TWI521435B - Electronic apparatus and firmware updating method thereof - Google Patents

Description

Electronic device and firmware update method thereof

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for firmware renewal, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for fragmenting a firmware to perform firmware renewal.

Soft firmware is the soul of information products, and firmware update is the most common thing for software engineers. For the product user, when the product used is in a bug or the need to improve the performance, the firmware update action is also required.

The firmware update usually uses a new version of the firmware image through a physical transmission medium, such as a flash drive, a CD, a memory card, etc., or a network transmission protocol, such as the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP). Or a simple file transfer protocol (TFTP), transmitted to the system memory of the product (such as random access memory), and then written to the firmware storage medium (such as flash memory). After rebooting, you can complete the firmware update.

However, when the size of the firmware image is large, the firmware update usually takes a considerable amount of time. For software engineers, it takes a long time to affect the development time of the product. For product users, it takes a long time to make the user lose patience and restart the system. If the firmware update is not completed, the system will crash (can not be turned on).

The invention provides an electronic device and a firmware updating method thereof, which can speed up the firmware renewal.

The firmware updating method of the present invention is applicable to an electronic device having a storage unit and a temporary storage unit, wherein the storage unit stores the firmware. This method obtains the updated firmware and stores the updated firmware in the temporary storage unit. Next, the update firmware is divided into a plurality of consecutive sectors, wherein the sectors of the updated firmware are mapped to successive consecutive sectors of the storage unit. Then, comparing the contents of the corresponding sectors of the firmware and the corresponding sectors in the storage unit, and determining whether they are the same, and when the judgment is different, erasing the data of the corresponding sector, and updating the firmware. This sector data is copied to this corresponding sector.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the comparing the contents of the corresponding sectors of the firmware and the corresponding sectors in the storage unit, and determining whether the same step is to check the matching of the sectors of the firmware. Checksum sums with the corresponding sectors in the storage unit to determine whether the contents of the corresponding sectors of the updated firmware and the corresponding sectors in the storage unit are the same.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the comparing the contents of the corresponding sector of the firmware and the corresponding sector in the storage unit, and determining whether the same step is to compare the firmware in the sector. a checksum of a plurality of consecutive first sectors and a checksum of a plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit to determine to update the first sectors of the firmware and the first corresponding fans in the storage unit Whether the contents of the area are the same, wherein if they are the same, it is determined that the first sectors of the updated firmware are the same as the contents of the first corresponding sectors in the storage unit; if different, the first of the firmware updates are continued. A checksum of a plurality of consecutive second sectors in the sector and a checksum of a plurality of consecutive second corresponding sectors in the first corresponding sectors in the storage unit to determine the updated firmware The two sectors are identical to the contents of the second corresponding sectors in the storage unit, wherein the number of the second sectors is less than the number of the first sectors.

The electronic device of the present invention includes a storage unit for storing the firmware, a transmission interface for obtaining the updated firmware, a temporary storage unit for temporarily storing the updated firmware obtained by the transmission interface, and a coupling storage unit and a transmission interface. And the processor of the temporary storage unit. The processor divides the update firmware temporarily stored in the temporary storage unit into a plurality of consecutive sectors, wherein the sectors of the updated firmware are mapped to a plurality of consecutive corresponding sectors of the storage unit. Then, the processor compares the contents of the corresponding sectors of the firmware and the corresponding sectors in the storage unit, and when the judgment is different, erases the data of the corresponding sector, and updates the fan of the firmware. The area data is copied to this corresponding sector.

In an embodiment of the invention, the processor is configured to check the verification of each sector of the firmware and the corresponding sector in the storage unit. And, to determine whether the content of the corresponding sector of the updated firmware and the corresponding sector in the storage unit are the same.

