Although version 2.0 of the Computer Express Link (CXL) standard is just making it into new designs, the next generation, version 3.0

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Flex Logix Partners With Intrinsic ID To Secure eFPGA Platform

While the ASIC market has always had its advantages over alternate solutions, it has faced boom and bust cycles typically driven by high NRE development costs and time to market lead times.

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Designing for secure computation and communication has become a crucial requirement across all electronic products. It is necessary to identify potential attack surfaces and integrate design features to thwart attempts to obtain critical data and/or to access key intellectual property. Critical data spans a wide variety of assets, including financial, governmental, and personal privacy information.

The security of intellectual property within a design is needed to prevent product reverse engineering. For example, an attacker may seek to capture firmware running on a microcontroller in an IoT application to provide competitive manufacturers with detailed product information.

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Domain specific processors are a mega-trend in the semiconductor industry, so we see new three letter acronyms like DPU, for Data Processing Unit. System level performance can actually be improved by moving some of the tasks away from the CPU. Companies like Xilinx (Alveo), Amazon (Nitro) and NVIDIA (BlueField) have been talking about DPU architecture for awhile now, and the SmartNIC is now being called a DPU in the hyper-scale data centers.

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Most methods of securing SOCs involve storing a root key that provides the basis of all derived keys and encryption of communication. The weakness with these methods is that even if the root key is stored in secure non-volatile memory, there are often methods to read the key. Once a key has been divulged the device can be cloned and its security is compromised. With long and complex supply chains there is a likelihood that physical devices may come within reach of attackers. With physical access, made easy through supply chains or remote deployment, such as is often the case with IoT devices, keys stored in eFuses, Flash EEPROM or even OTP NVM can be detected.

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Let me acknowledge up front that Avery isn’t the most visible EDA company around. If you know of them, you probably know their X-propagation simulator. Widely respected and used, satisfying a specialized need. They have also been quietly building over the years a stable of VIPs and happy customers, with a special focus on VIPs for PCIe and standards building on PCIe such as NVMe, CXL and CCIX. All hot standards in data centers. Avery claims, and I have no reason to doubt them, that they are the #1 provider of VIPs in this area.

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Dan is joined by Pim Tuyls, founder and CEO of Intrinsic ID. Pim provides background on what a physically unclonable function (PUF) is and how Intrinsic ID developed the technology around SRAMs that are found on virtually all chips. Pim discusses the multiple applications for SRAM PUFs and how they are implemented. He concludes with a view of the future in this area.

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Data protection is on everyone’s mind these days. The news cycle seems to contain a story about hacking, intrusion or cyber-terrorism on a regular basis. The cloud, our hyperconnected devices and the growing reliance on AI-assisted hardware to manage more and more mission critical functions all around us make data protection a front-of-mind item for many. There are many approaches to address data security, some hardware-based and some software-based with many approaches blending both. All of them have a common liability – the cryptographic key that unlocks data access. Just like an impenetrable vault, having the key to that vault neutralizes its protection. An upcoming webinar outlines a way to implement this all-important key in a unique way, one that doesn’t require storing the key at all. Let’s explore how to protect sensitive data with silicon fingerprints.

First, a bit about the company holding the webinar. Intrinsic ID is a unique company that focuses on security IP. Their stated mission is to make it easy to secure any smart device and make the connected world safer. It’s hard to argue with that. At the core of their strategy is something called a physical unclonable function, or PUF technology. This is where the silicon fingerprint comes in. I’ll get back to that in a moment. If you want more background on the company you can see my recent interview with their CEO, Pim Tuyls.

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