Back to results
US 7,073,064 B1Granted
Method and apparatus to provide enhanced computer protection
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsMichael F. Angelo, George David Wisecup, David L. Collins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for protecting a computer system. Specifically, a method and system for validating portions of memory at each power-on cycle is described. A Boot Block is used to validate the BIOS, CMOS and NVRAM of a system. The BIOS may also be used to validate the Boot Block, CMOS and NVRAM.
Claims55
A computer system comprising:
- a first section of non-volatile memory configured to store a BIOS program, the first section of non-volatile memory being reprogrammable;
- and
- a second section of non-volatile memory operatively coupled to the first section of non-volatile memory, the second section of non-volatile memory being configured to store a boot-block program;
- the boot-block program having a first validation routine configured to validate the BIOS program stored in the first section of non-volatile memory, and the BIOS program having a second validation routine configured to validate the boot-block program stored in the second section of non-volatile memory.
1 more element
A computer system comprising:
- means for validating a BIOS program stored in a first section of non-volatile memory by a boot-block program stored in a second section of non-volatile memory;
- and
- means for validating the boot-block program stored in the second section of non-volatile memory by the BIOS program stored in the first section of non-volatile memory.
A method of operating a computer system comprising:
- validating a BIOS program stored in a first section of non-volatile memory by a boot-block program stored in a second section;
- and
- validating the boot-block program stored in the second section of non-volatile memory by the BIOS program stored in the first section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.