A microcontroller includes a memory, direct memory access (DMA) controllers and a microprocessor. The microprocessor maintains one or more memory protection (MP) configurations to control access to protected memory areas of the microcontroller. In response to a secure service call of an unsecure user-application, the microprocessor executes a state machine which disables interrupt requests, determining whether DMA controller configurations and MP configurations satisfy secure-service criteria. When the secure-service criteria are satisfied, at least one secure operation associated with the secure service call is performed, and memory areas accessed during the execution of the at least one secure operation are cleaned. The interrupt requests are re-enabled and a response to the secure service call is generated.

Systems, methods, and apparatus are described for communicating virtual GPIO (VGI) information between multiple source devices and multiple consuming devices. A method for facilitating communication of VGI state over a serial bus includes determining that an in-band interrupt has been asserted on the serial bus while the serial bus is idle, participating in an exchange of VGI state when a first bit of a device address transmitted during bus arbitration associated with the in-band interrupt has a first value, receiving a plurality of bits of VGI state during the exchange of VGI state, including bits transmitted by multiple devices coupled to the serial bus, and mapping at least one bit in the plurality of bits of VGI state to a physical GPIO pin. Transmission of at least a second bit of the device address is suppressed when the first bit of a device address has the first value.

A storage apparatus accessed by using a memory bus is disclosed. The apparatus includes an interface controller, a storage module, a storage controller, a command register, a status register, and a buffer. In addition, the interface controller can be electrically connected to a memory module interface of a computer system. The interface controller receives an access command for accessing the storage module sent by a CPU. The interface controller writes the access command into the command register, and records a current access status or result by using the status register. The storage controller performs status setting on the status register according to the access command in the command register, and performs a corresponding read/write operation on the storage module.

Based on a command to interrupt operation of a selected one or more of a plurality of data storage drives coupled to two or more storage controllers, two or more signals are sent from the two or more storage controllers via two or more data busses associated with and coupled to the respective two or more controllers. The selected data storage drive receives the two or more signals via the two or more data busses. Based on determining that the two or more signals agree, the operation of the selected drive is interrupted.

An application processor includes a system bus, as well as a host processor, a voice trigger system, and an audio subsystem that are electrically connected to the system bus. The voice trigger system performs a voice trigger operation and issues a trigger event based on a trigger input signal that is provided through a trigger interface. The audio subsystem processes audio streams that are replayed or recorded through an audio interface, and receives an interrupt signal through the audio interface while an audio replay operation is performed through the audio interface.

There is provided a communication apparatus, including: a transmission/reception unit that transmits/receives a signal to/from a different apparatus; a confirmation signal detection unit that detects one of a reception confirmation signal and a non-reception confirmation signal, the reception confirmation signal and the non-reception confirmation signal being transmitted from the different apparatus that has received the signal transmitted from the transmission/reception unit; and a conflict avoiding unit that instructs the transmission/reception unit to transmit an abort signal for instructing to interrupt communication after ignoring a predetermined number of bits following the non-reception confirmation signal when the confirmation signal detection unit has detected the non-reception confirmation signal.

Various systems and methods for computer memory management are described herein. A system includes a memory controller to: monitor utilization of a memory device, the memory device used with a memory compression technique; determine that the utilization of the memory device violates a threshold; and initiate a system interrupt to provoke a response, responsive to the utilization of the memory device violating the threshold.

Various embodiments are directed to providing integrity protection for a system management mode. During initialization, a hash value of a system management mode control routine may be determined. Subsequently, during operation, the hash value may be compared to a hash value of a system management mode control routine to be executed. The system management mode control routine to be executed may be determined to be authentic if the hash values are the same.

A technique for determining if a CPU stalling an RCU grace period has interrupts enabled. Per-CPU state information is maintained for the CPU, including an RCU grace-period number snapshot and an interrupt work-request indicator. If a current RCU grace period has endured for a predetermined time period, it is determined if there is a pending interrupt work request for the CPU. If not, an interrupt work request is generated and the interrupt work-request indicator is updated accordingly. In response to an RCU CPU stall-warning condition, it is determined if the interrupt work request was handled. An RCU CPU stall-warning message reports an interrupt-handling status of the CPU according to the interrupt work request handling determination. If the interrupt work request was not handled, the RCU CPU stall-warning message reports how many RCU grace periods elapsed while the interrupt work request was pending.

A secure engine method includes providing an embedded microcontroller in an embedded device, the embedded microcontroller having internal memory. The method also includes providing a secure environment in the internal memory. The secure environment method recognizes a boot sequence and restricts user-level access to the secure environment by taking control over the secure environment memory. Taking such control may include disabling DMA controllers, configuring at least one memory controller for access to the secure environment, preventing the execution of instructions fetched from outside the secure environment, and only permitting execution of instructions fetched from within the secure environment. Secure engine program instructions are then executed to disable interrupts, perform at least one secure operation, and re-enable interrupts after performing the at least one secure operation. Control over the secure environment memory is released, which can include clearing memory, re-enabling DMA controllers, and restoring memory controller parameters.