Software protection dongle

In addition to software protection, dongles can enable functions in electronic devices, such as receiving and processing encoded video streams on television sets.

"[3] Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host.

[citation needed] A 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies claimed the word dongle was derived from the name "Don Gall".

In cases such as prepress and printing software, the dongle is encoded with a specific, per-user license key, which enables particular features in the target application.

USB dongles are also a big part of Steinberg's audio production and editing systems, such as Cubase, WaveLab, Hypersonic, HALion, and others.

Modern dongles include built-in strong encryption and use fabrication techniques designed to thwart reverse engineering.

Typically it attaches to the memory card slot of the system, with the disc based software refusing to work if the dongle is not detected.

The dongle is also used for holding settings and storage of new codes, added either by the user or through official updates, because the disc, being read only, cannot store them.