Limitation of the access to a resource of an electronic circuit
AssigneeProton World International N.V.
InventorsJean-Louis Modave, Thierry Huque
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and a circuit for controlling the access to at least one resource of an electronic circuit, in which a test of the value of a counter over at least one bit conditions the access to the resource, the counter being automatically reset after a time period independent from whether the circuit is powered or not.
Claims30
A method for controlling the access to at least one resource of an electronic circuit, wherein a test of a value of a counter over at least one bit conditions the access to the resource, the counter being automatically reset after a time period independent from whether the electronic circuit is powered or not, and being provided in the form of at least one charge retention circuit comprising at least one first capacitive element exhibiting a leakage through its dielectric space, wherein a switching of a bit of said counter to an active state is caused by an injection or extraction of charges into or from said first capacitive element.
A method for controlling access to a resource of an electronic circuit, comprising:
- testing a value of a counter of at least one bit in response to receiving a request to access the resource, the counter comprising at least one charge retention circuit including at least one first capacitive element having a leakage that discharges the first capacitive element to an inactive state at the end of a time period that is independent of whether power is applied to the electronic circuit;
- initiating a countermeasure in response to the value of the counter being at a limit;
- incrementing or decrementing the counter toward the limit in response to the value of the counter not being at the limit;
- and
- enabling access to the resource in response to the value of the counter not being at the limit.
An electronic circuit comprising:
- a counter comprising at least one charge retention circuit including at least one first capacitive element having a leakage that discharges the first capacitive element to an inactive state at the end of a time period that is independent of whether power is applied to the electronic circuit;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- test a value of the counter in response to receiving a request to access a resource;
- initiate a countermeasure in response to the value of the counter being at a limit;
- increment or decrement the counter toward the limit in response to the value of the counter not being at the limit;
- and
- enable access to the resource in response to the value of counter not being at the limit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.