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US 10,474,846 B1Granted
Processor power supply glitch detection
AssigneeSquare, Inc.
InventorsAfshin Rezayee, Malcolm Ronald Smith, Yue Yang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A transaction device includes circuitry that provides a power supply to a processor of the transaction device. Attackers may attempt to glitch the processor power supply in a manner that causes processor to operate incorrectly such as by skipping instructions. A monitoring circuit may be coupled to the processor power supply circuitry to identify conditions that are indicative of a glitch attempt. Glitch attempts may be stored in a memory and reported to the processor to induce the execution of counter-measures.
Claims30
A system for detecting power supply glitches on a power source for a processing unit, comprising:
- a power source, wherein the power source provides a first system voltage;
- a capacitor;
- and
- at least one processing chip, wherein the processing chip comprises:
- a first terminal coupled to the power source to receive the first system voltage;
- a second terminal coupled to the capacitor;
- a processing unit power supply node, wherein the processing unit power supply node is coupled to the second terminal;
- a processing unit coupled to the processing unit power supply node, wherein the processing unit power supply node provides power for the execution of instructions by the processing unit;
- a comparison circuit coupled to the processing unit power supply node as a first input and to a reference voltage as a second input, wherein a comparison circuit output comprises a control voltage that is representative of a difference between the first input and the second input;
- a supply circuit coupled to the comparison circuit to receive the control voltage and coupled to the first system voltage to provide power to the processing unit power supply node, wherein the power supplied to the processing unit is based on the control voltage;
- and
- a monitoring circuit coupled to the comparison circuit output to receive the control voltage and to the processing unit to provide a glitch value to the processing unit, wherein the monitoring circuit provides a glitch indicator as the glitch value based on a comparison of the control voltage to a glitch threshold, and wherein the processing unit takes corrective action when the glitch indicator is received as the glitch value.
9 more elements
A system for detecting power supply glitches on a power source for a processing unit, comprising:
- a power source, wherein the power source provides a first system voltage;
- a first terminal coupled to the power source to receive the first system voltage;
- a processing unit power supply node;
- a second terminal coupled to the processing unit power supply node;
- a processing unit coupled to the processing unit power supply node, wherein the processing unit power supply node provides power for the execution of instructions by the processing unit;
- a comparison circuit coupled to the processing unit power supply node as a first input and to a reference voltage as a second input, wherein a comparison circuit output comprises a control voltage that is representative of a difference between the first input and the second input;
- a supply circuit coupled to the comparison circuit to receive the control voltage and coupled to the first system voltage to provide power to the processing unit power supply node, wherein the power supplied to the processing unit is based on the control voltage;
- and
- a monitoring circuit coupled to the comparison circuit output to receive a signal representative of the control voltage, wherein the monitoring circuit provides a glitch indicator based on a comparison of the control voltage to a glitch threshold.
6 more elements
A method for detecting power supply glitches on a power source for a processing unit of a chip, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a first terminal of the chip from a power source, a first system voltage;
- providing, to the processing unit from a processing unit power supply node, power for the execution of instructions by the processing unit, wherein the processing unit power supply node is coupled to a second terminal of the chip;
- receiving, at a first input of a comparison circuit of the chip, a processing unit power supply voltage from the processing unit power supply node;
- receiving, at a second input of the comparison circuit, a reference voltage;
- providing, from an output of the comparison circuit, a control voltage that is representative of a difference between the first input and the second input;
- receiving, at a supply circuit of the chip from the comparison circuit, the control voltage;
- providing, by the supply circuit, power to the processing unit power supply node from the power source based on the control voltage;
- receiving, by a monitoring circuit of the chip, a signal representative of the control voltage;
- and
- providing, by the monitoring circuit, a glitch indicator based on a comparison of the control voltage to a glitch threshold.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.