TWI389032B - Portable communication device and method of updating the firmware of the portable communication device and system - Google Patents

Description

Portable communication device and firmware updating method and system thereof

The present invention relates to a firmware updating method and system, and more particularly to a portable communication device and a firmware updating method and system thereof.

At present, the general smart phone has a two-processor architecture. One of the two processors is mainly used to process a general application, which is called an application CPU, and the other processor is mainly used in It is called a data processor (Modem CPU) for handling network applications such as calls. Most of the data processors come in the form of independent modules. Generally speaking, the application processor and the data processor are provided by different vendors, so the update tool of the smart phone firmware is usually independent. Therefore, whether in the development technology of the firmware update program or the test of the smart phone production line, different tools must be used to separately update and test the application processor and data processor inside the smart phone. In fact, there are inconveniences in its use.

In view of the various problems of the prior art, the inventors have proposed a portable communication device and a firmware updating method and system thereof based on years of research and development and many practical experiences, in order to improve the above disadvantages. Ways and basis.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a portable communication device and a firmware updating method and system thereof, so as to solve the problem that the firmware of the portable communication device is not easily updated in the prior art. problem.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method for updating the firmware of the portable communication device, and the method steps are as follows. First, one of the communication devices of the portable communication device is electrically connected to an electronic device. The electronic device downloads the general application and stores it in the first storage unit of one of the portable communication devices. Download a communication application stored in the first storage unit. Transmitting and storing the communication application in the first storage unit to the second storage unit. Finally, the first processing unit and the second processing unit of the portable communication device respectively execute the general application and the communication application for firmware update.

In addition, the present invention further proposes a firmware update system. It includes at least one electronic device and one portable communication device. The electronic device has at least one general application and a communication application. The portable communication device includes a first storage unit, a second storage unit, a communication port, a first processing unit and a second processing unit. The communication port is connected to the electronic device to download the general application and communication application and store it to the first storage unit. The first processing unit transmits and stores the communication application in the first storage unit to the second storage unit, and the first processing unit executes a general application, and the second processing unit executes the communication application stored in the second storage unit. .

In addition, the present invention further provides a portable communication device including a first module and a second module. The first module includes a communication port, a first storage unit, and a first processor. The second module includes a second storage unit, a second processor, and a communication interface. When the firmware update program is executed, at least one general application, a communication application, and an auxiliary application of an electronic device are downloaded and stored in the first storage unit, and the auxiliary application is executed by the first processor. To establish a bridge between the first storage unit and the second storage unit, thereby transferring and storing the communication application to the second storage unit for firmware update.

According to the present invention, the portable communication device and the firmware updating method and system thereof have the following advantages: the firmware of the portable communication device can be bridged by the first storage unit and the second The storage unit is used to solve the problem that the firmware update needs to download the update program from the electronic device separately. Thereby, to improve the efficiency and convenience when updating the firmware.

For a better understanding and understanding of the technical features and the efficacies of the present invention, the preferred embodiments and the detailed description are as follows.

11~S17‧‧‧Step process

S21~S242‧‧‧Step process

3‧‧‧Portable communication device

30‧‧‧Electronic devices

31‧‧‧ first module

32‧‧‧ second module

33‧‧‧Communication connection埠

34‧‧‧First storage unit

35‧‧‧First Processing Unit

36‧‧‧Second storage unit

37‧‧‧Second processing unit

38‧‧‧Communication interface

391‧‧‧General application

392‧‧‧Communication application

393‧‧‧Auxiliary application

1 is a flow chart of steps of a method for updating a firmware of a portable communication device of the present invention; and FIG. 2 is a flow chart of steps for executing a supplementary application program of the portable communication device of the present invention; and FIG. It is a functional block diagram of the portable communication device and its firmware update system of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a portable communication device and a firmware updating method and system thereof according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the related drawings. For ease of understanding, the same components in the following embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals. Description.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a flow chart of the steps of the firmware update method of the smart portable communication device of the present invention. The process of the steps is as follows. First, the portable communication device is electrically connected to the communication interface of an electronic device through a communication connection for program downloading (step S11). The electronic device is preferably a computer and portable. The communication device can be a smart phone, and the communication port is preferably a universal serial bus (USB).

