Apparatus and method for booting an application processor

A method comprising:

• storing a first value and a second value related to a secure boot process in a register;
• and
• booting a first core of a plurality of cores directly into a paged 64-bit execution environment by performing:
• receiving a first initialization message, the first core to clear a plurality of registers responsive to the first initialization message;
• receiving a second initialization message and reading the first and second values from the register responsive to receiving the second initialization message, the first value indicating whether a first initialization mode is supported, and the second value comprising an address pointer identifying a data structure comprising a plurality of state values;
• and
• initializing the paged 64-bit execution environment using the plurality of state values from the data structure responsive to the first value indicating the first initialization mode is supported and the data structure indicating enabling the paged 64-bit execution environment.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a computing system, are capable of causing the computing system to perform:

• storing a first value and a second value related to a secure boot process in a register;
• and
• booting a first core of a plurality of cores directly into a paged 64-bit execution environment by performing:
• receiving a first initialization message, the first core to clear a plurality of registers responsive to the first initialization message;
• receiving a second initialization message and reading the first and second values from the register responsive to receiving the second initialization message, the first value indicating whether a first initialization mode is supported, and the second value comprising an address pointer identifying a data structure comprising a plurality of state values;
• and
• initializing the paged 64-bit execution environment using the plurality of state values from the data structure responsive to the first value indicating the first initialization mode is supported and the data structure indicating enabling the paged 64-bit execution environment.