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Overview
Flex Logix, headquartered in Mountain View, California, is a leading provider in the field of embedded FPGAs (eFPGA). Flex Logix has integrated Synopsys SRAM Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) technology to enhance security for high-risk assets. The integration of Synopsys SRAM PUF technology ensures that the eFPGA configuration data remains secure and tamper-proof, providing robust protection against physical attacks and remote hacking.
Our technology integration with Synopsys takes security to the next level, particularly when dealing with high-risk assets included in the eFPGA for obfuscation."
Andy Jaros
|VP IP Sales, Marketing & Solutions Architecture at Flex Logix
Challenges
The integration of eFPGA in SoCs presents several security challenges:
- High-Risk Asset Protection: Ensuring that eFPGA content is secure from physical attacks and remote hacking.
- Unclonable Keys: Creating device-unique keys that cannot be copied or stored.
- Cost and Flexibility: Maintaining high security without incurring additional costs or compromising supply chain flexibility.
Solution
Flex Logix has adopted Synopsys SRAM PUF technology to address these challenges by:
- Device-Unique Fingerprint: The SRAM PUF creates a device-unique fingerprint from which a cryptographic root key is extracted.
- High Security: No key material is programmed into the device, and no key is present when it is not in use, making it invisible and unclonable.
- Encryption and Authentication: The key derived from the device-unique root key is used to encrypt and authenticate the eFPGA bitstream, ensuring it cannot be altered, read, or copied.
- Flexibility and Scalability: The technology allows key generation at any time and place in the supply chain without external provisioning and employs standard logic that scales with shrinking technology nodes.
Results
The integration of Synopsys SRAM PUF technology with Flex Logix eFPGA has delivered significant security benefits:
- Enhanced Security: The eFPGA configuration data is protected by a key that is never stored, ensuring it cannot be tampered with or cloned.
- Cost Efficiency: No dedicated security hardware is required to protect the key, reducing costs.
- Supply Chain Security: The configuration data can be securely stored in any non-volatile memory, protecting the supply chain through obfuscation.
- Operational Flexibility: The process for encryption using SRAM PUF-based keys is straightforward and integrates seamlessly into existing SoC hardware designs.
By combining Flex Logix eFPGA and Synopsys SRAM PUF IP technology, companies can achieve a new level of security for their configuration data, ensuring robust protection against potential threats.
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