Serial bootstrap

Approaches in accordance with various embodiments can be used to provide bootstrap data for a computing device, such as a system on chip (SoC). In particular, various embodiments can use one or more shift registers to receive bits of a sequence of bootstrap data in parallel. Individual bits of this bootstrap data sequence can then be provided to the SoC, from the shift register(s), serially and using a single input. Such an approach prevents the need for multiple bootstrap pins on the SoC, as well as the need to multiplex those pins for use with other external devices.