Apparatus and method to harden computer system

#Some electronic systems may be provided to users on a lease or contract basis. For example, a user may receive the electronic system before the system is completely paid for. While most users will honor the terms of the lease or contract, it may be beneficial to discourage the theft of components or services before the system is paid up. This discouragement of theft or improper tampering with the system may be referred to as hardening.

#For example, an electronic system may benefit from hardening against hacking the system, taking components from the system (e.g. for selling in the grey market or using in other systems), switching providers before the contract is fulfilled, and/or cheating the provider by fudging the amount of time used, among other things.

#For example, some electronic systems may be hardened by soldering down components (e.g. the processor, chipset, and/or memory components), providing limited expandability (e.g. no PCI slots), using tamper proof screws, using a sealed chassis, employing intrusion detection sensors, using a 6 to 8 layer motherboard (e.g. to cover the traces), and/or epoxying the motherboard surfaces. A problem with these techniques is that they add cost to the manufacturing process (thus increasing the burden on the end users who end up paying more) and they penalize the majority of the users (who are legal, ethical) by limiting the system's capacity and expandability (e.g. the users who are paying in full or have finished the terms of the contract may have limited upgrade ability).

#Various features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals generally refer to the same parts throughout the drawings. The drawings are not necessarily to scale; the emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processor-based system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of another processor-based system in accordance with some embodiments of the invention.

#In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the invention may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.

#With reference to FIG. 1, a processor-based system may include a processor 11, the processor having a processor identification, one or more electronic components 12 coupled to the processor, at least one of the electronic components having a component identification, and a hardware security component 13 coupled to the processor 11 and the electronic component 12. Example of processor-based systems include but are not limited to desktop computers, laptop computers, nettop computers, netbook computers, mobile internet devices (MIDs), and gaming devices, among numerous other electronic systems.

#For example, the electronic components may include at least one of a chipset component, a memory component, and an input/output device. For example, the hardware security component 13 may include a secure non-volatile memory (NVM) 14 and a controller 15. For example, the controller 15 may be configured to receive the processor identification from the processor, receive the at least one component identification from the one or more electronic components, and determine if a boot of the processor-based system is a provisioning boot of the processor-based system. If the boot is determined to be the provisioning boot, the controller 15 may be configured to store a security code in the secure non-volatile memory 14, wherein the security code is based on the processor identification and the at least one component identification.