Secure input voltage adjustment in processing devices

• US 10,209,726 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2016
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hovis, William Paul, Blankenburg, Garrett Douglas, Atkinson, Peter Anthony, Ray, Robert James, Hernandez Mojica, Andres Felipe, Boshra-Riad, Samy, Wee, Erng-Sing, Langendorf, Brian Keith
• Primary Examiner(s): Hicks, Austin
• Application Number:
  US15/178,966
• Publication Number:
  US 20170357279A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 713300
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/625 wherein it is irrelevant whether the variable actually regulated is ac or dc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3296 by lowering the supply or operating voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/81 by operating on the power supply, e.g. enabling or disabling power-on, sleep or resume operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2109 Game systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Secure voltage adjustment techniques for computing systems and processing devices are presented herein. In one example, a method of controlling operating voltages for a processing device includes initializing a security portion of the processing device after application of input voltages to the processing device as supplied by voltage regulation circuitry according to voltage identifiers (VIDs) established for the processing device. The method includes, in the security portion, generating adjusted input voltages based on at least the VIDs and authenticated voltage offset information stored according to a digitally signed security process, and instructing the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the adjusted input voltages to the processing device.

Claims

1. A method of controlling operating voltages for a processing device, the method comprising:

initializing a security portion of the processing device after application of input voltages to the processing device as supplied by voltage regulation circuitry according to voltage identifiers (VIDs) established for the processing device;

in the security portion, generating adjusted input voltages based on at least the VIDs and authenticated voltage offset information stored according to a digitally signed security process, wherein the adjusted input voltages comprise voltages below manufacturer specified operating voltages for the processing device;

in the security portion, instructing the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the adjusted input voltages to the processing device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to application of the adjusted input voltages, booting the processing device into an operating system.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

in the security portion of the processing device, receiving a request from a software process executed by the processing device to alter at least one of the adjusted input voltages to a further voltage level, and responsively instructing the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the further voltage level to the processing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the VIDs comprise fused operating voltage indicators for the processing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the authenticated voltage offset information is determined from minimum operating voltages identified in a voltage adjustment process that comprises applying incrementally adjusted input voltages to the processing device during a functional test that exercises the processing device in context with associated system elements of a computing assembly and monitors for operational failures of at least the processing device during application of each of the incrementally adjusted input voltages.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the authenticated voltage offset information according to the digitally signed security protocol by at least digitally signing a data structure that includes voltage offset information and storing an authenticated version of the voltage offset information in a non-volatile memory.

7. An apparatus comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media;

program instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media that, based at least in part on execution by a security processor core of a processing device, direct the security processor core to at least;

initialize the security processor core after application of input voltages to the processing device as supplied by voltage regulation circuitry according to voltage identifiers (VIDs) established for the processing device;

generate adjusted input voltages based on at least the VIDs and authenticated voltage offset information stored according to a digitally signed security process, wherein the adjusted input voltages comprise voltages below manufacturer specified operating voltages for the processing device;

instruct the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the adjusted input voltages to the processing device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, comprising further program instructions, based at least in part on execution by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:

responsive to application of the adjusted input voltages, initiate a process for the processing device to boot into an operating system.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, comprising further program instructions, based at least in part on execution by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:

receive a request from a software process executed by the processing device to alter at least one of the adjusted input voltages to a further voltage level, and responsively instruct the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the further voltage level to the processing device.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the VIDs comprise fused operating voltage indicators for the processing device.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the authenticated voltage offset information is determined from minimum operating voltages identified in a voltage adjustment process that comprises applying incrementally adjusted input voltages to the processing device during a functional test that exercises the processing device in context with associated system elements of a computing assembly and monitors for operational failures of at least the processing device during application of each of the incrementally adjusted input voltages.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, comprising further program instructions, based at least in part on execution by the processing system, direct the processing system to at least:

store the authenticated voltage offset information according to the digitally signed security protocol by at least digitally signing a data structure that includes voltage offset information and storing an authenticated version of the voltage offset information in a non-volatile memory.

13. A processing device, comprising:

one or more processing cores;

a security core configured to initialize after application of input voltages to the processing device, wherein the input voltages are supplied by voltage regulation circuitry according to voltage identifiers (VIDs) established for the processing device;

the security core configured to read digitally signed voltage information stored in a memory and authenticate the digitally signed voltage information to determine voltage offset information for the processing device;

the security core configured to execute a voltage modification process for the processing device that determines adjusted input voltages below manufacturer specified operating voltages for the processing device based on at least the VIDs and the voltage offset information, instructs the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the adjusted input voltages to the processing device, and verifies the voltage regulation circuitry has supplied the adjusted input voltages to the processing device.

14. The processing device of claim 13, comprising:

responsive to verifying the voltage regulation circuitry has supplied the adjusted input voltages, the security core configured to initiate a process for the processing device to boot an operating system on the one or more processing cores.

15. The processing device of claim 14, comprising:

the security core configured to receive a request from a software process executed by the one or more processing cores to alter at least one of the adjusted input voltages to a further voltage level, and responsively instruct the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the further voltage level to the processing device.

16. The processing device of claim 13, wherein the VIDs comprise fused operating voltage indicators for the processing device.

17. The processing device of claim 13, wherein the voltage offset information is determined from minimum operating voltages identified in a voltage adjustment process that comprises applying incrementally adjusted input voltages to the processing device during a functional test that exercises the processing device in context with associated system elements of a computing assembly and monitors for operational failures of at least the processing device during application of each of the incrementally adjusted input voltages.

18. A method of controlling operating voltages for a processing device, the method comprising:

storing in a non-volatile memory authenticated voltage offset information according to a digitally signed security protocol by at least digitally signing a data structure that includes voltage offset information;

initializing a security portion of the processing device after application of input voltages to the processing device as supplied by voltage regulation circuitry according to voltage identifiers (VIDs) established for the processing device;

in the security portion, generating adjusted input voltages based on at least the VIDs and the authenticated voltage offset information stored according to the digitally signed security protocol; and

in the security portion, instructing the voltage regulation circuitry to supply the adjusted input voltages to the processing device.