Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Daini Xie

Mallik Bulusu

Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed

Neeraj Ladkani

Tom Long Nguyen

Ravi Mysore Shantamurthy

Karunakara Kotary

Thirupathaiah Annapureddy

Yuwen Chou

Subhankar Panda

Wen-Ho Chen

The present disclosure relates to utilizing a firmware configuration system to efficiently update a firmware profile configuration of computing devices (e.g., host devices in a datacenter). For example, the firmware configuration system facilitates updating the firmware profile configuration, such as for a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) profile and/or a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), without needing to develop, deploy, and install a new BIOS. More specifically, the firmware configuration system updates (e.g., via a baseband management controller) firmware profile configurations by modifying a profile configuration table in flash memory (i.e., on an SPI flash-based chip) of a BIOS with a firmware profile configuration update patch and without affecting other parts of the BIOS.

Dynamically updating firmware profile configurations on computing devices

A computer implemented method includes creating a cache within system management memory to cache data from a firmware flash memory to allow access to the cache by system firmware, providing a baseboard management controller ownership of the firmware flash memory in a server, updating the firmware in the firmware flash memory via the baseboard management controller, relinquishing baseboard management controller ownership of firmware flash memory upon completion of updating the firmware, and flushing the cache back to the firmware flash memory in response to baseboard management controller relinquishing ownership of the firmware flash memory.

Cache to receive firmware generated data during firmware update

A host computing device includes a host processor, host memory in electronic communication with the host processor, and an auxiliary service controller. The host computing device also includes a communication interface and a messaging interface between the host processor and the auxiliary service controller. A message handler is stored in the host memory. The message handler is executable by the host processor in response to detecting a messaging interface signal on the messaging interface. Execution of the message handler by the host processor causes a firmware update patch to be read from a shared memory region in the auxiliary service controller via the communication interface.

Pushing a firmware update patch to a computing device via an out-of-band path

A computing system is provided, including a processor and memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to store a firmware update patch in a runtime buffer included in the memory. The runtime buffer may be accessible by firmware and an operating system of the computing system. The processor may perform a first verification check on the firmware update patch. When the firmware update patch passes the first verification check, the processor may copy the firmware update patch to a system management random access memory (SMRAM) buffer included in the memory. The SMRAM buffer may be accessible by the firmware and inaccessible by the operating system. The processor may perform a second verification check on the copy of the firmware update patch. When the copy of the firmware update patch passes the second verification check, the processor may execute the copy of the firmware update patch.

Firmware update patch

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Daini Xie