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:
Sep. 02, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 11, 2001
Greg E. Scott, Higley, AZ (US);
Jenny M. Pelner, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods, circuitry, an apparatus, and a system for controlling access to a protected area of a memory are disclosed. The method includes detecting an attempt to write to the protected area, determining whether a write authorization flag (not located in the protected area) has been set by instructions located in the protected area, and, if the flag has been set, enabling the attempted write operation. The circuitry, apparatus, and system embody the method in various combinations of software and hardware, such that a write detection module alerts a processor module regarding attempts to write to the protected area, the processor module determines whether the write operation has been authorized by checking the state of the authorization flag, and enables the write operation to the protected area only if the authorization flag has been set.