Patent ID: 6834347
Filing Date: 2004-12-21
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
An embedded device, comprising:a computer processor; at least one element operated by said computer processor; a unique machine identifier; and a memory storing computer readable program code for operating said computer processor, and for authenticating an upgrade to said computer readable program code, said computer readable program code comprising: computer readable program code causing said computer processor to access said unique machine identifier; computer readable program code causing said computer processor to access an identifier key associated with said upgrade; computer readable program code causing said computer processor to process said accessed identifier key and/or and said accessed unique machine identifier; computer readable program code causing said computer processor to compare said processed identifier key with said processed unique machine identifier in the same process space; and computer readable program code causing said computer processor, if said processed identifier key matches said processed unique machine identifier, to enable said upgrade; else, to fail said upgrade.