Configure, Confirm, Ship


Security is a first-order design requirement for processor-based systems. Processor designers implement security functionality directly into the hardware itself to protect the system at its most fundamental layer. System integrators that use processor IP such as Synopsys’ DesignWare® ARC® processors must ensure that they configure and manage the protection and security features correctly, a... » read more

New Approaches For Hardware Security


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss a wide range of hardware security issues and possible solutions with Norman Chang, chief technologist for the Semiconductor Business Unit at ANSYS; Helena Handschuh, fellow at Rambus, and Mike Borza, principal security technologist at Synopsys. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. (L-R) Norman Chang, Helena Handschuh, Mike Borza. Pho... » read more

Protecting Computing Systems in a Post-Meltdown/ Spectre World


When Jann Horn of Google’s Project Zero posted a detailed blog titled “Reading privileged memory with a side-channel,” it set off a firestorm of activity as the post confirmed that secret information inside a computer could be accessed via two different attacks, Meltdown and Spectre. Essentially, both attacks utilize CPU data cache timing to efficiently exploit and leak informatio... » read more

Security’s Very Strange Path To Success


Security at the chip level appears to be heading toward a more promising future. The reason is simple—more people are willing to pay for security than in the past. For the most part, security is like insurance. You don't know it's working until something goes wrong, and you don't necessarily even know right away if there has been a breach. Sometimes it takes years to show up, because it ca... » read more

Meltdown, Spectre And Foreshadow


Ben Levine, senior director of product management for Rambus’ Security Division, talks with Semiconductor Engineering about hardware-specific attacks, why they are so dangerous, and how they work. » read more

MRAM: from STT to SOT, for security and memory


Abstract: "Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) is one of the leading candidates for embedded memory convergence in advanced technology nodes. It is particularly adapted to low-power applications, requiring a decent level of performance. However, it also have interests for secured applications. The PRESENT cipher is a lightweight cryptographic algorithm targeting ultra... » read more

Meltdown And Spectre, One Year Later


About this time last year, reports surfaced about security attacks on today’s most popular microprocessors (μPs). Researchers called them Meltdown, Spectre gaining widespread attention. Today, however, the industry and especially μP vendors have made some progress toward stemming these vulnerabilities. Here is my analysis as we enter into 2019. When it comes to these vulnerabilities, we ... » read more

Designing Hardware For Security


By Ed Sperling and Kevin Fogarty Cyber criminals are beginning to target weaknesses in hardware to take control of devices, rather than using the hardware as a stepping stone to access to the software. This shift underscores a significant increase in the sophistication of the attackers, as evidenced by the discovery of Spectre and Meltdown by Google Project Zero in 2017 (made public in Ja... » read more

Tech Talk: HW Security


Ben Levine, senior director of product management at Rambus, explains how to minimize the risk of attacks on chip hardware, why design for security is becoming more critical for connected devices, and strategies for making devices less vulnerable. https://youtu.be/twgHcdqvyjU » read more

Tortuga Logic: Hardware Security


For the Internet of Things to really get rolling, it has to be bulletproof. And given the number of very high-profile security breaches in recent months, it has a long way to go before consumers or businesses will feel comfortable using any of a new wave of smart devices That concern has prompted a wave of acquisitions from companies such as Intel (McAffee), Cadence (Jasper Design Automation... » read more

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