Power/Performance Bits: May 21


More speculative vulnerabilities Security researchers at the Graz University of Technology, KU Leuven, Cyberus Technology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute point to two new speculative execution vulnerabilities related to Meltdown and Spectre. The first, which they dubbed ZombieLoad, uses a similar approach to Meltdown. After preparing tasks in parallel, the processor needs to discard th... » read more

In-Chip Monitoring Becoming Essential Below 10nm


Rising systemic complexity and more potential interactions in heterogeneous designs is making it much more difficult to ensure a chip, or even a block within a chip, will functioning properly without actually monitoring that behavior in real-time. Continuous and sporadic monitoring have been creeping into designs for the past couple of decades. But it hasn’t always been clear how effective... » read more

Can The Hardware Supply Chain Remain Secure?


Malware in computers has been a reality since the 1990s, but lately the focus has shifted to hardware. So far, the semiconductor industry has been lucky because well-publicized threats were either limited or unproven. But sooner or later, luck runs out. Last year saw two significant incidents that shook people’s faith in the integrity of hardware security. The first was the Meltdown/Spectr... » read more

Multiple Roots Of Trust And Isolation: Key Roles For Absolute Security


Today, there are many different security processors available to the SoC designer. A majority have a commonality, and that is they are based on the same architecture. You can call it a two-domain architecture. One is non-secure; the other is secure with a single bit dividing the secure from the non-secure. What’s more, different applications from different entities may be running in that o... » read more

FIAs Pose Tricky Security Attacks


Voltage and clock glitching are terms crowding into the emerging lexicon of chip security attacks. These are two popular methods adversaries use that can be categorized under the umbrella of fault injection attacks (FIAs). Micro-architectural vulnerabilities like Meltdown, Spectre, Foreshadow and Spoiler have been in the limelight for months. But now, FIAs are getting more attention as the indu... » read more

Creating A Roadmap For Hardware Security


The U.S. Department of Defense and private industry consortiums are developing comprehensive and cohesive cybersecurity plans that will serve as blueprints for military, industrial and commercial systems. What is particularly noteworthy in all of these efforts is the focus on semiconductors. While software can be patched, vulnerabilities such as Spectre, Meltdown and Foreshadow need to be de... » read more

Secure Data Center Traffic


With the increasing data security breaches, encrypting and protecting data-in-flight and data-at-rest in data centers has gained the highest priority for data center security. To address the challenges of securing the perimeter and within the data center from unlawful intercepts, protect data integrity and confidentiality, Cloud Data Centers are increasingly encrypting data within and across da... » read more

Complexity’s Impact On Security


Ben Levine, senior director of product management for Rambus’ Security Division, explains why security now depends on the growing number of components and the impact of interactions between those components. This is particularly problematic with AI chips, both on the training and inferencing side, where security problems on the training side can alter models for AI inferencing. » read more

Hardware Trojans And The Problem Of Trust In Integrated Circuits


Electronic systems are at the core of an ever-increasing number of products and services. From power plants to automobiles, from medical devices to airplanes, from smartphones to home appliances, complex electronic systems enable an unprecedented level of automation, performance, safety, and security. Integrated circuits (ICs) are the backbone of these systems. It is of paramount importance tha... » read more

All Security Issues Are Safety Issues


Last month I spoke at the IQPC Safety and Security week event in Munich. It became clear to me that our semiconductor community is really paying attention to these issues now, not just to comply with standards, and not just because of the potential liability – but because it simply makes good business sense. The cost of recalling a single vehicle is estimated to be between $400 and $900 ... » read more

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