed electronic devices with an updated operating code that comprises a plurality of data blocks wherein each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices include a resident operating code that is stored as a plurality of data blocks, the system comprising:

an update generator that compares the plurality of data blocks of the resident operating code with the plurality of data blocks of the updated operating code and thereby identifies update data blocks that are different between the updated operating code and the resident operating code wherein the update generator generates an update package comprising an instruction set which indicates how to transform the resident operating code into the updated operating code and how to generate the update data blocks utilizing at least in part the plurality of data blocks of the resident operating code;

a distribution system that includes the update package and is accessible by each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices; and

a plurality of client modules that are respectively resident on each of the plurality of distributed electronic devices, wherein the plurality of client modules accesses the distribution system so as to be able to receive the update package, wherein the instruction set provides instructions to the client modules such that the client modules modifies the resident operating code into the updated operating code and wherein the client modules generates at least a portion of the update data blocks by utilizing the received instruction set to perform operations on the data blocks of the resident operating code to generate the update data blocks.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the identified pattern differences between the first code version and the second code version have a discretely identifiable word size.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the word size of the pattern differences comprises at least one bit.

52. The system of claim 50, wherein the word size of the pattern differences comprises at least one byte.

53. The system of claim 50, wherein the update generator forms the transformation instructions which define how to convert the pattern differences between the first code version and second code version using a least a portion of the first code version which is transformed into the second code version.

54. The system of claim 49, wherein the distribution system and the plurality of distributed electronic devices exchange information over a communications medium.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein at least part of the information exchanged by the distribution system and the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprises the update package.

56. The system of claim 54, wherein the communications medium comprises a wireless network.

57. The system of claim 54, wherein the communications medium comprises a wired network.

58. The system of claim 54, wherein the communications medium is selected from the group consisting essentially of:

Internet-connected communications mediums, local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), public Internets, private Internets, private computer networks, secure Internets, private networks, public networks, value-added networks, and interactive television networks, wireless data transmission networks, two-way cable networks, interactive kiosk networks.

59. The system of claim 49, wherein the electronic device comprises a wireless device selected from the group consisting essentially of:

mobile phones, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, pagers, satellites, laptop computers, notebook computers, and telematic devices.

60. The system of claim 49, wherein the electronic device comprises a device selected from the group consisting essentially of:

personal computers, desktop computers, server computers and telematic devices.

61. The system of claim 49, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprise instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic device.

62. The system of claim 49, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first collection of information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of information into a second collection of information represented by the updated operating code.

63. The system of claim 62, wherein the first and second collections of information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of personalized information.

64. The system of claim 49, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of a software program and the updated operating code comprises a second version of the software program.

65. The system of claim 49, wherein the resident operating code conveys a first functionality to the plurality of electronic devices and the updated operating code conveys a second functionality to the plurality of electronic devices.

66. The system of claim 65, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are the same.

67. The system of claim 65, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are substantially different in nature.

68. The system of claim 49, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of firmware and the updated operating code comprises a second version of firmware.

69. A method of updating a resident operating code stored in a first storage section of an electronic device into an updated operating code, the method comprising:

(i) developing an update package comprising a plurality of transformation operations to transform the resident operating code into the updated operating code;

(ii) transferring the update package to the electronic device;

(iii) copying a portion of the resident operating code into a second storage section;

(iv) updating the portion of the resident operating code stored in the second storage section using the transformation operations of the update package to transform the resident operating code into updated operating code;

(v) replacing the portion of resident operating code stored in the first storage section with the portion of updated operating code stored in the second storage section; and

(vi) repeating acts (iii) through (v) until the resident operating code has been fully updated to the updated operating code.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein updating the portion of resident operating code stored in the second storage section comprises applying the transformation operations which utilize at least some of the resident operating code stored in the first storage section to transform the portion of resident operating code stored in the second storage section into the portion of updated operating code.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein updating the portion of the resident operating code further comprises replacing portions of the resident operating code stored in the first storage section by copying the updated operating code stored in the second storage section in place of portions of the resident operating code.

72. The method of claim 69, wherein developing the update package comprises generating a hash table containing one or more addresses representative of locations within the first storage section that contain resident operating code sequences that may be used to form the updated operating code by application of the transformation operations.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the updated operating code is generated by retrieving the resident operating code sequence corresponding to one or more particular addresses specified in the hash table and applying the transformation operation to the retrieved resident operating code sequence thereby transforming the resident operating code sequence into an updated operating code sequence.

