HARP: Practically and Effectively Identifying Uncorrectable Errors in Memory Chips That Use On-Die Error-Correcting Codes


Abstract: "State-of-the-art techniques for addressing scaling-related main memory errors identify and repair bits that are at risk of error from within the memory controller. Unfortunately, modern main memory chips internally use on-die error correcting codes (on-die ECC) that obfuscate the memory controller's view of errors, complicating the process of identifying at-risk bits (i.e., error pr... » read more

Uncovering In-DRAM RowHammer Protection Mechanisms: A New Methodology, Custom RowHammer Patterns, and Implications


Abstract: "The RowHammer vulnerability in DRAM is a critical threat to system security. To protect against RowHammer, vendors commit to security-through-obscurity: modern DRAM chips rely on undocumented, proprietary, on-die mitigations, commonly known as Target Row Refresh (TRR). At a high level, TRR detects and refreshes potential RowHammer-victim rows, but its exact are not openly disclose... » read more

A Deeper Look into RowHammer’s Sensitivities: Experimental Analysis of Real DRAM Chips and Implications on Future Attacks and Defenses


Abstract "RowHammer is a circuit-level DRAM vulnerability where repeatedly accessing (i.e., hammering) a DRAM row can cause bit flips in physically nearby rows. The RowHammer vulnerability worsens as DRAM cell size and cell-to-cell spacing shrink. Recent studies demonstrate that modern DRAM chips, including chips previously marketed as RowHammer-safe, are even more vulnerable to RowHammer than... » read more

Security Research Bits


A number of hardware security-related technical papers were presented at the August 2021 USENIX Security Symposium. The organization provides open access research, and the presentation slides and papers are free to the public. Topics include side-channel attacks and defenses, embedded security, hardware security tokens, and more. Here are some highlights with associated links:   [tab... » read more

SMASH: Synchronized Many-sided Rowhammer Attacks from JavaScript


Authors: Finn de Ridder, ETH Zurich and VU Amsterdam; Pietro Frigo, Emanuele Vannacci, Herbert Bos, and Cristiano Giuffrida, VU Amsterdam; Kaveh Razavi, ETH Zurich Abstract: "Despite their in-DRAM Target Row Refresh (TRR) mitigations, some of the most recent DDR4 modules are still vulnerable to many-sided Rowhammer bit flips. While these bit flips are exploitable from native code, tri... » read more

IChannels: Exploiting Current Management Mechanisms to Create Covert Channels in Modern Processors


Find technical paper link here. Abstract: "To operate efficiently across a wide range of workloads with varying power requirements, a modern processor applies different current management mechanisms, which briefly throttle instruction execution while they adjust voltage and frequency to accommodate for power-hungry instructions (PHIs) in the instruction stream. Doing so 1) reduces the pow... » read more

A RISC-V in-network accelerator for flexible high-performance low-power packet processing


Find the technical paper link here. Abstract "The capacity of offloading data and control tasks to the network is becoming increasingly important, especially if we consider the faster growth of network speed when compared to CPU frequencies. In-network compute alleviates the host CPU load by running tasks directly in the network, enabling additional computation/communication overlap and pot... » read more

REDUCT: Keep It Close, Keep It Cool – Scaling DNN Inference on Multi-Core CPUs with Near-Cache Compute


Abstract—"Deep Neural Networks (DNN) are used in a variety of applications and services. With the evolving nature of DNNs, the race to build optimal hardware (both in datacenter and edge) continues. General purpose multi-core CPUs offer unique attractive advantages for DNN inference at both datacenter [60] and edge [71]. Most of the CPU pipeline design complexity is targeted towards optimizin... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools & IP Codasip unveiled three commercially licensed add-ons to the Western Digital SweRV Core EH1, aiming to allow it to be designed into a wider range of applications. The SweRV Core EH1 is a 32-bit, dual-issue, RISC-V ISA core with a 9-stage pipeline, open-sourced through CHIPS Alliance. The add-ons offer a floating-point unit (FPU) that supports the RISC-V single precision [F] and d... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 3


Zeptosecond measurements A group of researchers have set a new world’s record for the shortest timespan measurement. DESY, Fritz-Haber-Institute and Goethe University Frankfurt have measured how long it takes for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule. The result? About 247 zeptoseconds. A zeptosecond is a trillionth of a billionth of a second (10-21 seconds). This is said to be the sh... » read more

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