Hardware enablement using an interface

摘要

A hardware enablement apparatus includes a processor, and a communications interface configured for writing license data to one or more data registers and for using the license data to selectively enable, under control of the processor, hardware features associated with the data registers, at least one of the data registers being implemented in non-volatile memory.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a non-volatile memory; a processor coupled to the non-volatile memory; and a hardware communications interface coupled between the processor and a hardware device and, in response to control signals received from the processor, operable to perform operations comprising writing to the non-volatile memory license data that is associated with at least one respective hardware feature of the hardware device, and generating from the license data one or more outputs that selectively enable the at least one hardware feature of the hardware device; and wherein the non-volatile memory provides an unlock data register, and the communications interface is operable to perform operations comprising storing validation information associated with the license data in the unlock data register, and comparing the validation information with an internally calculated value in order to enable the writing of the license data to the non-volatile memory.