Dynamic Memory Protection Metadata Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data stored in off-chip storage is vulnerable to unauthorized reading or modification, and existing protection methods incur significant storage overhead due to the need for protection metadata.
Innovation Solution
A memory protection unit that dynamically manages region metadata to identify protected and unprotected storage regions, updating protection metadata allocation accordingly, and employs encryption and integrity protection to secure data, with protection metadata stored in off-chip storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If protection metadata is stored for all storage regions to ensure data security, then security reliability is improved, but storage overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating between protected and unprotected storage regions. Region metadata is selectively maintained only for protected regions, while unprotected regions have no associated metadata overhead. This selective approach ensures data security for critical regions without incurring storage overhead for all regions, directly resolving the contradiction between security reliability and storage quantity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic management of region metadata through update requests that can add or remove protected regions. The set of protected regions is not fixed but can be modified at runtime, allowing the system to adapt security requirements and optimize storage overhead dynamically. This dynamic approach enables the system to maintain security only where needed rather than universally.
2Adaptability or versatility
If region metadata is updated to reflect changes in protected regions, then adaptability is improved, but memory access time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the metadata management by separating region metadata from data storage and organizing protected regions into a structured set. This segmentation allows independent updates to region metadata without requiring updates to all associated data, enabling efficient adaptability while minimizing time loss during configuration changes.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a memory protection unit configured to maintain region metadata associated with storage regions of off-chip storage and protection metadata associated with each of the storage regions. The protection metadata is stored in the off-chip storage, and the region metadata encodes whether each of the storage regions belongs to a set of protected storage regions or to a set of unprotected storage regions and encodes information indicating corresponding protection metadata associated with each storage region. The memory protection unit is configured to update the region metadata in response to a region update request identifying a given storage region for which the region metadata is to be modified and to dynamically adjust an amount of memory required to store protection metadata associated with the set of protected storage regions in response to the update to the region metadata.