JP2009116772A - Optical disk device, and firmware update method for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical disk device adapted to receive status monitoring commands periodically issued by a host computer which smoothly performs firmware update by avoiding the situation where the host computer must be restarted on the firmware update. <P>SOLUTION: After firmware update, the firmware is restarted after a command periodically issued by an OS in a host computer is received and handled. The restart is also made in the absence of periodic commands for a fixed time (for example, three seconds) if the OS fails to issue periodic commands for some reasons. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an optical disk device and a firmware update method thereof, and more particularly, to an application for smoothly updating firmware of an optical disk device that is connected to a host computer and periodically transmits a command for monitoring the status. The present invention relates to a suitable optical disk device and a firmware update method thereof.

  In recent years, software called firmware has been widely introduced to control the operation of electronic devices. Firmware is software incorporated in a device to perform basic control of hardware, and is called firmware because it is intermediate between hardware and general software. The firmware is mounted on a personal computer (PC), a peripheral device, a home appliance, and the like, and is stored in a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM or a flash memory built in the device.

  Since the firmware is software, the contents of the nonvolatile memory built into the device can be rewritten and replaced with new ones in order to add functions or correct defects. This is called firmware update (firmware update). Recently, new firmware may be distributed by developers to add new functions or correct bugs. For this reason, there is a case where a function for receiving this over the Internet and rewriting it with a new one is incorporated. is there.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a method for updating an firmware by stopping an operating system for an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer.

JP 2002-244874 A

  In the case of a peripheral device connected to a host computer such as an optical disk device, an operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”) of the host computer periodically issues a command for monitoring the state of the peripheral device. For example, in the case of Microsoft Windows (registered trademark), a GET EVENT STATUS NOTIFICATION command is issued at intervals of one second.

  However, if the issued OS monitors the status of the peripheral device (hereinafter referred to as “periodic command”), there may be a problem if the firmware of the peripheral device is updated. This will be described in detail below.

In the optical disk apparatus, the procedure for updating the firmware is as follows.
(1) Confirm that there is no disk in the optical disk device (if there is a disk, do not proceed to (2) until ejected).
(2) The firmware update tool (firmware update tool) of the host computer transfers the firmware data from the host computer to the optical disc apparatus.
(3) The optical disc apparatus shifts to the firmware up mode (firmware update mode) (in this mode, the response with the host computer is limited).
(4) The optical disk device firmware rewrite program is flash-up executed (erasing the old firmware, writing the new firmware, and verifying)
(5) Rebooting firmware (reboot command may be used or after firmware updater update may be performed continuously).
(6) Release firmware up mode (normal operation with new firmware).

  Here, the host computer OS issues a periodic command even after shifting to the far-up mode according to the procedure of (3), but at least this command can respond during the firmware-up mode. It has become. Thereafter, the firmware is restarted according to the procedure of (5). If this restart coincides with the timing of OS periodic command issuance, the periodic command issued by the OS may not be recognized. In such a state, the OS keeps waiting for the end of the command, so a timeout error occurs. For this reason, the logical connection between the host computer and the optical disk apparatus is disconnected, and thereafter, the drive cannot be used until the host computer itself is reset or turned on again.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to restart a host computer at the time of firmware update in an optical disk apparatus in which a command for periodically monitoring the state is issued from the host computer. An object of the present invention is to provide an optical disc apparatus for avoiding a falling state and smoothly updating firmware.

  In the optical disk apparatus according to the present invention, when the firmware is restarted after the firmware update, it waits for reception of a command periodically issued from the OS of the host computer, and restarts after the completion of the command. . Also, in case the periodic command from the OS is not issued due to some reason, if the periodic command does not come even after waiting for a certain time (for example, 3 seconds), restart is executed. To do.

  According to the present invention, in an optical disc apparatus in which a command for periodically monitoring a state is issued from a host computer, a state in which the host computer is restarted when the firmware is updated can be avoided, and the firmware can be updated smoothly. An optical disk device can be provided.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

First, a system configuration of an optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The optical disc apparatus 10 is connected to the host computer 00 by, for example, ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) and can exchange commands and data. ATAPI is a data transfer system standard devised to connect devices other than hard disks such as CD-ROM drives and DVD-drives to IDE controllers.

  However, as an application range of the present invention, since it is a requirement to periodically receive a command for monitoring a state from the OS, other interfaces such as an interface such as SCSI, USB, and SATA can be used as long as this requirement is satisfied. Good.

  The host computer 00 has a configuration in which a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 01, a main memory 02, and an interface unit 03 are coupled by a bus. The interface unit 03 connects external devices such as the hard disk drive 40 and the optical disk device 10.

  The firmware upgrade tool 100 is software that updates the firmware of peripheral devices, is loaded from the hard disk drive 40 to the main memory 02, and is executed by the CPU01.

  The optical disk apparatus 10 includes an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 11, a flash ROM 12, an interface unit 13, a buffer 14, a decoder 15, a read channel 16, a photodetector 17, an encoder 18, a laser driver 19, a laser 20, a drive motor 21, and a servo. The unit 22 and the optical disc 30 are included.

  When data is written to the optical disk 30, the data held in the buffer 14 is encoded by the encoder 18, and the laser 20 is irradiated to the laser 20 from the optical disk 30 and written. The laser driver 19 controls the laser 20.

  When reading data from the optical disc 30, the laser 20 is irradiated with the laser from the optical disc 30, the irradiation light is detected by the photodetector 17, A / D converted by the read channel 16, and then by the decoder 15. Decode the data.

