Patent Application
20070174418
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of display systems, and more particularly to tools and techniques for improving performance, reliability and user experience of display devices included in information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to acquire, process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system (‘IHS’) generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, entertainment, and/or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Display devices such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, and a projection display system, which are included in an IHS enable the user of an application to view the results of the actions taken and/or in response to inputs provided to the IHS. The purpose of a display device is to present to the user an image supplied by the IHS system. Display devices typically include a plurality of user controls, which may vary depending upon the manufacturer and display technology. Typical display controls available to the user include setting luminance, contrast, picture size, position, and color balance. In addition, displays frequently have a number of internal settings that are changed to optimize operation with different video display formats, such as 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Some display devices may include other optional features, e.g. audio, which may also be controlled by the user.
Thus, present solutions for upgrading the firmware 122 primarily rely on use of external adapters that may vary with each display device supplier. That is, many display device suppliers typically provide a proprietary version of the external adapter and/or dongle along with a unique set of installation procedure for upgrading the firmware 122. Users typically send the DD 120 to a manufacturer of the IHS or a manufacturer of the display device for the upgrade. As an alternate, the manufacturer may elect to perform an on-site upgrade. This increases product/warranty costs to the manufacturer, reduces reliability of the IHS and negatively affects user experience.
Therefore, a need exists to provide an improved method and system for upgrading firmware of display devices. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for upgrading firmware of display devices included in an information handling system, absent the disadvantages found in the prior methods discussed above.
The foregoing need is addressed by the teachings of the present disclosure, which relates to a system and method for upgrading firmware of display devices.
In one aspect of the disclosure, a method for upgrading firmware of a display device (DD) includes receiving a plurality of instructions to upgrade the firmware. The plurality of instructions are provided by a host device directly coupled to the DD via a cable. The plurality of instructions are decoded into a set of commands that are specific to the DD. The set of commands are stored in the firmware to complete the upgrade.
Several advantages are achieved by the method and system according to the illustrative embodiments presented herein. The embodiments advantageously provide for an improved automated technique to upgrade firmware of a display device (DD) by eliminating the use of external adapters and/or dongles. The firmware upgrade utility software, which is downloadable via the Internet or distributed via optical media, enables the user to upgrade the firmware of the DD without having to send the DD to the manufacturer or without needing manufacturers on-site firmware upgrade services. Thus, the improved technique for upgrading firmware advantageously reduces costs, improves performance and reliability of the DD, and enhances user experience.
Novel features believed characteristic of the present disclosure are set forth in the appended claims. The disclosure itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, various objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The functionality of various circuits, devices, boards, cards, modules, blocks, and/ or components described herein may be implemented as hardware (including discrete components, integrated circuits and systems-on-a-chip ‘SOC’), firmware (including application specific integrated circuits and programmable chips) and/or software or a combination thereof, depending on the application requirements.
Firmware of a display device (DD) may need to be upgraded for a variety of reasons such as bug fixes, change in functionality of the DD, desired improvement in performance, and similar others. Present techniques for upgrading the firmware of the DD typically use proprietary external adapters, thereby making it difficult for the user to implement the upgrade. As a result, the user typically sends the DD to the manufacturer for the upgrade. If a large number of display devices are to be upgraded, the manufacturer may perform an on-site upgrade. It is desirable that the DD firmware upgrade process be simple, use standards based interfaces, and be user implementable. Presently, no tools and/or techniques exist to enable the user to automatically perform the firmware upgrade of the DD. Thus, a need exists to provide improved tools and techniques to a user for implementing a firmware upgrade of the DD.
According to one embodiment, in a method and system for upgrading firmware of a display device (DD), a plurality of instructions are executable by a processor to upgrade the firmware. A graphics controller, which is coupled to the processor, generates the displays displayable on the DD. The DD is coupled to the graphics controller via a cable and the communications between them is compliant with a display data channel command interface (DDC/CI) standard defined by video electronics standard association (VESA). The plurality of instructions are communicated to a DD controller of the DD via the cable. The DD controller decodes the plurality of instructions received into a set of commands specific to the DD and the DD controller writes the set of commands to the firmware to upgrade.
For purposes of this disclosure, an IHS may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes. For example, the IHS may be a personal computer, including notebook computers, personal digital assistants, cellular phones, gaming consoles, a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price. The information handling system may include random access memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as central processing unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, ROM, and/or other types of nonvolatile memory. Additional components of the information handling system may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a video display. The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to receive/transmit communications between the various hardware components.
In a particular embodiment, the DD 205 is one of a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, a projector display, a television (TV) and a high definition television (HDTV).
