MOBILE TERMINAL AND SOFTWARE UPDATE METHOD

Abstract

A mobile terminal having a communication function. The apparatus includes: a nonvolatile memory including a memory area storing a main-unit program including an update engine for updating software and an alternative unit area for a unit area in the memory area; a working memory; and control means for accessing both of the memories. The control means downloads differential data between a version of the main-unit program and a version of a new main-unit program, expands the update engine into the working memory area, executes the update engine, updates the main-unit program for each unit area by the differential data, completes the update processing if the update has been successful, and performs the unit-area update processing on the alternative unit area and replaces the defective unit area by the alternative unit area if a defect of a unit area has been detected at the time of the update.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the schematic hardware configuration of a cellular phone according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a first flash memory shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a memory for performing restoration operation at the time of update failure in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the software-update engine in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a memory management unit (MMU) used in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the general processing procedure at the time of software update in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the processing procedure executed in step S14 in FIG. 6 at the time of software update in the embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the update engine including a basic function of a telephone in the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal having a communication function, comprising: a nonvolatile memory including a memory area storing a main-unit program including an update engine for updating software and an alternative unit area for a unit area in the memory area;a working memory; andcontrol means for accessing the nonvolatile memory and the working memory,wherein the control means downloads differential data between a version of the main-unit program and a version of a new main-unit program, expands the update engine of the memory area into the working memory area, executes the update engine in the working memory area, performs update processing of the main-unit program for each unit area by the differential data, completes the update processing if the update has been successful, and performs the unit-area update processing on the alternative unit area and replaces the defective unit area by the alternative unit area if a defect of a unit area has been detected at the time of the update.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising address-conversion means for converting an address of the defect-detected unit area into an address of the alternative unit area.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the update engine includes a basic telephone function including sending and receiving.

4. A method of updating software of a mobile terminal having a communication function, the method comprising the steps of: disposing a memory area storing a main-unit program including an update engine for updating software and an alternative unit area for a unit area in the memory area in a nonvolatile memory;downloading differential data between a version of one of the main-unit program and a version of a new main-unit program;expanding the update engine of the memory area into a working memory area;performing update processing of the main-unit program for each unit area by the differential data by executing the update engine in the working memory area;completing the update processing if the update has been successful; andperforming the unit-area update processing on the alternative unit area and replaces the defective unit area by the alternative unit area if a defect of a unit area has been detected at the time of the update.