STMicroelectronics Assigned Patent

STMicroelectronics, Inc., Coppell, TX, has been assigned a patent (8,782,430) developed by Duncan Furness, Boulder, CO, Francesco Brianti, San Jose, CA, and David Tamagno, Boulder, CO, for a “secure external buffer for HDD drive system on a chip.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system securely buffers HDD drive data using a host side eXlusive OR (XOR) encryption engine. A host communicates with an encryption interface interposed between the host and a client. Communicatively coupled to the encryption interface is an external buffer for the collection and processing of data. A host side XOR encryption engine, using a random seed, encrypts data originating from the host and places it on the external buffer. Once collected at the buffer and ready for transmittal to the client, the encrypted data is retrieved by the encryption interface and decrypted using the same random seed. The clear data is then encrypted once again using a robust encryption means such as Advance Encryption Standard (AES) encryption by a client side device for conveyance to the client.”

The patent application was filed on Jan. 22, 2010 (12/692,348).