Importance

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Abstract

A cartridge-controlled system whose use is limited to authorized cartridges. Blocks of instructions of a program designed to run on the machine are encrypted by the machine manufacturer using the private key of a public-key cryptosystem pair. The machine, during an initialization step following the insertion of a new cartridge, decrypts information strings stored in the cartridge through use of the associated public key, and stores the resulting decrypted instructions in random access memory. The machine microprocessor then accesses the instructions in the random access memory. Although the public key may be widely known, as long as the private key is kept secret, there is no way for an unauthorized software/cartridge supplier to encrypt a program such that following decryption in the machine there will result an intelligible sequence of instructions.

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First Claim