In an embodiment of the invention, the processor compares the collation of a plurality of consecutive first sectors in the sectors of the updated firmware with the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit. Checking the sum to determine whether the content of the first sector of the updated firmware is the same as the content of the first corresponding sectors in the storage unit, and when determining the same, determining to update the first sector and the storage unit of the firmware The contents of the first corresponding sectors are the same, and when the judgment is different, the collation of the consecutive plurality of second sectors in the first sectors of the updated firmware is continued and the first correspondences with the storage units are And a checksum of the plurality of consecutive second corresponding sectors in the sector to determine whether the second sectors of the updated firmware are identical to the contents of the second corresponding sectors in the storage unit, wherein the The number of two sectors is less than the number of the first sectors.

Based on the above, the electronic device and the firmware updating method thereof according to the present invention divide the obtained updated firmware into a plurality of sectors according to the minimum erasing unit of the memory of the storage firmware, and determine the contents of the sectors by determining the contents of the sectors. Whether or not the contents of the corresponding sectors in the memory are the same, whether or not to update the data of the sectors to the corresponding sectors in the memory. Thereby, the number of erases of the memory and the time of copying the data can be effectively reduced, thereby speeding up the firmware update.

The above described features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.

10‧‧‧Electronic devices

12‧‧‧ storage unit

14‧‧‧Transport interface

16‧‧‧Scratch unit

18‧‧‧ processor

32‧‧‧Update firmware

34‧‧‧ storage unit

S202~S212‧‧‧ steps of the firmware updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention.

2 is a flow chart of a firmware update method according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of updating a corresponding sector in a firmware and a storage unit according to an embodiment of the invention.

The firmware update process can be divided into three parts: obtaining the updated firmware, erasing the memory, and copying and updating the firmware to the memory. The research found that the most time-consuming part is to erase the memory. The second is to copy and update the firmware data. Since the memory is in the sector (sector) when performing data erasing and copying, the present invention first determines which sectors of the data are necessary to be written before performing the above steps of erasing and copying data. And erasing and copying only the data of the corresponding sector in the memory, thereby effectively saving the time spent on the firmware update.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the electronic device 10 of the embodiment includes a storage unit 12, a transmission interface 14, a temporary storage unit 16, and a processor 18. The functions are as follows:

The storage unit 12 is, for example, a read only memory (ROM), a programmable read only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), and an electronic Erase rewritable read-only memory (Electrically Non-volatile memory such as Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), NAND-type flash memory (Flash memory) or reverse or gate type (NOR-type) flash memory To store the firmware of the electronic device 10.

The transmission interface 14 is, for example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, which can be connected to an external flash drive, a memory card reader, etc., to obtain an updated firmware image. In addition, the transmission interface 14 can also be a network interface card supporting a network protocol such as a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) or a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). Connect to an external server and download the firmware from the server.

The temporary storage unit 16 is, for example, a volatile memory such as a random access memory (RAM), and is used to temporarily store the updated firmware obtained by the electronic device 10 using the transmission interface 14.

The processor 18 is, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), or another programmable general purpose or special purpose microprocessor (Microprocessor), a digital signal processor (DSP), and a programmable program. The application controller, the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or other similar components or a combination of the above components are coupled to the storage unit 12, the transmission interface 14 and the temporary storage unit 16, and can implement the implementation of the present invention. Example firmware update method.

2 is a flow chart of a firmware update method according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 simultaneously, the method of the embodiment is applicable to the above electronic The detailed flow of the method of the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the components of the electronic device 10 of FIG.

First, the electronic device 10 obtains the updated firmware by using the transmission interface 14 via the control of the processor 18, and stores the updated firmware in the temporary storage unit 16 (step S202). The electronic device 10 is connected to an external flash drive, a memory card reader, or the like by using a USB interface to obtain an updated firmware, or a network card is used to connect to an external server to download and update the firmware. There is no restriction on how to obtain firmware.

