1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication terminal and communication network for partially updating software, a software update method, and a software creation device and method therefor, and more particularly to a software update technique which is capable of downloading and updating a changed part of software embedded in an embedded device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Embedded devices typically refer to devices that software is embedded in chip thereof, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.
In order to update or upgrade (hereinafter simply “update”) software embedded in the embedded device, a user of the embedded device usually visits a business office associated with the embedded device to request update of the software, and an operator of the business office connects the embedded device to an update terminal (e.g., personal computer) having a new version of software to download a new version of the software from the update terminal to the embedded device and change the software to the new version of software.
In a conventional method for updating software embedded in the embedded device, the update terminal is first connected with the embedded device to provide a download service for the software embedded in the embedded device. The update terminal then determines whether or not a change has occurred in the software embedded in the embedded device by comparing files of the software with corresponding files of a new version of software stored in the update terminal. Upon determining that a change has occurred in the software embedded in the embedded device, the update terminal updates the software by downloading the new version of software to the embedded device.
However, the above-mentioned conventional software update method has disadvantages in that a lot of software upgrade time is spent. This is because the update terminal has to download all files of the new version of software stored therein to the embedded device.