Patent ID: 7296294

Claim:
A method of generating a strong hardware identification (SHWID) for a first computer system having a first hardware configuration, wherein the method comprises: identifying each component class within the first hardware configuration, wherein the number of component classes is equal to n; determining a class product, c p , for each component class wherein the class product, c p , for each component class is determined by the following steps: choosing the number of component classes n; identifying the n component classes; identifying all instances within each component class; assigning an identification string for each component instance; generating instance primes, p p,q , for each component instance, wherein each instance prime is a positive prime number, and wherein p represents a given component class number ranging from 1 to n, and q represents the q-th type of component within the first hardware configuration; and multiplying the instance primes within each component class to form class product, c p , for each component class; determining a partial secret, P p , for each component class; and adding the class product, c p , and the partial secret, P p , for each component class to form n strong class IDs, wherein the n strong class IDs in combination form the strong hardware identification (SHWID) of the first computer system.