Next, the processor 18 divides the updated firmware stored in the temporary storage unit 16 into a plurality of consecutive sectors, wherein the sector of the updated firmware is mapped to a plurality of consecutive corresponding fans of the storage unit 12. Zone (step S204). The size of the above-mentioned sector is, for example, a minimum unit when the storage unit 12 performs data erasing and copying, wherein the comparison of the updated firmware into a plurality of sectors corresponding to the storage unit 12 will facilitate the comparison of subsequent materials. And updates.

In detail, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of updating a firmware and a storage unit relative to a sector according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, the update unit 32 is divided into N sectors (m_sector[0]~m_sector[N-1]) according to the minimum unit for data erasing and copying according to the storage unit 34, and the N sectors are associated with The N corresponding sectors (n_sector[0]~n_sector[N-1]) of the storage unit 34 are mapped. In the embodiment of the present invention, whether or not the content of the sectors in the storage unit 34 is erased and updated is determined by comparing whether the contents of the sectors that are opposite each other are the same.

Returning to the flow of Figure 2, the processor 18 will then compare the various firmware updates. The contents of the sector corresponding to the corresponding sector in the storage unit 12 (step S206), and whether or not the same is determined (step S208). The processor 18 determines, for example, by comparing the checksums of the updated sectors of the firmware and the checksums of the corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12 to determine the updated sectors and storage units of the firmware. Whether the contents of the corresponding sectors in 12 are the same.

It should be noted that, in an embodiment, the processor 18 can compare the checksums of multiple sectors at a time, thereby speeding up the comparison, thereby saving the firmware update time. In detail, the processor 18 compares, for example, the checksum of the plurality of consecutive first sectors in the firmware and the checksum of the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12 to determine the updated firmware. Whether these first sectors are identical to the contents of these first corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12. If the same, the processor 18 can determine that the first sectors of the updated firmware are the same as the contents of the first corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12, so that the erasing and updating of the sector data are not performed; If not, the processor 18 will continue to compare the collation of a plurality of consecutive second sectors in the first sector with successive ones of the first corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12. A checksum of the second corresponding sectors is used to determine whether the contents of the second sectors and the second corresponding sectors in the storage unit 12 are the same. The number of the second sectors is less than the number of the first sectors.

For example, the processor can compare the collation of 8 consecutive sectors at a time, and if the firmware and the matching of the 8 sectors in the storage unit are updated and identical, it can be determined that the contents of the eight sectors are the same. Without the erasing and updating of the data. On the other hand, if the check and the difference of the 8 sectors are different, it can be determined that there are some sectors among the 8 sectors. The content of the processor is different. At this time, the processor can divide the 8 sectors into the first 4 and the last 4 sectors to continue the comparison, and judge the fans according to the comparison of the 4 sectors and the same. Whether the content of the area is the same and whether the data of these sectors is erased and updated. By analogy, if the checksums of the four sectors are still different, the checksum of the two sectors and one sector can be continued until all sectors having different checksums are determined. By the above method, the sectors with different contents can be quickly found, thereby erasing and updating the sector data.

Returning to the flow of FIG. 2, in step S208, when the processor 18 determines that the sector contents are the same, it continues to determine whether the sector is the last sector of the updated firmware (step S210). If it is not the last sector, then returning to step S206, it is continued whether the content of the corresponding sector of the updated firmware and the corresponding sector in the storage unit 12 is the same; otherwise, if it is the last sector , then the firmware update process is ended.

On the other hand, in step S208, when the processor 18 determines that the sector contents are different, the data of the corresponding sector in the storage unit 12 is erased, and the sector data of the updated firmware is copied to the corresponding fan. The area (step S212), thereby completing the update of the sector data. Next, the processor 18 will continue to determine whether the sector is the last sector of the updated firmware (step S210), thereby deciding whether to perform the determination and update of the next sector, or to end the firmware update process.

By the above method, the electronic device can find the sector with the changed data and update it in a short time, and since only the sector with the changed data is updated, the cost for updating the other sectors can be omitted. Time, thus speeding up the firmware The speed of the update.

