The Multiplier And The Singularity


In 1993, Vernor Vinge, a computer scientist and science fiction writer, first described an event called the Singularity—the point when machine intelligence matches and then surpasses human intelligence. And since then, top scientists, engineers and futurists have been asking just how far away we are from that event. In 2006, Ray Kurzweil published a book, "The Singularity is Near," in whic... » read more

Executive Committee Members You Need To Know…


Time is the only critic without ambition. – John Steinbeck Like many things, DAC looks decidedly different depending on where you sit, and how you experience it. As an attendee, it’s mostly a few days at the start of every summer where you can sample some of the best technical content on the design of circuits and systems, plus get the chance to network and have some fun with a worldwide... » read more

Rising Threats From Differential Power Analysis


Differential power analysis (DPA) has been a threat vector on the chip landscape for a number of years. It was discovered around the mid 1990s by the teams at [getentity id="22671" e_name="Rambus"]’ Cryptography Research Division, and turned out to be a very effective tool for compromising the ubiquitous SIM card environment. “The most traditional market for DPA has been with smart cards... » read more

Week 41: The Rise Of Security At DAC


All potential attendees interested in security topics should know one thing—the Wednesday keynote on hacking automobiles, while sure to be compelling, will only scratch the surface of security-related content at DAC. Another presenter will talk about how increasing demand for “connected life on the go” and “Internet-enabled everything” opens up a wide variety of security issues for Io... » read more

Defending Against Reverse Engineering


Most of us are familiar with the term “reverse engineering.” We generally know that it is used to extract data or designs from chips, but exactly how is pretty much a mystery. Today, chip security has very broad implications. The landscape of tomorrow will be cluttered with devices that are microprocessor-controlled, including some that are autonomous. Numbers vary, but the current esti... » read more

R-FPGA Security Risks


Configurable chips have been around for a long time. Modern FPGAs, E/EEPROMS and other types of programmable memory have allowed us some flexibility in changing chip functionality in the field. But really, this is static reprogramming and requires a process and procedure. Moreover, it needs to done by knowledgeable programmers, either on site or remotely. But the fact remains that field re-prog... » read more

It’s All IP In An SoC


[getkc id="43" comment="IP"] (IP) has become the major building blocks of complex, highly integrated systems on chips ([getkc id="81" kc_name="SoC"]s), which are found in almost every modern, intelligent electronic device. They have evolved into a one-chip solution that manages many to all of the functions, features, and applications that are found in the ubiquitous sea of today’s electronic... » read more

Locking Down The Chip


The crypto processor is poised to break into the mainstream SoC world. Lower costs for manufacturing, coupled with rising security concerns from increased connectivity and growing complexity have cracked open the door on this approach to locking down a chip. Crypto processors aren’t a new concept, but they generally have been reserved for high-end applications. Until recently, they have ju... » read more

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