Patent ID: 7603551

Claim:
A method of initializing a computer system including a secure execution mode-capable processor and a system memory, said method comprising: a memory controller storing a secure operating system code segment loader to a plurality of locations corresponding to a particular range of addresses within said system memory, wherein said secure operating system code segment loader comprises instructions; executing a security initialization instruction; wherein executing said security initialization instruction includes causing a plurality of operations to be performed including: the memory controller transmitting, to a separate security processor, a start transaction including a base address of said particular range of addresses; the memory controller retrieving said secure operating system code segment loader from said system memory and transmitting said secure operating system code segment loader to the separate security processor for validation as a plurality of data transactions; executing said secure operating system code segment loader instructions: wherein executing said secure operating system code segment loader instructions includes: generating a hash of a secure operating system code segment, wherein the secure operating system code segment comprises instructions executable to control operation of the secure execution mode-capable processor in the secure execution mode; and wherein said security initialization instruction is a single instruction including a plurality of atomically executed microcode components which when executed cause said plurality of operations to be performed.