Apparatus and method for downloading data to electronic device
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorJeffrey J. Dobbek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method of downloading data in the form of a device type generic “download entity” (or data object) for use by an electronic device. The device type of the electronic device is determined and any data in the download entity which is not associated with the determined device type is discarded such that only the data which is associated with the determined device type is retained by the electronic device. Installation code is also incorporated into the download entity such that, once downloaded, the installation code is executed by the electronic device to “unpack” and store the data associated with the device type from the download entity.
Claims13
A method executed by an electronic device wherein the electronic device downloads data, the electronic device having a device type that is one of a plurality of device types, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) receiving a download entity in a data buffer of the electronic device, the download entity including data in a device type table associated with each device type;
- (b) providing to the download entity an indication of at least one device type associated with the electronic device;
- (c) building a data image in a data image block of the download entity from data retrieved from the device type table;
- (d) writing the data image block from the data buffer to the electronic device to provide the electronic device with data only associated with indicated device types associated with the electronic device, the writing further comprising
- (1) retrieving from the download entity an installation routine, wherein the installation routine is provided with pointers to utilities resident on the electronic device for executing the installation routine;
- and
- (2) executing the installation routine by the electronic device to store into non-volatile memory of the electronic device only the data associated with the indicated device types;
- wherein retrieving and executing are performed at least in part by a download processing routine resident in the electronic device;
- and
- (e) initiating a reset to clear the data buffer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.