Then, one of the general applications downloaded after the electronic device is connected is stored in the first storage unit of one of the portable communication devices (step S12). Next, it is determined whether the portable communication device needs to download a communication application (step S13), and if so, the communication application is downloaded and stored in the first storage unit (step S14). Then, an auxiliary application is downloaded, and the auxiliary application is executed to establish a bridge between the first storage unit and a second storage unit (step S15). In this embodiment, the auxiliary application is downloaded from the electronic device to the first storage unit, and the auxiliary processing program is executed by the first processing unit of the portable communication device to establish a bridge between the first storage unit and the second storage unit.

After the connection between the first storage unit and the second storage unit is established, the communication application in the first storage unit is transferred to the second storage unit and simultaneously stored in the second storage unit (step S16).

Finally, the first application unit and the second processing unit respectively execute the general application and the communication application to perform firmware update (step S17). In this embodiment, the first processing unit is an application processor (Application CPU) to execute a general application in the portable electronic device. The second processing unit is a data processor (Modem CPU), which is mainly used to execute a network application in the portable electronic device, so that the portable electronic device can communicate with the data processor of another communication device. .

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a flow chart of the steps of the portable communication device of the present invention for executing the auxiliary application. In the figure, the firmware is disposed on a portable communication device, and the auxiliary application is connected to a computer through a communication connection of the portable communication device, and downloads the auxiliary application. Among them, the communication port is preferably USB. First, the auxiliary application is downloaded into the memory of the application processor module, and the application processor module and the data processing module are connected through the bridge (step S21). The auxiliary application starts the data processing module through the internal general purpose input interface (General Purpose I/O, GPIO) (step S22), and the data processing module starts to transmit the sync byte to the bridge (Bridge). Waiting for the auxiliary application to respond to an Affirmative Acknowledgement (ACK) (step S23).

After the data processing module is started, it is determined whether the auxiliary application receives an affirmative response within a preset time (generally 50 ms, different platform time interval definitions are different). If the positive response of the auxiliary application is received within the preset time, the user enters the stage of downloading the communication application (step S241); otherwise, if the auxiliary application does not receive the positive response within the preset time, then A general startup procedure (step S242). At this point, a basic communication connection is established, and the auxiliary application is used to download the memory code to the memory of the data processing module through the bridge. The memory code re-establishes the communication connection between the data processing module and the auxiliary application. In this way, the auxiliary application can download the communication application downloaded into the storage unit of the application processing module (or stored in the random access memory) into the storage unit of the data processing module through the memory encoding. .

In the present invention, the auxiliary application structure is relatively simple and similar to the mode of downloading data to the data processing module on the computer, and the memory encoding mentioned in the above is assembled, mainly for pre-downloading the memory encoding to The memory of the data processing module is then used to establish a communication link with the data processing module through the memory encoding, and then segmentally send the data to the memory encoding, and the memory encoding is completed to write to the storage unit of the data processing module. .

Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a block diagram of the firmware update system of the present invention. The firmware update system includes an electronic device 30 and a portable communication device 3. The electronic device 30 is preferably a computer having at least one general application 391, a communication application 392 and an auxiliary application 393. The portable communication device 3 includes at least a communication port 33, a first storage unit 34, a first processing unit 35, a second storage unit 36, a second processing unit 37, and a communication interface 38.

For convenience of description, the communication port 33, the first storage unit 34, and the first processing unit 35 are referred to herein as the first module 31, and the second storage unit 36, the second processing unit 37, and the communication interface 38 are referred to as The second module 32. The communication port 33 is preferably a USB, and the first processing unit 35 is preferably an application processor. The second processing unit 37 is preferably a data processor (Modem CPU) for communicating with a data processor of another communication device. The communication interface 38 is a universal asynchronous transmit receive (UART) interface for receiving transmit signals.

