Metric Halo Mobile I/O - Manual (Page 322)

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B. Updating your Firmware
Introduction
The Mobile I/O is a complex device with a complex DSP–based signal processing 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 headphone 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. The MIO Console Application provides a built-in tool to update firmware
directly from the console. The following section describes how to use the built-in tool.
You may have had the experience of updating the firmware for your computer 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
firmware, 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” procedure. 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
Actually, the primary boot firmware is much smarter than that. The box is completely functional on the primary
boot, but all of the more advanced features of the box are enabled by the second boot. The firmware revision
of the primary boot is 1.1.00.
As soon as the primary boot image has booted, it checks the secondary boot image, and if the secondary
boot image is installed and not corrupted in any way, the system immediately boots the secondary image.
If the secondary image is corrupted or if you have held down the front-panel Mute button during the initial
boot process, the Mobile I/O will not boot the secondary image and will stay in “Safety Boot Mode”. This
is a mechanism you can use if you install firmware that has problems and you need to back up or install a
newer image.
The safe boot mechanism allows you to back out of a firmware update if you find that the new firmware has
some problem that was not present in a previous version of the firmware. Metric Halo support may ask you
to do this during troubleshooting if you encounter any problems.
In the future, Metric Halo may change the methods or tools used to find, download, and accomplish firmware
updates. If the tools change, they will be accompanied by an updated version of this Appendix.
Installing a firmware update
In order to install a firmware update, follow these steps:
1. If there is an associated driver update, install the new driver:
• Double click the driver installer package and use the Apple installer to update the MIO Driver pack-
age. This will require you to reboot your computer.