International Business Machines Corporation

Paul Stewart Yosim

William Robert Lee

David W Nuechterlein

David Ronny Dwin

Irfan Rashid

Methods and apparatus that allow restricted access to internal registers of an integrated circuit (IC) device via an interface are provided. Unrestricted access to internal registers via the interface may be allowed during a manufacturing process to allow device testing. After such testing is complete, the device may be placed in a restricted access mode, for example, by blowing a master 'lock' fuse, to prevent unrestricted access to one or more of the internal registers via the interface. However, full or partial access to the internal registers may still be provided via an access code or 'combination lock' allowing the master fuse lock, in effect, to be bypassed.

Method and apparatus for resisting hardware hacking through internal register interface

The display buffer of a multimedia workstation is partitioned into a display section and a non-display section. The information to be displayed on the display screen is arranged in the display section of the display buffer. An image or shadow of the display section is written in the non-display section (called a lock buffer) of the display buffer. Prior to updating the display section, a controller reads the protection data from the lock buffer and generates control signals which inhibit the writing of data into protected areas of the display section.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Paul Stewart Yosim