Patent ID: 8286883

Claim:
A storage device, comprising: an access port; a non-volatile memory device configured to store data, the memory device partitioned into at least one read-only partition; a controller coupled to the access port and to the non-volatile memory device, the controller configured to receive read data from the non-volatile memory device and provide the read data to the access port, and to receive write data from the access port and provide the write data to the non-volatile memory device, the controller further configured to receive status words, including a status word indicating that the read-only partition should be opened to writing and to respond by changing the attribute of the read-only partition from read-only to read/write and provide the status word to the access port indicating the attribute of the read-only partition has changed from read-only to read/write, the controller further configured to execute a plurality of write commands on the read-only partition when the attribute of the read-only partition is read/write, the controller further configured to determine the size of the read-only partition and the size of any data that are to be written to the read-only partition, the controller further configured to apply a resizing command to the memory device to resize the partition if the controller determines that the size of any data that are to be written to the read-only partition is larger than the size of the of the read-only partition; and a first integrated circuit device coupled to the controller and having integrated therein a processor that may be controlled only internally from within the first integrated circuit device, a cryptography engine and a data storage device, the first integrated circuit device physically and electrically tamper-proof, and configured to receive commands coupled by the controller from the access port to the first integrated circuit device, the commands including a command to open the read-only partition to writing, the first integrated circuit device further configured to respond to the command to open the read-only partition to writing by determining if the first integrated circuit device is in an authorized state, and, if so, to send to the controller the status word indicating that the read-only partition should be opened to writing.