US 2017/0286085 A1Published application

Compressed firmware update

AssigneeSquare, Inc.

InventorsRodion Steshenko, Jianliang Zhao, Timothy Kordas

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Abstract

It may be determined that a payment reader requires a firmware update, which may be transmitted to the payment reader as compressed firmware update blocks. The payment reader may receive a first portion of set of the compressed firmware update blocks. The payment reader may decompress the first portion and determine a partial firmware offset associated with the first portion. If the firmware update is incomplete, the payment reader may transmit that partial firmware offset to a second device. Based on this partial of firmware offset and an offset table that associates compressed firmware offsets with decompressed firmware offsets, the payment reader receive a second portion of compressed firmware update blocks to send to the payment reader. The payment reader may determine that entire update has been received and update its firmware.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A method of providing a firmware update to a payment reader of a payment system, the method comprising:

requesting, from a merchant device running a point-of-sale application, a firmware manifest from the payment reader;
accessing, at the payment reader, the firmware manifest;
transmitting, from the payment reader via the merchant device, the firmware manifest to a payment server;
determining, at the payment server, whether the firmware update is required based on the firmware manifest;
accessing, at the payment server, a plurality of firmware update blocks, wherein the plurality of firmware update blocks collectively comprise the firmware update;
compressing, at the payment server, each of the plurality of firmware update blocks to generate a plurality of compressed firmware update blocks;
generating, at the payment server, an offset table, wherein the offset table associates each of a plurality of compressed offsets associated with the compressed firmware update to a corresponding decompressed offset associated with a decompressed version of the firmware update;
transmitting, from the payment server to the merchant device, the offset table and the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks;
storing, at the merchant device, the offset table and the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks;
transmitting, from the merchant device, a first portion of the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks to the payment reader;
decompressing, at the payment reader, the first portion of the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks;
determining, at the payment reader, a partial firmware offset associated with the decompressed first portion;
transmitting, from the payment reader to the merchant device, the partial firmware offset;
determining, at the merchant device, a second portion of the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks to send to the payment reader, based on the partial firmware offset and the offsets stored in the offset table;
transmitting, from the merchant device, the second portion of the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks to payment reader;
decompressing, at the payment reader, the second portion of the plurality of compressed firmware update blocks;
determining, at the payment reader, that the entire firmware update has been received based at least on the decompressed first and second portions;
and
updating the firmware of the payment reader based on the received firmware update.

16 more elements

A method of updating firmware of a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

receiving, at the wireless communication device, a compressed version of a first portion of a firmware update, wherein the first portion of the firmware update is associated with a first firmware update block;
decompressing, at the wireless communication device, the compressed version of the portion of the firmware update;
determining, at the wireless communication device, that the firmware update is incomplete;
identifying, at the wireless communication device, a decompressed offset associated with the first portion of the firmware update;
transmitting the decompressed offset from the wireless communication device to a second device;
receiving, at the wireless communication device, a compressed version of a second portion of the firmware update, wherein the beginning of the compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update is based on the decompressed offset, and wherein the second portion of the firmware update is associated with a second firmware update block;
decompressing, at the wireless communication device, the compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update;
determining, at the wireless communication device, that the firmware update has been received based at least on the first portion and the second portion;
and
updating the firmware of the wireless communication device based on the received firmware update.

7 more elements

A wireless communication device, comprising:

a wireless communication interface configured to receive a compressed version of a first portion of a firmware update, wherein the first portion of the firmware update is associated with a first firmware update block, transmit a decompressed offset to a second device, and receive a compressed version of a second portion of the firmware update, wherein the beginning of the compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update is based on the decompressed offset and wherein the second portion of the firmware update is associated with a second firmware update block;
a processing unit configured to decompress the compressed version of the first portion of the firmware update, determine that the firmware update is incomplete, identify a decompressed offset associated with the first portion of the firmware update, decompress the compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update, determine that the firmware update has been received based at least on the first portion and the second portion;
and update the firmware of the wireless communication device based on the received firmware update;
and
a memory configured to store the decompressed first portion of the firmware update and the decompressed second portion of the firmware update.

2 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a compressed version of a first portion of a firmware update, wherein the first portion of the firmware update is associated with a first firmware update block;
decompressing the compressed version of the first portion of the firmware update;
determining that the firmware update is incomplete;
identifying a decompressed offset associated with the first portion of the firmware update;
receiving a compressed version of a second portion of the firmware update, wherein the beginning of compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update is based on the decompressed offset, and where in the second portion of the firmware update is associate with a second firmware update block;
decompressing the compressed version of the second portion of the firmware update;
determining that the firmware update has been received based at least on the first portion and the second portion;
and
updating the firmware of the wireless communication device based on the received firmware update.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/086,024Filed 30 Mar 2016
Published: 5 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification18 codes

G06F 8/65
Software deployment: updates
G06F 8/44
Compilation: encoding
G06F 8/4434
Optimisation: reducing the memory space required by the program code
G06F 8/654
Updates: using techniques specially adapted for alterable solid state memories, e.g. for EEPROM or flash memories

Family

US 9,778,928 B1Related patent
US 2017/0286085 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

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