Metric Halo 2882 operating guide - Manual (Page 101)

Mobile I/O User’s Guide – Appendicies
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Appendix I – Updating your Firmware
The Mobile I/O is a complex device with a complex DSP–based signal pro-
cessing and control architecture. One of the major strengths of Mobile I/O’s
design is that the operating system of the box can be upgraded at any time
by updating the firmware. The firmware provides data to the hardware upon
system boot that configures both fundamental aspects of the hardware and
the operating system for the box. This data is stored in a memory device on
the Mobile I/O motherboard. The data can be updated at any time, but it will
be maintained indefinitely, even without any power being applied to the
Mobile I/O.
Since the hardware itself can be reconfigured by the firmware, this approach
allows Metric Halo to make major enhancements to Mobile I/O without any
physical changes to the hardware. In the past we have used software
deployed firmware updates to increase the FireWire access speed, provide
independent heaphone channels, and improve the converter sound quality
over its already exceptional character.
Since the firmware updates exist simply as data, they can be sent to you in a
variety of ways, whether via CD, email or download from our website. Met-
ric Halo provides a firmware update tool that allows you to download an
updated firmware image to the Mobile I/O from your computer. The follow-
ing section describes how to use the current version of the firmware update
tool, called MIOBootInstaller.
You may have had the experience of updating the firmware for your com-
puter in the past. As you may know, this can be a stressful procedure, since
there is a moment while the old firmware is being replaced by the new firm-
ware, and if the process is interrupted you may be left with no firmware at
all. Metric Halo has addressed this issue with a “safe firmware update” pro-
cedure. The Mobile I/O uses a dual-boot procedure. The first boot happens
in the first 100ms (about 0.1 seconds) and has been extensively tested. It is
smart enough to do two things:
1. It can boot the secondary boot image
2. It can update the secondary boot image over the FireWire bus