Patent ID: 7779273

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system having a plurality of processors, for booting the data processing system, comprising: receiving, in each processor of the plurality of processors, a secret key value; receiving, in each processor of the plurality of processors, at least one random key value; randomly selecting one of the processors of the plurality of processors to be a boot processor; selecting, by each of the processors of the plurality of processors, a key value for the processor based on the random selection of the boot processor, wherein only the boot processor selects the secret key value as its corresponding key value and each of the other processors of the plurality of processors selects one of the at least one random key value as their corresponding key value, wherein the selection of the secret key value, by the boot processor, allows the boot processor to decrypt encrypted boot code and wherein the selection of the at least one random key value, by each of the other processors of the plurality of processors, prevents each of the other processors of the plurality of processors from decrypting the encrypted boot code; receiving, by the boot processor, the encrypted boot code from an encrypted boot code storage; decrypting, by the boot processor, the encrypted boot code using the secret key value; and executing, by the boot processor, the decrypted boot code to thereby boot each of the other processors of the plurality of processors in the data processing system to an operational state.