  The read channel 16 generates a control signal for positioning and transmits it to the servo unit 22. The servo unit 22 transmits information to the drive motor 22 of the optical disc 30 and a thread motor (not shown) for optical pickup, and performs control for appropriate writing and reading.

  The MPU 11 controls each part of the optical disc apparatus 10. Also, the firmware update program 102 is executed to rewrite the firmware on the flash ROM 12.

  The flash ROM 12 is a rewritable nonvolatile memory, and stores a firmware update program 102 and firmware 101.

  When the firmware update program 102 is executed by the MPU 11, it is once loaded into the buffer 14 and executed. When updating the firmware, the firmware data sent by the firmware upgrade tool 100 of the host computer 00 is stored in the buffer 14, and written in the flash ROM 12 by the MPU 11 executing the firmware update program 102.

Next, firmware update processing of the optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the firmware update process of the optical disc apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a part of firmware update processing of a conventional optical disc apparatus for comparison.
FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the timing of firmware update processing of the optical disc apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention and the timing of firmware update processing of the conventional optical disc apparatus.

  First, when performing a firmware update process, the firmware update tool of the host computer 00 checks whether or not a disk is mounted on the optical disk apparatus 10 (S100), and issues a command for inquiring the optical disk apparatus 10 about the presence or absence of the disk. Issue. In response to this, the optical disk apparatus 10 reports the presence or absence of a disk to the host computer 00 (S101). When the disk is mounted on the optical disk device 10, if necessary, a message “Please remove the disk” is output on a display device (not shown), and the process returns to S100.

  When the disc is not mounted on the optical disc apparatus 10, firmware data for updating is transmitted to the optical disc apparatus 10 (S102), and the optical disc apparatus 10 receives it (S201).

  Then, the firmware tool 100 gives an instruction to start the firmware update program 102 (S103), and shifts to the firmware mode (S203).

  Next, the firmware update program 102 performs firmware update (firmware upgrade) (S204). That is, the old version of firmware in the flash ROM 12 is erased, the firmware data stored in the buffer 14 is written into the flash ROM 12, and verification is performed.

  The host computer 00 waits for notification of the end of firmware update from the optical disk device 10 (S104).

  When an end notification is received, a firmware restart request is made (S105).

  Here, as shown in FIG. 3, in the firmware update of the prior art, upon receiving this restart request, the firmware is restarted (S207) and the firmware up mode is canceled (S208).

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, when a firmware restart request is received, the end of reception of a periodic command is awaited (S205).

  After that, the firmware is restarted (S207), and the firmware up mode is canceled (S208).

  In the case of Windows, if the command is issued immediately after a periodic command is issued, the next command does not come for a little less than 1 second, so if the firmware is restarted in the meantime, It is safe. Incidentally, since the time required for restarting is about several milliseconds, there is a sufficient margin.

  Also, in case the periodic command is not issued from the OS for some reason, if the periodic command does not come even after waiting for a certain time (for example, 3 seconds), restart the firmware Is executed (S206).

  After that, the normal operation is performed.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, in the firmware update according to the prior art, the optical disk device 10 is periodically updated when a restart request is received from the firmware upgrade tool and when the firmware restart timing is shared. The host computer 00 was unable to respond to the command and timed out waiting for a response, and recognized that the system was abnormal.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4B, when a restart request is received from the firmware upgrade tool, a periodic command is waited for, so there is no possibility that the command will be lost. Further, even if there is an abnormality in the host computer 00 for some reason and the periodic command is not sent, it is surely restarted in order to wait for a certain time and restart the firmware.

  In the above description, the optical disk device has been described as an example. However, the present invention can also be applied to the case where firmware is updated by another peripheral device that periodically receives a command for inquiring about the state of the device from the OS. .

1 is a system configuration diagram of an optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing firmware update processing of the optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows a part of firmware update process of the conventional optical disk apparatus for comparison. 6 is a timing chart showing the timing of firmware update processing of an optical disc apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and the timing of firmware update processing of a conventional optical disc apparatus in comparison.

Explanation of symbols

  00 ... Host computer, 01 ... CPU, 02 ... Main memory, 03 ... Interface unit, 40 ... Hard disk drive, 10 ... Optical disk device, 11 ... MPU, 12 ... Flash ROM, 13 ... Interface unit, 14 ... Buffer, 15 ... Decoder , 16 ... Read channel, 17 ... Photo detector, 18 ... Encoder, 19 ... Laser driver, 20 ... Laser, 21 ... Drive motor, 22 ... Servo unit, 30 ... Optical disc.

Claims (2)

In an optical disc apparatus connected to a host computer and receiving a command for periodically monitoring the state from the host computer,
An optical disc apparatus comprising control means for restarting firmware when firmware update is completed and the command is received or when a predetermined time has elapsed. In a method for updating the firmware of an optical disc device connected to a host computer and receiving a command for periodically monitoring the status from the host computer,
(1) a procedure in which the optical disc apparatus receives firmware data from the host computer;
(2) the optical disc apparatus transitions to a firmware update mode;
(3) a procedure for writing the firmware data to the nonvolatile memory of the optical disc device;
(4) the optical disc apparatus receiving a firmware restart request from the host computer;
(5) The optical disc apparatus receives a command for periodically monitoring the status from the host computer;
(6) The optical disc apparatus restarts the firmware;
(7) The optical disc apparatus includes a procedure for releasing the firmware update mode,
After receiving the command for periodically monitoring the status from the host computer after receiving the command for monitoring the status from the host computer for a certain period of time after the procedure of (4), or The firmware update method for an optical disc apparatus, wherein the procedure (6) is performed when a predetermined time has elapsed.

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