Battery pack
AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
InventorsMasaaki Tojo, Takatoshi Matsui
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Firmware of a battery pack (2) is stored in a rewritable storage device such as a flash memory (8). When troubleshooting or performance improvement is needed, a personal computer main body (host equipment) (1) obtains up-to-date firmware from a storage medium or the Internet, and transmits it to a battery pack (2) via an SMBus (5) using a firmware transfer device (12). A firmware rewriting device (11) of the battery pack (2) rewrites the firmware stored in the flash memory (8) on the basis of the up-to-date firmware.
Claims3
A battery power source device for performing data transmission and reception between a battery pack (2), which includes a rechargeable battery (3) and a battery management function for controlling charging and discharging of the rechargeable battery, and host equipment (1) in which the battery pack is mounted, the battery pack and the host equipment being connected to each other by a communication path (5),
- wherein the battery pack further comprises:
- a rewritable storage device (8) for storing firmware of the battery pack;
- and a firmware rewriting device (11) for rewriting the firmware stored in the storage device, and
- the host equipment comprises a firmware transfer device (12) for transferring up-to-date firmware inputted from a data input device (13) to the battery pack via the communication path.
A battery power source device for performing data transmission and reception between a battery pack (2), which includes a rechargeable battery (3) and a battery management function for controlling charging and discharging of the rechargeable battery, and host equipment (1) in which the battery pack is mounted, the battery pack and the host equipment being connected to each other by a communication path (5),
- wherein the battery pack further comprises:
- a rewritable storage device (8) for storing firmware of the battery pack;
- and a firmware rewriting device (11) for rewriting the firmware stored in the storage device, and
- the host equipment comprises:
- an Internet access device (15) for providing access to the Internet;
- an up-to-date firmware retrieval device for retrieving, after reading URL information stored in the storage device, up-to-date firmware from an appropriate server (16) listed in the URL information;
- and a firmware transfer device (12) for transferring the up-to-date firmware to the battery pack via the communication path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.