Intel Assigned Four Patents

Pre-boot recovery of a locked computer system

Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,296,554) developed by four co-inventors for a "pre-boot recovery of a locked computer system."

The co-inventors are Mojtaba Mirashrafi, Portland, OR, Mousumi Hazra, Gyan Prakash, Beaverton, OR, and Saurabh Dadu, Tigard, OR.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, apparatuses, articles, and removable storage devices for pre-boot recovery of a locked computer system. In one instance, the method includes determining on pre-boot whether a removable storage device is attached to a computer system, determining whether the computer system is in a locked state and, if the removable storage device is detected, transferring control to a pre-boot authentication module (PBA) stored on the removable storage device to interact with a manageability engine to restore the computer system from the locked state to an unlocked state. If the removable storage device is not detected, the computer system shuts down if the system is determined to be in the locked state and no other PBA is detected. The computer system comprises a host operating environment and a manageability engine that operates independent of the host operating environment. Other embodiments may also be described and claimed."

The patent application was filed on Dec. 30, 2008 (12/346,078).

Data encryption and/or decryption by integrated circuit

Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,300,825) developed by Nitin Sarangdhar, Portland, OR, Ned Smith, Beaverton, OR, and Vincent Von Bokern, Rescue, CA, for a "data encryption and/or decryption by integrated circuit."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "In an embodiment, an apparatus is provided that may include an integrated circuit to be removably communicatively coupled to at least one storage device. The integrated circuit of this embodiment may be capable of encrypting and/or and decrypting, based at least in part upon a first key, data to be, in at least in part, stored in and/or retrieved from, respectively, at least one region of the at least one storage device. The at least one region and a second key may be associated with at least one access privilege authorized, at least in part, by an administrator. The second key may be stored, at least in part, externally to the at least one storage device. The first key may be obtainable, at least in part, based, at least in part, upon at least one operation involving the second key. Of course, many alternatives, modifications, and variations are possible without departing from this embodiment."

The patent application was filed on June 30, 2008 (12/164,663).

System and method for utilizing a protected/hidden region of semiconductor based memory/storage

Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,281,116) developed by Michael A. Rothman, Puyallup, WA, and Vincent J. Zimmer, Federal Way, WA, for a "system and method for utilizing a protected/hidden region of semiconductor based memory/storage."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method for accessing a protected area of a solid-state storage device via firmware control is described. During system initialization, firmware components are loaded and executed to initialize a computer system. These firmware components include a firmware driver for accessing solid-state storage devices connected to the computer system. The system firmware enables a protected area on a solid-state storage device’s media to be accessed under firmware control. After firmware accesses, the protected area is closed from access by non-firmware entities by "hiding" the true size of the media such that those entities are unaware of this area of the media. Mechanisms are disclosed for providing firmware access to the protected area only during pre-boot, and for both pre-boot and run-time operations. The firmware-controlled media access scheme may be used to load firmware stored on solid-state media during pre-boot and to store system information in the protected area during pre-boot and/or run-time operations."

The patent application was filed on Dec. 31, 2008 (12/347,840).

Using a live OS to set up and configure an active management technology device

Intel, Santa Clara, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,291,203) developed by Kecheng Lu and Fang Xiao, Shanghai, China, for "using a live OS to set up and configure an active management technology device."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An active management technology device may be provisioned using a live OS stored on a disk, in one embodiment. After disk insertion, no further operator involvement may be needed in some cases."

The patent application was filed on March 21, 2007 (11/726,188).