Cryptographic chip and related methods

Abstract

There is described a chip for performing cryptographic operations. The chip comprises a key storage module, a rule storage module, an interface module and a cryptographic module. The key storage module is configured to store one or more cryptographic keys. The rule storage module is configured to store one or more rules, each rule comprising respective rule data, the rule data identifying a respective predetermined cryptographic operation associated with the rule and further identifying at least one of the one or more cryptographic keys to be used in the respective predetermined cryptographic operation. The interface module is configured to receive a rule execution request, wherein the rule execution request comprises a rule identifier to identify a specific rule of the one or more rules to be executed. The cryptographic module is configured to execute the specific rule so as to perform the respective predetermined cryptographic operation in response to the rule execution request. The chip is configured such that the cryptographic keys and the cryptographic module may only be used by executing rules from the one or more rules in response to associated rule execution requests received by the interface module. There is also described a set top box comprising the chip, a chip-implemented method of performing a cryptographic operation, and a method of loading a new rule into a rule storage module of a chip.