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:
Jun. 10, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 07, 2008
Paul Elliott, Bristol, GB;
Tariq Kurd, Bristol, GB;
Paul Elliott, Bristol, GB;
Tariq Kurd, Bristol, GB;
STMicroelectronics (Research & Development) Limited, Marlow, GB;
Abstract
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a hardware mechanism arranged to ensure that associations between instructions and data are enforced so that a processor cannot fetch data from an instruction that is not authorized to do so. A Memory Protection Unit stores entries comprising instructions and associated data memory ranges. A hardware arrangement impairs the operation of the circuit if the processor attempts to make a data fetch from an instruction that is outside the range associated with data in a Memory Protection Unit. Such functioning may be by issuing a chip reset. The Memory Protection Unit may be implemented in a Memory Management Unit having an extension so as to store a validity flag. The validity flag may only be set by a secure process such as the CPU well entrusted code or by a separate trusted hardware source.