Patent ID: 8910276

Claim:
An apparatus providing for a secure execution environment, comprising: a microprocessor, comprising: one or more execution units, configured to execute non-secure application programs and a secure application program, wherein said non-secure application programs are accessed from a system memory via a system bus, and wherein said secure application program is executed in a secure execution mode; a cryptographic unit; a processor key register, coupled to said cryptographic unit, configured to store a cryptographic key that is unique to said microprocessor, wherein said cryptographic key is employed to encrypt said secure application program for storage, and wherein said processor key register can only be read by said cryptographic unit; and secure execution mode logic, configured to monitor instructions within said secure application program, and configured to preclude execution of certain instructions; and a secure non-volatile memory, coupled to said microprocessor via a private bus, configured to store said secure application program, wherein said secure application program is encrypted in said system memory according to an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm, and wherein, upon enablement of said secure execution mode, said microprocessor encrypts said secure application program according to a symmetric key algorithm and transfers said secure application program to said secure non-volatile memory over said private bus; wherein said microprocessor is also configured to automatically transition to a degraded mode where BIOS instructions, stored in a BIOS memory that is coupled to said microprocessor, are exclusively allowed to execute in order to allow for user input and the display of messages.