The first module 31 can be referred to as a program application module, and the second module 32 can be referred to as a data application module. Mainly connected to an electronic device 30 via the communication port 33 of the first module 31 to download the general application 391 to the first storage unit 34. When it is determined that the second module 32 of the electronic device 30 needs to be updated, the communication application 392 is further downloaded to the first storage unit 34, and an auxiliary application 393 is downloaded.

In the embodiment, when the first processing unit 35 executes the auxiliary application 393 downloaded from the electronic device 30, the first storage unit 34 and the second storage unit 37 are bridged, and the communication application 392 in the first storage unit 34 is used. Transfer to the second storage unit 37 through the bridge. Thereafter, the first processing unit 35 executes the general application 391, and the second processing unit 36 executes the communication application 392 to perform firmware update on the portable communication device 3.

The above is intended to be illustrative only and not limiting. Any equivalent modifications or alterations to the spirit and scope of the invention are intended to be included in the scope of the appended claims.

S11~S17‧‧‧Step procedure

Claims (20)

A method for updating a firmware of a portable communication device, comprising the steps of: electrically connecting one of the communication devices of the portable communication device to an electronic device; downloading a general application from the electronic device to the portable device a first storage unit of the communication device; downloading a communication application and an auxiliary application from the electronic device and storing the same in the first storage unit; and executing the auxiliary by using the first processing unit of the portable communication device An application to bridge the first storage unit and the second storage unit of the portable communication device; transfer and store the communication application in the first storage unit to the second storage unit; and utilize the The first processing unit executes the general application and executes the communication application by using a second processing unit of the portable communication device to perform firmware update. The method for updating firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein in the step of establishing a bridge between the first storage unit and the second storage unit, the communication interface is used to establish the first A storage unit is bridged with the second storage unit. The method for updating firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 2, wherein the communication interface comprises a Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) interface. The method for updating the firmware of the portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the step of downloading the general application from the electronic device to the first storage unit further comprises determining the portable type. Whether the communication device needs to download the communication application. The method for updating a firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the portable communication device is a smart phone. The method for updating a firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a computer. The firmware updating method of the portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the first processing unit is an application processor. The method for updating firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the second processing unit is a data processor (Modem CPU). The method for updating firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 8, wherein the data processor is further configured to communicate with a data processor of another communication device. The method for updating firmware of a portable communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication port is a universal serial bus (USB). A firmware update system includes: an electronic device having at least one general application, a communication application, and an auxiliary application; and a portable communication device including: a first storage unit; a second a storage unit; a communication port for connecting the electronic device to download the general application, the communication application and the auxiliary application, and storing the same to the first storage unit; and a first processing unit executing the auxiliary application The program establishes a bridge between the first storage unit and the second storage unit, and transmits and stores the communication application in the first storage unit to the second storage unit, and the first processing unit performs the general And the second processing unit executes the communication application stored in the second storage unit for firmware update. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the portable communication device further comprises a communication interface for bridging the first storage unit and the second storage unit. The firmware update system of claim 12, wherein the communication interface comprises a Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) interface. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the portable communication device is a smart phone. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the electronic device is a computer. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the first processing unit is an application processor. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the second processing unit is a data processor (Modem CPU). The firmware update system of claim 17, wherein the data processor is further configured to communicate with a data processor of another communication device. The firmware update system of claim 11, wherein the communication link is a Universal Serial Bus (USB). A portable communication device includes: a first module including a first storage unit and a first processor; and a second module including a second storage unit and a second processor When the firmware update program is executed, at least one general application, a communication application, and an auxiliary application of an electronic device are downloaded and stored in the first storage unit, and the first processor executes the An auxiliary application for establishing a bridge between the first storage unit and the second storage unit, thereby transmitting and storing the communication application to the second storage unit, and executing the communication application by the second processor For firmware update.