Patent ID: 8561170

Claim:
A processor comprising: an I/O controlling module configured to control input of data from an internal circuit communications interface module and output of data to the internal circuit communications interface module; an authentication processing module configured to perform predetermined authentication processing using an entered password and a predetermined key and, if the authentication is successful, output a predetermined authentication signal; and an output controlling module configured to control output of the data to be outputted to the internal circuit communications interface module according to presence or absence of the predetermined authentication signal; wherein the output controlling module controls the output of the data to be outputted such that the data to be outputted is inhibited from being outputted to the internal circuit communications interface module if the predetermined authentication signal is not outputted and such that the data to be outputted is outputted to the internal circuit communications interface module if the predetermined authentication signal is outputted; wherein the output controlling module inhibits the data to be outputted from being outputted to the internal circuit communications interface module and outputs predetermined data, if the predetermined authentication signal is not outputted, wherein the predetermined data is fixed data generated and set by a hardware circuit, wherein the output controlling module is a selector configured to select one of the data to be outputted and the fixed data, and wherein the selector selects one of the data to be outputted and the fixed data according to presence or absence of the predetermined authentication signal and outputs the selected data to the internal circuit communications interface module.