US Patent 11681784 Hardware license verification

Verifying a hardware license and controlling hardware features includes receiving a first part of a license payload and a license signature covering the license payload from a CPU, the license signature being generated using a private encryption key; receiving a second part of the license payload from a memory, the CPU being unable to modify the second part of the license payload; generating a hash using the first part and the second part of the license payload; and verifying the license signature using the hash and a public encryption key associated with the private encryption key. When the verifying is successful, communicating with circuitry to enable functionality of the circuitry specified in the license payload.