Patent · US Expired

Control chip for optical disk drive and method for updating firmware in the control chip

US7107364B2 · kind B2 · utility

3Cited by
5References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 24, 2003
Grant dateSep 12, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 11, 2024

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11C16/102
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A control chip for updating firmware in an optical disk drive by hardware. The control chip includes a microprocessor for controlling actions of the optical disk drive, a decoder controlled by the microprocessor and connected to an external buffer memory and a host interface, a controller controlled by the microprocessor and connected to the decoder to receive control signals and data of the optical disk drive, an extra memory connected to the microprocessor for storing an update program routine, a DMA unit controlled by the microprocessor to read data from the external buffer memory, and a macro unit controlled by the microprocessor to receive data output from the DMA unit and to write the data into the non-volatile memory. Because the firmware is updated into the flash memory in the hardware architecture, the speed is fast and the microprocessor can execute other works while updating.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.