Patent ID: 7318129

Claim:
An apparatus for protecting contents of a shared memory in a memory device controlled by an embedded controller, by allowing dynamic setting of access permissions to said contents, and by allowing updating and recovery of said contents, said apparatus comprising: a computerized system comprising at least one Host linked to said memory device; access paths to said shared memory, to said at least one Host, and to said embedded controller; an arbitration device for allocating the access paths to said memory device and for permitting access to at least one portion of the memory device, the memory device partitioned into separate portions that are designated for storing different types of data, a location in the memory device designated for storing protection information that includes data related to access operations allowed by at least one access path to a part of the shared memory; an access control unit that enable/disables access to predetermined portions of said shared memory; and a protection mechanism coupled to said arbitration device that directs said arbitration unit as to the access privileges of a plurality of different access paths.