In summary, the electronic device and the firmware updating method of the present invention determine whether the contents of the corresponding sectors in the memory and the memory are the same before the data is erased and copied to the memory, thereby eliminating the The sector data that needs to be written achieves the purpose of effectively reducing the number of erases of the memory and the time of data copying, and speeding up the firmware update.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention, and any one of ordinary skill in the art can make some changes and refinements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

S202~S212‧‧‧ steps of the firmware updating method according to an embodiment of the present invention

Claims (6)

A firmware updating method is applicable to an electronic device having a storage unit and a temporary storage unit, wherein the storage unit stores a firmware, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a new firmware and storing the firmware in the temporary storage unit; Distinguishing the updated firmware into a plurality of consecutive sectors, wherein the sector of the updated firmware is mapped to a plurality of consecutive corresponding sectors of the storage unit; compared to each of the updated firmware Determining whether the sector is the same as the content of the corresponding sector in the storage unit; and if not, erasing the data of the corresponding sector, and copying the data of the sector of the updated firmware to the Corresponding sector. The firmware updating method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the same is the same as the content of the corresponding sector in the sector corresponding to the updated firmware and determining whether the same is included Comparing the checksum of each of the sectors of the update firmware with the checksum of the corresponding sector in the storage unit to determine each of the sectors of the updated firmware and the Whether the contents of the corresponding sectors in the storage unit are the same. The firmware updating method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the same is the same as the content of the corresponding sector in the sector corresponding to the updated firmware and determining whether the same is included : checking and comparing a plurality of consecutive first sectors in the sector of the update firmware And the collation of the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit to determine the plurality of first sectors of the updated firmware and the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit Whether the contents are the same, wherein if they are the same, determining that the plurality of first sectors of the updated firmware are the same as the contents of the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit; and if different, continuing to compare And the consecutive plurality of consecutive ones of the plurality of second sectors of the plurality of first sectors of the update firmware and the plurality of first corresponding sectors of the storage unit And the checksum of the second corresponding sector to determine whether the content of the plurality of second sectors of the updated firmware and the plurality of second corresponding sectors in the storage unit are the same, wherein the plurality of The number of second sectors is less than the number of the plurality of first sectors. An electronic device includes: a storage unit for storing a firmware; a transmission interface for obtaining a firmware; a temporary storage unit for temporarily storing the updated firmware obtained by the transmission interface; and a processor coupled The storage unit, the transmission interface, and the temporary storage unit distinguish that the updated firmware temporarily stored in the temporary storage unit is a plurality of consecutive sectors, wherein the sector of the updated firmware is mapped to the storage a plurality of consecutive corresponding sectors of the unit, the processor erasing the corresponding content of the corresponding sector in the storage unit and the corresponding sector in the storage unit, and erasing the corresponding content when the determination is different The data of the sector, and copy the data of the sector of the updated firmware to the corresponding sector. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the processor is Determining each of the sectors of the updated firmware and the storage unit by comparing the checksum of each of the sectors of the update firmware with the checksum of the corresponding sector in the storage unit Whether the content of the corresponding sector is the same. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the processor is more than a plurality of consecutive first sectors in the sector of the update firmware and a plurality of opposite ones of the storage unit And the checksum of the first corresponding sector to determine whether the content of the plurality of first sectors of the updated firmware and the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit are the same, and when the judgment is the same Determining that the plurality of first sectors of the updated firmware are identical to the contents of the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit, and continuing to compare the modified firmware when the determination is different The check of the plurality of consecutive second sectors of the plurality of first sectors and the consecutive plurality of second corresponding sectors of the plurality of first corresponding sectors in the storage unit And determining to determine whether the plurality of second sectors of the updated firmware are identical to contents of the plurality of second corresponding sectors in the storage unit, wherein the number of the plurality of second sectors is less than The number of the plurality of first sectors.