Amazon.com, Inc.
Live updating of firmware behavior

Abstract:

Live firmware updates can be provided using a runtime environment that is separate from a boot environment. During a boot process for a computing device, boot drivers can be loaded during a boot environment phase, and runtime drivers can be loaded during a subsequent runtime environment phase. The runtime code and configuration data can be stored to protected resident or non-volatile memory. One or more runtime application programming interfaces (APIs) can be provided that enable an operating system on the device to request an update or patch to the runtime code. During the update, only entry points to the runtime environment are paused on the system. Once the update is completed, the runtime environment can be made available with the newly applied code, and without any need to reboot the computing device or migrate any users to another device.