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:
Nov. 30, 2010
Filed:
Dec. 18, 2006
William J. Westerinen, Sammamish, WA (US);
Todd L. Carpenter, Monroe, WA (US);
Alexander Frank, Bellevue, WA (US);
Shon Schmidt, Seattle, WA (US);
Stephen Richard Drake, Seattle, WA (US);
William J. Westerinen, Sammamish, WA (US);
Todd L. Carpenter, Monroe, WA (US);
Alexander Frank, Bellevue, WA (US);
Shon Schmidt, Seattle, WA (US);
Stephen Richard Drake, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A security module for a pay-per-use computer supplies an appropriate BIOS for a given mode of operation. A power manager in the security module powers only essential circuits until the BIOS is operational to help prevent substitution of a non-authorized BIOS. The security module also includes a capability to monitor and restrict data lines on a bus between a main computer processor and computer system memory. When the computer is operating in a restricted use mode, data lines may be restricted to allow only minimal access to the computer system memory. Bus transactions may be monitored to ensure that only valid transactions are occurring and are within the designated memory space.