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. 22, 2009
Filed:
Jun. 09, 2006
Jason N. Dale, Austin, TX (US);
Jonathan J. Dement, Austin, TX (US);
Clark M. O'niell, White Plains, NY (US);
Steven L. Roberts, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Jason N. Dale, Austin, TX (US);
Jonathan J. DeMent, Austin, TX (US);
Clark M. O'Niell, White Plains, NY (US);
Steven L. Roberts, Cedar Park, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A system and method for masking a hardware boot sequence are provided. With the system and method, one of the processors of a multiprocessor system is chosen to be a boot processor. The other processors of the multiprocessor system execute masking code that generates electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures that mask the electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures of the actual boot processor. Such masking may involve running the same boot code as the boot processor but without obtaining access to security information, such as the security key for accessing the system. The electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures generated by the execution of the masking code preferably approximate the electromagnetic and/or thermal signatures of the actual boot code executing on the boot processor. In this way, it is difficult to distinguish which processor is the actual boot processor.