74. The method of claim 69, wherein developing the update package further comprises:

assessing the efficiency of one of more different transformation operations to transform the resident operating code into the updated operating code; and

selecting transformation operations that increase the utilization of resident operation code to generate the updated operating code to thereby reduce the size of the update package.

75. The method of claim 69, wherein transferring the update package to the electronic device comprises sending the update package over a wireless communications medium.

76. The method of claim 69, wherein transferring the update package to the electronic device comprises sending the update package over a communications medium selected from the group consisting essentially of:

Internet-connected communications mediums, local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), public Internets, private Internets, private computer networks, secure Internets, private networks, public networks, value-added networks, interactive television networks, wireless data transmission networks, two-way cable networks, and interactive kiosk networks.

77. The method of claim 69, wherein updating the resident operating code stored in a first storage section comprises updating operating code stored in a non-volatile storage media.

78. The method of claim 77, wherein updating operating code stored in the non-volatile storage media comprises updating operating code stored in a flash memory storage medium.

79. The method of claim 77, wherein updating operating code stored in a non-volatile storage media comprises updating operating code stored in a storage medium selected from the group consisting essentially of:

hard drives, optical drives, tape drives, and EPROM devices.

80. The method of claim 69, wherein copying the portion of the resident operating code into a second storage section comprises copying the portion of the resident operating code into a volatile storage media.

81. The method of claim 80, wherein copying the portion of the resident operating code into a volatile storage media comprises copying the portion of resident operating code into a random access memory storage medium.

82. The method of claim 69, wherein updating the resident operating code stored in a first storage section comprises updating the resident operating code stored in subdivisions of the first storage section comprising a plurality of banks which contain the resident operating code.

83. The method of claim 82, wherein the portion of resident operating code copied into the second storage section corresponds to the resident operating code present in one or more banks from the first storage section.

84. The method of claim 82, wherein the transformation operations transform the resident operating code present in one or more banks of the first storage section into updated operating code.

85. The method of claim 69, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprise instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic device.

86. The method of claim 69, wherein the resident and updated operating code comprises a first collection of information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of information into a second collection of information.

87. The method of claim 86, wherein the first and second collections of information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of information.

88. The method of claim 69, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of a software program and the updated operating code comprises a second version of the software program.

89. The method of claim 69, wherein the resident operating code conveys a first functionality to the electronic device and the updated operating code conveys a second functionality to the electronic device.

90. The method of claim 89, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are selected from the same functional species or application type.

91. The method of claim 89, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are selected from different functional species or application types.

92. The method of claim 69, wherein the resident operating code comprises a first version of firmware and the updated operating code comprises a second version of firmware.

93. The method of claim 69, further comprising forming a copy of the downloaded update package in the first storage section prior to performing the transformation operations such that a non-volatile copy of the update package is available in the event of power failure or corruption during the update process.

94. The method of claim 69, further comprising forming a copy of the updated resident operating code section in the first storage section prior to replacing the original operating code section such that a non-volatile copy of the updated resident operating code section is available in the event of power failure or corruption during the update process.

95. An updatable electronic device comprising:

a non-volatile storage section having operating code stored therein;

a volatile storage section that is adapted to receive an update package comprising a plurality of instructions via a communications medium; and

a controller that implements the instructions of the update package to update the operating code stored in the non-volatile storage section wherein the controller is configured to sequentially (i) retrieve original portions of operating code from the non-volatile storage section into the volatile storage section and (ii) apply the instructions of the update package to the retrieved portions in the volatile storage section to thereby transform the retrieved original operating code portion into an updated operating code portion and then (iii) replace the original operating code portion with the updated operating code portion.

96. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the non-volatile storage section comprises flash memory storage medium.

97. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the non-volatile storage section comprises a storage medium selected from the group consisting essentially of:

hard drives, optical drives, tape drives, and EPROM devices.

98. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the volatile storage section comprises a random access memory storage medium.

99. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the communications medium comprises a wireless communications medium.

100. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the communications medium comprises a wired communications medium.

101. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the communications medium is selected from the group consisting essentially of:

an Internet-connected communications medium, local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), public Internets, private Internets, private computer networks, secure Internets, private networks, public networks, value-added networks, interactive television networks, wireless data transmission networks, two-way cable networks, and interactive kiosk networks.

102. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the non-volatile storage section is subdivided into a plurality of banks which contain the resident operating code.

103. The updatable electronic device of claim 102, wherein the portion of resident operating code retrieved into the volatile storage section corresponds to the resident operating code present in the one or more banks from the non-volatile storage section.

104. The updatable electronic device of claim 102, wherein the instructions transform the resident operating code present in one or more banks of the non-volatile storage section into updated operating code.

105. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the controller implements the instructions of the update package in a fault tolerant manner such that the updateable electronic device is protected from corruption of the resident operating code or the updated operating code.

106. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein one or more backup copies of the update package are maintained in the non-volatile storage section such that the update package is not lost as a result of power interruption or device fault.

107. The updatable electronic device of claim 106, wherein upon power interruption or device fault the controller restores information contained in the one or more backup copies of the update package and resumes updating at a point corresponding to a detected successfully completed operation before the power interruption occurred.

108. The updatable electronic device of claim 107, wherein the controller detects successfully competed operations using error correction codes or CRC codes to evaluate the resident and updated operating code and determine the progress of update installation.

109. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein one or more backup copies of the updated operating code are maintained in the non-volatile storage section such that the updated operating code is not lost as a result of power interruption or device fault.

110. The updatable electronic device of claim 109, wherein upon power interruption or device fault the controller restores information contained in the one or more backup copies of the updated operating code and resumes updating at a point corresponding to a detected successfully completed operation before the power interruption occurred.

111. The updatable electronic device of claim 110, wherein the controller detects successfully completed operations using error correction codes or CRC codes to evaluate the resident and updated operating code and determine the progress of update installation.

112. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein one or more backup copies of the resident operating code are maintained in the non-volatile storage section such that the resident operating code is not lost as a result of power interruption or device fault.

113. The updatable electronic device of claim 112, wherein upon power interruption or device fault the controller restores information contained in the one or more backup copies of the resident operating code and resumes updating at a point corresponding to a detected successfully completed operation before the power interruption occurred.

114. The updateable electronic device of claim 113, wherein the controller detects successfully completed operations using error correction codes or CRC codes to evaluate the resident and updated operating code and determine the progress of update installation.

115. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the original and updated operating code comprise instructions and information that form the operating system for the electronic device.

116. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the original operating code comprises a first collection of information stored in the electronic device that is updated to transform the first collection of information into a second collection of information represented by the updated operating code.

117. The updatable electronic device of claim 116, wherein the first and second collections of information comprise names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, directions and other types of personalized information.

118. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the original operating code comprises a first version of a software program and the updated operating code comprises a second version of the software program.

119. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the original operating code conveys a first functionality to the electronic device and the updated operating code conveys a second functionality to the electronic device.

120. The updatable electronic device of claim 119, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are the same.

121. The updatable electronic device of claim 119, wherein the first functionality and the second functionality are substantially different in nature.

122. The updatable electronic device of claim 95, wherein the original operating code comprises a first version of firmware and the updated operating code comprises a second version of firmware.

123. A method for remotely managing update of firmware or software in a wireless device over a network comprising at least one server having an update management component, and the wireless device, the method comprising:

under coordination of the update management component,

establishing communication between the at least one server and the wireless device via wireless means;

receiving, from the at least one server via the wireless means, a command to update firmware or software in the wireless device; and

executing the received command, wherein execution of the command performs specific operations related to downloading and installing update information at the wireless device, after verifying that the command can be executed.

124. The method according to claim 123, further comprising:

receiving update information at the wireless device via the wireless means, wherein the update information comprises at least one of the following;

information to fix bugs in firmware or software of the wireless device, and information to upgrade functionality of the wireless device;

entering an update state and updating the firmware or software using the update information;

automatically returning to a normal operational state of the wireless device, if the updating is successful; and

automatically maintaining the update state, if the updating is not successful.

125. The method according to claim 123, wherein the at least one server comprises an updating system, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from the updating system, update information associated with at least one of the following;

firmware or software installation, maintenance, and administration of the wireless device; and

conducting the at least one of the following;

firmware or software installation, maintenance, and administration of the device, using the received update information.