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:
Oct. 24, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 19, 1998
Robin T Tran, Houston, TX (US);
Christopher E Simonich, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A security device and methodology that prevents unauthorized access to general purpose I/O pins in a computer system. In a system according to the invention, secure general purpose I/O pins are utilized as enable signals for data transfer devices such as Universal Serial Port (USB) ports. In one embodiment of the invention, access to the secure general purpose I/O pins is governed by an administrator password that is protected by a memory slot in a security device. When an administrator (or other authorized user) desires access to the general purpose I/O register that controls the secure general purpose I/O pins, the administrator enters the administrator password. If the password is correct, the relevant slot of the security device is unlocked, thereby permitting completion of write cycles to the secure general purpose I/O register. If a write cycle to the secure general purpose I/O register is attempted while the relevant slot in the security device is locked, the write cycle is ignored. Control and monitoring of various system resources in a secure manner is thereby permitted via use of the secure general purpose I/O pins.