Serial Peripheral Interface Switch
First Claim
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1. A method of managing communications with an SPI slave device in a computer comprising:
- disposing a switch coupling a first SPI master to the SPI slave device;
connecting a processor to the switch; and
filtering data from the first SPI master to the SPI slave device under the control of the processor.
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Abstract
An SPI switch allows selection of a BIOS memory transparent to a Southbridge chipset component. The SPI switch provides address translation to a selected BIOS memory area under the control of a security module processor. The SPI switch also provides command filtering to prevent commands that represent a security risk such as bulk erase commands. Because the SPI switch allows transparent redirection between BIOS programs, booting in different operating modes may be supported without any changes to the basic computer architecture or major chipset components.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of managing communications with an SPI slave device in a computer comprising:
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disposing a switch coupling a first SPI master to the SPI slave device; connecting a processor to the switch; and filtering data from the first SPI master to the SPI slave device under the control of the processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A serial peripheral interface (SPI) module comprising:
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a first SPI port for coupling to an SPI master; a second SPI port; an SPI slave coupled to the second SPI port; a processor; and a switching apparatus coupled to the processor, the first SPI port, and the second SPI port, the switching apparatus responsive to signals from the processor for selectively coupling the second SPI port to the first SPI port. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer adapted for use in a restricted mode and an unrestricted mode comprising:
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a first processor; an input/output (I/O) controller coupled to the processor via a main bus; a memory storing at least one basic input/output system (BIOS) coupled to the I/O controller; and a switching module coupled between the memory and the I/O controller;
the switching module comprising;a second processor; an I/O controller interface; a memory interface; and a switch matrix coupled to the second processor, the I/O controller interface, and the memory interface responsive to the second processor for coupling a first BIOS in the memory to the I/O controller when the computer is to be used in the unrestricted mode. to. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification