STRUCTURE FOR SECURING LEASED RESOURCES ON A COMPUTER

• US 20080263560A1
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lopez, Fernando A., Begun, Ralph M., Heinzmann, Andrew S., BANDHOLZ, JUSTIN P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,028,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering

Abstract

A design structure embodied in a machine readable storage medium for designing, manufacturing, and/or testing a design is for securing of leased resources on a computer. The design structure includes a computer for securing resources may comprise at least one processor, a plurality of resources, wherein each resource is associated with configuration data and a programmable logic device connected to each of the plurality of resources. The programmable logic device may be configured for determining whether a resource is leased, reading un-encoded configuration data from a resource, and sending the configuration data to a first unit, if the resource is not leased. The programmable logic device may further be configured for reading encoded configuration data from a resource, decoding the configuration data, sending the configuration data that was decoded to a first unit, and logging use of the resource by the first unit, if the resource is leased.

Claims

1. A design structure embodied in a machine readable storage medium for at least one of designing, manufacturing, and testing a design, the design structure comprising:

a computer for securing resources, comprising;

at least one processor;

a plurality of resources, wherein each resource is associated with configuration data;

a programmable logic device connected to each of the plurality of resources, the programmable logic device configured for;

determining whether a resource is leased;

reading un-encoded configuration data from a resource;

sending the configuration data to a first unit, if the resource is not leased;

reading encoded configuration data from a resource;

decoding the configuration data;

sending the configuration data that was decoded to a first unit; and

logging use of the resource by the first unit, if the resource is leased.

2. The design structure of claim 1, the programmable logic device further configured for:

determining whether a resource is enabled.

3. The design structure of claim 2, the programmable logic device further configured for:

reading encoded configuration data from a resource;

decoding the configuration data;

sending the configuration data that was decoded to a first unit; and

logging use of the resource by the first unit, if the resource is leased and enabled.

4. The design structure of claim 3, the programmable logic device further configured for:

reading encoded configuration data from a resource; and

sending the configuration data to a first unit, if the resource is leased and not enabled.

5. The design structure of claim 1, further comprising a first data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the first data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

6. The design structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of resources includes at least one of a processor, a hard drive, a memory module and a server blade.

7. The design structure of claim 6, wherein the programmable logic device is connected to each of the plurality of resources via an SMBUS.

8. The design structure of claim 7, wherein configuration data comprises serial product data of a resource.

9. The design structure of claim 8, wherein configuration data of a resource resides on an EEPROM of the resource.

10. The design structure of claim 9, wherein the first unit comprises a BIOS program of another computer.

11. The design structure of claim 1, further comprising a second data embedded in configuration data of each resource, wherein the second data indicates whether the resource is enabled.

12. The design structure of claim 1, wherein the design structure comprises a netlist, which describes the computer.

13. The design structure of claim 1, wherein the design structure resides on the machine readable storage medium as a data format used for the exchange of layout data of integrated circuits.