US 12,032,949 B2
Deletion of firmware instructions
Christopher H. Stewart, Spring, TX (US); and Valiuddin Ali, Spring, TX (US)
Assigned to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Spring, TX (US)
Appl. No. 17/296,526
Filed by Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., Spring, TX (US)
PCT Filed Feb. 11, 2019, PCT No. PCT/US2019/017522
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date May 24, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/167286, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 20, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0027074 A1, Jan. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 8/654 (2018.01); G06F 8/61 (2018.01)
CPC G06F 8/654 (2018.02) [G06F 8/62 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus comprising:
a physical storage device including:
a metadata region to store first metadata related to firmware of the apparatus, wherein the firmware includes core firmware instructions that are restricted from being deleted from the physical storage device and first excludable firmware instructions that are allowed to be deleted from the physical storage device,
a main region to store the core firmware instructions, and
a first excludable region to store the first excludable firmware instructions separate from the core firmware instructions; and
a processor in communication with the physical storage device, wherein the processor is to:
obtain the first metadata from the metadata region, wherein the first metadata obtained from the metadata region includes:
information defining a first location, in the physical storage device, of the first excludable region, and
a flag indicating that the first excludable firmware instructions stored in the first excludable region of the physical storage device are to be disabled;
determine that the flag is set to disable the first excludable firmware instructions;
identify the first excludable region of the physical storage device at the first location indicated in the first metadata;
delete, from the physical storage device, the first excludable firmware instructions stored in the first excludable region identified at the first location indicated in the first metadata;
receive an indication to update the core firmware instructions; and
based on the determining that the flag is set to disable the first excludable firmware instructions, update the core firmware instructions stored in the main region of the physical storage device without an update to the first excludable firmware instructions stored in the first excludable region of the physical storage device.