Methods and apparatus for in-memory device access control

A memory device, comprising:

• a memory cell array;
• at least one pass gate;
• a trust hardware block, wherein the trust hardware block is configured to perform operations comprising:
• receiving an unlock password from a system-on-chip (SOC);
• closing the at least one pass gate to allow a memory access control hardware block to receive a configuration message in response to the received unlock password matching a password within a set of acceptable passwords;
• and
• wherein the access control hardware block is configured to perform operations comprising:
• receiving the configuration message from the SOC for configuring memory access control of the memory device;
• configuring memory access control based on the configuration message;
• receiving an access request message from the SOC requesting access to a memory base address and a memory access range of the memory cell array, wherein the access request message includes a read/write operation;
• comparing the access request message with the configured memory access control to determine whether the access request message is allowable;
• and
• performing the read/write operation in response to determining that the access request message is allowable.

A memory device, comprising:

• a memory cell array;
• means for receiving an unlock password from a system-on-chip (SOC);
• means for closing at least one pass gate to allow a memory access control of the memory device to receive a configuration message in response to the received unlock password matching a password within a set of acceptable passwords;
• means for receiving the configuration message from the SOC for configuring the memory access control of the memory device;
• means for configuring the memory access control based on the configuration message;
• means for receiving an access request message from the SOC requesting access to a memory base address and a memory access range of the memory cell array, wherein the access request message includes a read/write operation;
• means for comparing the access request message with the configured memory access control to determine whether the access request message is allowable;
• and
• means for performing the read/write operation in response to determining that the access request message is allowable.