Patent ID: 8078861

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a communications link; a processor comprising a nonvolatile code space memory and firmware that is loaded into the nonvolatile code space memory, which processor is coupled to a nonvolatile memory device and apparatus for communicating over the communications link; a remotely located server configured to communicate with the processor over the communications link and that comprises a source code file comprising updated firmware for the processor; and software that: if the processor is to be updated with new firmware, causes the server to send the source code file comprising the updated firmware to the processor; causes the processor to load the source code file into the nonvolatile memory device, and when finished compute a checksum value; compares the computed checksum value to a known checksum value for the source code file; if the checksum values are the same, copies the contents of the nonvolatile memory device into the nonvolatile code space memory to reprogram the processor; and reboots the processor.