Design For Security Now Essential For Chips, Systems


It's nearly impossible to create a completely secure chip or system, but much can be done to raise the level of confidence about that security. In the past, security was something of an afterthought, disconnected from the architecture and added late in the design cycle. But as chips are used increasingly in safety- and mission-critical systems, and as the value of data continues to rise, the... » read more

L5 Adoption Hinges on 5G/6G


Truly self-driving cars don’t yet exist, and research shows many consumers are wary of them anyway. What will it take to make fully autonomous cars possible? And how can automakers convince consumers to adopt such vehicles? Experts say the answer to both questions could lie in wireless communication networks. That’s because such networks offer a workaround to a major obstacle in autonomo... » read more

Blog Review: Aug. 17


Synopsys' Steve Pateras explains the basics of silicon lifecycle management and how it can help monitor, analyze, and optimize both semiconductor and end-user systems throughout the product value chain, from design and manufacturing to testing and maintenance. Siemens' Heather George considers the current state of 3D chiplet-based designs and efforts to standardize chiplet models and deliver... » read more

Week in Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive and Mobility Search engine giant Baidu said Monday it is the first company to secure permits to operate robotaxis in China without a human safety driver. Baidu’s Apollo and Toyota-backed Pony.ai already operate robotaxis with backup drivers in Beijing. Also this week, smartphone maker Xiaomi said it is running autonomous driving tests on 140 vehicles in China. Xiaomi announced it ... » read more

Hertzbleed: Prime Time For Power Side Channel Countermeasures Or Novelty Attack?


Hertzbleed is a new side-channel attack that turns a power side channel into a timing side channel. That timing side channel may be exploitable even if the algorithm runs in a constant number of clock cycles. The novel observation is that the duration of a clock cycle can vary depending on the data processed on a CPU that uses dynamic frequency scaling. This allows a remote attacker to extract... » read more

Chip Backdoors: Assessing the Threat


In 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek made an explosive claim: Chinese spies had implanted backdoors in motherboards used by some high-profile customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense. All of those customers issued strongly worded denials. Most reports of hardware backdoors have ended up in exchanges like these. There are allegations and counter-allegations about specifics. But as hardw... » read more

Is Standardization Required For Security?


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to discuss chip and system security with Mike Borza, fellow and scientist on the security IP team at Synopsys; Lee Harrison, automotive IC test solutions manager at Siemens Digital Industries Software; Jason Oberg, founder and CTO of Cycuity (formerly Tortuga Logic); Nicole Fern, senior security analyst at Riscure; Norman Chang, fellow and CTO of the electroni... » read more

Five Things You Should Know To Avoid The Most Common Security Errors


Since 2001, Riscure has been helping chip vendors and device manufacturers improve the security of their products. Over the years, the security scenario has changed a lot. The attacker profile evolved from individuals motivated by curiosity, with very limited resources and attack potential, to well-funded and organized adversaries with dark motivations and the capacity to execute very sophistic... » read more

Security Risks Widen With Commercial Chiplets


The commercialization of chiplets is expected to increase the number and breadth of attack surfaces in electronic systems, making it harder to keep track of all the hardened IP jammed into a package and to verify its authenticity and robustness against hackers. Until now this has been largely a non-issue, because the only companies using chiplets today — AMD, Intel, and Marvell — interna... » read more

Security Highlight: Evil Never Sleeps


Recently, Apple introduced a useful but potentially dangerous feature to its iPhones. Most of us would assume that a phone becomes inactive when switched off by the user or due to low power. Surprisingly, newer phones continue limited functionality for several hours in low power mode or even if it is off. This includes cards in your Wallet and the Find My service. This feature caught the attent... » read more

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