The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 18, 1995
Filed:
Apr. 17, 1992
Michael K Benton, Malvern, PA (US);
An Le, Philadelphia, PA (US);
Unisys Corporation, Blue Bell, PA (US);
Abstract
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for verifying the authenticity of a circuit board incorporated in a system. The method employs signal representing a unique identifier, such as a serial number and an associated error check code, to identify the circuit board. The identifier signal is passed from the circuit board to the system when the circuit board is initialized. To verify that a circuit board is authentic, the error check code (ECC) represented in the second part of the circuit board's identifier signal is verified. If the ECC is not correct then the circuit board is left unused. Next, the first part of the identifier signal (e.g. the serial number) is compared to the identifier signals for all other circuit boards mounted within the system. If a match of any two identifier signals is found, all circuit boards associated with the common identifier signal are left unused. If no duplicates are found and the ECC was correct, the circuit board is permitted to function.