The present invention relates to a display control device, and more particularly, to a display control device capable of automatically updating firmware and method thereof.
Professional technicians are needed in operating devices and special software for updating firmware for a conventional display control device, such as a monitor or a television. It is hard for end users to proceed firmware update. For example, to update the firmware for a monitor with a VGA connector, a professional technician needs to bring a laptop and connects a printer port from the laptop to the VGA connector of the monitor via an I2C adaptor circuit board. A special program is executed on the laptop and codes are written into the monitor for updating the firmware. The procedure is rather time consuming and inconvenient.
In view of the foregoing issues, one object of the invention is to provide a display control device capable of automatically updating firmware and method thereof, so as to update the firmware of the display control device automatically.
Another object of the invention is to provide a display control device capable of automatically updating firmware and an update method thereof, so as to update the firmware of the display control device quickly and reduce user waiting time.
The present invention discloses a display control device capable of automatically updating firmware. The device comprises a transmission interface unit, a memory interface unit, a non-volatile memory interface unit, a first direct memory access (DMA) unit, a second DMA unit and a controller. The transmission interface unit is coupled to a code-providing unit for providing an updated code of the firmware. After detecting that the transmission interface unit is coupled to the code-providing unit, the controller automatically and temporarily stores the updated code provided by the code-providing unit into a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and further writes the updated code to the non-volatile memory, thereby accomplishing automatic firmware update of the display control device.
The present invention further discloses a method of automatically updating a firmware for a display control device, comprising steps of detecting an automatic firmware update event; reading the updated code of the firmware from a code-providing unit by the display control device, and temporarily storing the updated code into a memory in response to the automatic firmware update event; and writing the updated code stored in the memory into a non-volatile memory, thereby accomplishing automatic firmware update of the display control device.
In this embodiment, after the transmission interface unit 11 is coupled to the code-providing unit 17, the CPU 14 determines whether a file with a predetermined filename is stored in the code-providing unit 17. When the predetermined filename is present in the code-providing unit 17, the CPU 14 decides whether to update the firmware by examining whether the contents of the file match a predetermined format. For example, the CPU 14 recognizes a predetermined header in the file in the predetermined filename in order to initiate the firmware update. The file with the predetermined filename further comprises associated information for firmware update, such as the number of bytes of the updated code of the firmware and the storage address in the non-volatile memory 19 to which the updated code is written. The update file of the firmware can be transmitted according to a communication protocol between the display control device 10 and the code-providing unit 17. When detecting that the file with the predetermined filename exists and matches the predetermined format, the CPU 14 programs the DMA units 15 and 16 to start data transfer. The DMA unit 15 quickly transfers the updated code from the code-providing unit 17 via the transmission interface unit 11 to the memory 18 via the memory interface unit 12 for temporary storage. Then, the DMA unit 16 quickly writes the updated code temporarily stored in the memory 18 into the non-volatile memory 19. By DMA units 15 and 16, the whole updated code is successively transmitted without involving the CPU 14 to divide the updated code into multiple small data pieces to be transmitted one by one. Thus, the firmware updating process is significantly accelerated. Preferably, the whole firmware update process is automatically accomplished after the code-providing unit 17 is coupled to the display control device 10, without further user operations, thereby enhancing user convenience.
Various kinds of transmission interfaces can be applied by the transmission interface unit 11 for data transmission. In this embodiment, the transmission interface unit 11 is a universal serial bus (USB) host interface, and the code-providing unit 17 is a USB portable disk. To update the firmware of the display control device 10, a user just needs to plug the USB portable disk storing the firmware code to an USB connector (not shown) on the display control device 10. The firmware update process is thus accomplished. In another embodiment, a transmission interface unit 11 is a flash memory card interface, and the code-providing unit 17 is a flash memory card. A user may couple the flash memory storing the firmware code to the display control device 10 to accomplish the firmware update. Alternatively, a transmission interface unit 11 can be a wireless transmission interface or a wired network interface, such as a Bluetooth interface or a coaxial cable interface. When the present invention is applied to televisions and the wired network interface is the coaxial cable interface, the code-providing unit 17 can be a remote server of a cable television provider. The cable television provider at a remote location can provide a firmware update service of televisions for all customers via the coaxial cable. In the application of the wireless transmission or the wired network, a firmware update command can be transmitted. The CPU 14 decodes the firmware update command and programs the DMA units 15 and 16 respectively, so as to initiate the firmware update of the display control device 10.
To sum up, the present invention discloses a display control device capable of automatically updating firmware. The display control device comprises a transmission interface unit, a memory interface unit, a non-volatile memory interface unit, a first DMA unit, a second DMA unit and a controller, e.g. a CPU. The transmission interface unit is coupled to a code-providing unit for providing an updated code of the firmware. After detecting that the transmission interface unit is coupled to the code-providing unit, the controller automatically and temporarily stores the updated code provided by the code-providing unit into a DRAM, and then writes the updated code into the non-volatile memory so as to accomplish the firmware update of the display control device.
The present invention discloses a method of automatically updating a firmware for a display control device, comprising steps of detecting an automatic firmware update event, reading an updated code of the firmware by the display control device from a code-providing unit and temporarily storing the updated code into a memory in response to the automatic firmware update event, and writing the updated code of the firmware temporarily stored in the memory into a non-volatile memory by the display control device, thereby accomplishing automatic firmware update of the display control device.
The foregoing preferred embodiment illustrates the present invention in detail, however the invention needs not to be limited to the above embodiment. Various modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
097111807 | Apr 2008 | TW | national |