Physical presence determination in a trusted platform

Apparatus comprising:

• a trusted platform module (TPM);
• a nonvolatile memory having computer readable program code stored therein;
• and
• a circuit board which couples said TPM and said nonvolatile memory and having a processor and a status register which is settable only in hardware and assumes a power-on status state which indicates how the application of power to said circuit board was last previously initiated;
• wherein the processor and said nonvolatile memory are configured on said circuit board so as to execute code stored therein as the initial code executed by the processor in response to a reset event, the code being effective when executing to:
• read the power-on status state of the status register;
• determine whether the application of power to said circuit board was last previously initiated by the activation of a power-on switch coupled to said circuit board based on the power-on status state as read from the status register;
• and
• configure a physical presence flag in said TPM to indicate lack of physical presence in response to a determination that the power-on switch was not activated;
• wherein the code which is effective to read, determine, and configure executes before an OS load event, and wherein operation of said TPM is limited as a function of the configured physical presence flag.

Apparatus comprising:

• a trusted platform module (TPM);
• a nonvolatile memory having computer readable program code stored therein;
• and
• a circuit board which couples said TPM and said nonvolatile memory and having a processor and a status register which is settable only in hardware and assumes a power-on status state which indicates how the application of power to said circuit board was last previously initiated;
• wherein the processor and said nonvolatile memory are configured on said circuit board so as to execute code stored therein as the initial code executed by the processor in response to a reset event, the code being effective when executing to:
• read the power-on status state of the status register;
• determine whether the application of power to said circuit board was last previously initiated by the activation of a power-on switch coupled to said circuit board based on the power-on status state as read from the status register;
• and
• configure a physical presence flag in said TPM to indicate physical presence in response to a determination that the power-on switch was activated;
• wherein the code which is effective to read, determine, and configure executes before an OS load event, and wherein a predetermined trusted operation is allowed to execute in said TPM as a function of the configured physical presence flag.