1. An embedded system comprising: an interface to an external peripheral device storing secure boot code; and a secure boot controller comprising: a secure central processing unit (CPU) comprising: a processor core; a random access memory (RAM) coupled to the processor core; and a read only memory (ROM) coupled to the processor core, the ROM storing initialization firmware, the initialization firmware configured to manipulate the processor core to initiate transfer of a copy of the secure boot code from the external peripheral device to the RAM and to authenticate the secure boot code; and wherein the processor core is to execute the secure boot code from the RAM to initialize the embedded system.