Patent ID: 8266444

Claim:
A chip comprising: a microprocessor; and an integrated non-volatile programmable memory that stores protection data in a protection data memory portion and protected data in a protected data memory portion, wherein said protection data defines a protection level for authorizing or denying access to said protected data memory portion by said microprocessor while a program is executed; and a one-way state machine having different states with different protection levels, said states being established via said protection data, wherein said protection data is modifiable only to increase said protection level by non-reversibly reducing access to a part of the protected data memory portion, and said protected data includes data to activate or deactivate an optional feature of the chip; wherein said protection data further includes a value defining an address limit that characterizes addresses at which said protected data is located, wherein different kinds of protection are provided as a function of whether or not data to be accessed via a request is located within addresses defined by the address limit; and wherein said protected data includes programs and data operating a conditional-access dedicated microprocessor.