Thanks goodness for digital nameplates – benefits for firmware updates

To put it in very basic terms, firmware is the operating software for the hardware used. In many cases, firmware is based on a specific Windows or Linux program and is only written by hardware manufacturers in very rare cases. This is beneficial for hardware manufacturers in that a very time-consuming and complex part of product development (software development) can be greatly simplified and sped up. However, using Windows- or Linux-based firmware also has its drawbacks. For instance, the program code may contain errors or security vulnerabilities that are also transferred.

If a manufacturer discovers errors or security vulnerabilities, they can rectify these with a firmware update. In addition to correcting errors, firmware updates can also be used to introduce new functionalities or improvements to the hardware's operation or performance.

Regardless of the reason why a manufacturer developers a new or updated firmware version, there is the question of how to load this version on devices already being used in the field. With a very large number of devices, the user or trained service technicians can load a firmware update on installed devices.

Especially in the case of security vulnerabilities, there is the question of how is the hardware user notified that a new firmware version is available? There are currently two main ways of doing this:

• The manufacturer publishes the information on their website.
• The manufacturer uses information services like Cert@VDE to share this information in the market.

Existing mechanisms have so far not been satisfactory for users. If the information is published on manufacturers' websites, this means that users have to actively look for it. What's more, they have to check whether each update is relevant to the hardware installed in their factories, and what specific hardware programs are concerned. If a number of identical products are being used, there is no other option than to manually check all firmware versions on the devices and compare them with the new firmware update. In general, no company is able to go to this effort. This task is time-consuming and laborious, even when services like Cert@VDE are used. These services only do away with the need to search for updates on manufacturers' websites.