Security Starts With A Threat Assessment


Developing the security architecture for an electronic device begins with building a threat model wherein we ask these questions: What is the operational environment in which the device needs to function? What type of attacks can be identified? What level of access does a potential attacker have to the device? What possible attack paths can an attacker exploit? What resources (... » read more

Making PUFs Even More Secure


As security has become a must-have in most systems, hardware roots of trust (HRoTs) have started appearing in many chips. Critical to an HRoT is the ability to authenticate and to create keys – ideally from a reliable source that is unviewable and immutable. “We see hardware roots of trust deployed in two use models — providing a foundation to securely start a system, and enabling a se... » read more

Hardware Root of Trust: Everything You Need To Know


As explained in our “Secure Silicon IP Webinar Series“, a root of trust is the security foundation for an SoC, other semiconductor device or electronic system. However, its meaning differs depending on who you ask. For example, the hardware root of trust contains the keys for cryptographic functions and is usually a part of the secure boot process providing the foundation for the software c... » read more

2021 Top Tech Videos


While the world’s chip shortage dominated the 2021 headlines, the semiconductor industry blazed new trails with the increased electrification of cars, focused AI applications, improving power/performance, better utilization of data deluges, dealing with design challenges in advanced nodes and much more focus on chip security. Semiconductor Engineering’s Tech Talks reflected these focus a... » read more

Blog Review: Dec. 15


Arm's Hannah Peeler, Joshua Randall, and Zach Lasiuk examine the carbon cost of data centers and introduce a tool that allows users to make informed decisions about the carbon impact of their compute workloads. Synopsys' Kenneth Larsen provides a primer on the fundamentals of quantum computing, the role of photonics in building quantum systems, and the future potential impact on chip design.... » read more

Securing Short-Range Communications


Short-range wireless communication technology is in widespread use and growing rapidly, adding conveniences for consumers while also opening the door to a whole range of cyberattacks. This technology is common across a variety of applications, from wireless key fobs to unlock a car and start the ignition, to tags used to help drivers find misplaced items such as car keys. RFID also is starti... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Intel intends to take Mobileye public in mid-2022 on a US market through an IPO of newly issued stock. The subsidiary, which Intel acquired in 2017, develops SoCs for ADAS and autonomous driving solutions. Mobileye has achieved record revenue year-over-year with 2021 gains expected to be more than 40 percent higher than 2020, highlighting the powerful benefits to both companies of our ongoing p... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Pervasive computing An outage in network equipment at the US-EAST-1 Region of Amazon Web Services this week reminded customers of the downside to having every appliance run via a data center. Users accessing apps tied to AWS on the East coast found services did not work, including Alexa, Ring, smart appliances, some Amazon warehouses and packaging delivery, web APIs such as Slack, and some str... » read more

Scaling DDR5 RDIMMs To 5600 MT/s


Looking forward to 2022, the first of the DDR5-based servers will hit the market with RDIMMs running at 4800 megatransfers per second (MT/s). This is a 50% increase in data rate over top-end 3200 MT/s DDR4 RDIMMs in current high-performance servers. DDR5 memory incorporates a number of innovations, such as Decision Feedback Equalization (DFE), and a new DIMM architecture which enable that speed... » read more

Innovations In Sensor Technology


Sensors are the “eyes” and “ears” of processors, co-processors, and computing modules. They come in all shapes, forms, and functions, and they are being deployed in a rapidly growing number of applications — from edge computing and IoT, to smart cities, smart manufacturing, hospitals, industrial, machine learning, and automotive. Each of these use cases relies on chips to capture d... » read more

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