The processor 210 communicates with the system components via a bus 250, which includes data, address and control lines. In one embodiment, the IHS 200 may include multiple instances of the bus 250. A communications device 245, such as a network interface card and/or a radio device, may be connected to the bus 250 to enable wired and/or wireless information exchange between the IHS 200 and other devices or networks such as the Internet (not shown). In an embodiment, the upgradeable firmware 260 is implemented as a FLASH memory. Additional detail of the DD 205 having the upgradeable firmware 260 is described with reference to
The processor 210 is operable to execute the computing instructions and/or operations of the IHS 200. The memory medium, e.g., RAM 220, preferably stores instructions (also known as a “software program”) for implementing various embodiments of a method in accordance with the present disclosure. An operating system (OS) of the IHS 200 is a type of software program that controls execution of other software programs, referred to as application software programs.
In the depicted embodiment, the RAM 220 stores a firmware upgrade utility software 222 for implementing the firmware upgrade. In a particular embodiment, the firmware upgrade utility software 222 may be distributed on an optical media such as a CD-ROM and loaded from the optical media into the RAM 220. In an embodiment, the firmware upgrade utility software 222 may be distributed electronically via the Internet and received by the IHS 200 via the communications device 245. A user executes the firmware upgrade utility software 222 to load the program in the RAM 220 to automatically perform the upgrade. In various embodiments the instructions and/or software programs such as the firmware upgrade utility software 222 may be implemented in various ways, including procedure-based techniques, component-based techniques, and/or object-oriented techniques, among others. Specific examples include assembler, C, XML, C++ objects, Java and Microsoft's .NET technology.
Additionally, it is important to note that while the present disclosure has been described in the context of an IHS having hardware and software, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present disclosure are capable of being distributed as computer readable medium of instructions in a variety of forms and that the present disclosure applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media such a floppy disc, a hard disk drive, a RAM, optical media such as CD-ROM's, DVD's and transmission-type media such as digital and analog communications links.
In the depicted embodiment, the graphics controller 280 is directly coupled to the DD 205 via a cable 320. In a particular embodiment, the cable 320 is a standard analog cable having a pair of connectors 330 and 340 located at either end to facilitate the electrical coupling. In an embodiment, the cable 320 is one of a video graphics array (VGA) cable and a digital visual interface (DVI) cable, and the connectors 330 and 340 are one of a DB15 connector and a DVI connector.
In the depicted embodiment, the DD 205 is compliant with a display device industry standard such as a display data channel command interface (DDC/CI) standard defined by video electronics standard association (VESA). The DDI/CI standard uses the I2C bus protocol for communication. That is, the cable 320 supports bidirectional communications that is in compliance with the two wire I2C bus protocol. In addition, the plurality of instructions generated by the execution of the firmware upgrade utility software 222 are in compliance with a monitor instruction standard such as a monitor control command set (MCCS) standard defined by VESA. The MCCS standard defines standardized instructions for controlling the operation of a plurality of monitors including the DD 205. The plurality of instructions may include instructions for setting luminance, contrast, picture size, position, and color balance. By having two display devices that are DDC/CI and MCCS compliant, a user may be able to interchange one display device with another with little or no change to the display control software.
In the depicted embodiment, the DD 205 includes a DD controller 350 coupled to the cable 320 via the connector 340. In an exemplary, non-depicted embodiment, the DD controller 350 includes logic circuitry to execute logic commands. That is, the DD controller 350 may include a processor for executing instructions or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) for performing logic operations. The DD controller 350 is coupled with the firmware 260.
In the depicted embodiment, the DD controller 350 receives the plurality of instructions that are in compliance with the MCCS standard from the host device 310 via the graphics controller 280 and the cable 320. The plurality of instructions are decoded by the DD controller 350 to a device specific set of commands. That is, the MCCS compliant plurality of instructions are decoded into an I2C bus compliant set of commands. The set of commands are specific to the particular display, e.g., commands are compatible with the device specific properties or attributes of the DD 205. The DD controller 350 writes the set of commands to the firmware 260 to complete the firmware upgrade.
Various steps described above may be added, omitted, combined, altered, or performed in different orders. For example, an additional step may be added before the step 410 to generate the plurality of instructions. In a particular embodiment, in step 402, the firmware upgrade utility software 222 is executed to generate the plurality of instructions.
Although illustrative embodiments have been shown and described, a wide range of modification, change and substitution is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure and in some instances, some features of the embodiments may be employed without a corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the scope of the embodiments disclosed herein.
