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US 8,266,444 B2Granted
Chip integrated protection means
AssigneeEntropic Communications, Inc.
InventorsEric Desmicht, Stéphane Mutz, Christophe Tison
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention relates to a chip for processing a content, comprising at least a microprocessor. Said chip includes an integrated non-volatile programmable memory for storing protection data and protected data, said protection data being intended to be used for authorizing/denying access to said protected data by said microprocessor under execution of a program. The invention allows to protect program and data dedicated to a chip-integrated conditional-access system and to protect features as external connections and downloaded data directly on the chip.
Claims17
A chip comprising:
- a microprocessor;
- and
- an integrated non-volatile programmable memory that stores protection data in a protection data memory portion and protected data in a protected data memory portion, wherein said protection data defines a protection level for authorizing or denying access to said protected data memory portion by said microprocessor while a program is executed;
- and
- a one-way state machine having different states with different protection levels, said states being established via said protection data, wherein said protection data is modifiable only to increase said protection level by non-reversibly reducing access to a part of the protected data memory portion, and said protected data includes data to activate or deactivate an optional feature of the chip;
- wherein said protection data further includes a value defining an address limit that characterizes addresses at which said protected data is located, wherein different kinds of protection are provided as a function of whether or not data to be accessed via a request is located within addresses defined by the address limit;
- and
- wherein said protected data includes programs and data operating a conditional-access dedicated microprocessor.
5 more elements
A device that recovers a content from a media and processes said content comprising:
- a connection to said media and a chip,
- the chip comprising:
- at least a microprocessor;
- an integrated non-volatile programmable memory that stores protection data in a protection data memory portion and protected data in a protected data memory portion, said protection data defining a protection level for authorizing or denying access to said protected data by said microprocessor while a program is executed;
- and
- a one-way state machine having different states with different protection levels, said states being established via said protection data, wherein said protection data is modifiable only to increase said protection level by non-reversibly reducing access to a part of the protected data memory portion, and wherein said protected data includes data to activate or deactivate an optional feature of the chip;
- wherein said protection data further includes a value defining an address limit that characterizes addresses at which said protected data is located, wherein different kinds of protection are provided as a function of whether or not data to be accessed via a request is located within addresses defined by the address limit;
- and
- wherein the first protected data portion comprises a set of conditional access microprocessor instructions and the first protection data portion comprises a first set of address data associated with the set of conditional access microprocessor instructions that is readable by the microprocessor.
6 more elements
A method for protecting a chip comprising at least a microprocessor, said method comprising:
- using at least an authorized access to modify a first protected data portion in a first integrated non-volatile memory, and
- protecting, via a one-way state machine having different states with different protection levels, said states being established via protection data, access to said first protected data portion in said first integrated non-volatile memory by modifying a first protection data portion of the first integrated non-volatile memory in order to deny said access, wherein said protection data is modifiable only to increase said protection level by non-reversibly reducing access to a part of the first protected data memory portion, and said protected data includes data to activate or deactivate an optional feature of the chip;
- wherein said protection data further includes a value defining an address limit that characterizes addresses at which said protected data is located, wherein different kinds of protection are provided as a function of whether or not data to be accessed via a request is located within addresses defined by the address limit;
- and
- wherein the first protected data portion comprises a set of conditional access microprocessor instructions and the first protection data portion comprises a first set of address data associated with the set of conditional access microprocessor instructions that is readable by the microprocessor.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.