Microsemi to offer Intrinsic-ID security in FPGAs and systems-on-chip for sensitive military applications
Aug. 7, 2011
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 7 Aug. 2011. The Microsemi Corp. SoC Products Group in Mountain View, Calif., is offering Quiddikey security intellectual property (IP) from Intrinsic-ID Inc. in San Jose, Calif., to add anti-tamper security to secure government and sensitive commercial applications on the company's flash-based devices and development board including the SmartFusion customizable system-on-chip (cSoC), and the ProASIC3, IGLOO, and Fusion field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).Intrinsic-ID's security Quiddikey IP includes the company's physical unclonable function (PUF) technology for security in secure military and other government applications, as well as in and sensitive commercial applications in the financial, energy, automotive, and mobile industries, Microsemi officials say.
Adding security to embedded computing applications involves a secret key to guard secure data. The Microsemi SoC Products Group (formerly Actel) Intrinsic-ID's PUF technology extracts a unique secret key from the cSoC and FPGA silicon hardware, rather than loading an externally generated key to on-chip non-volatile or battery-backed memory.
This approach works like an electronic fingerprint, Microsemi officials say. Intrinsic-ID's PUF technology enables the device to generate a secret key only when necessary to guard against unauthorized attempts to clone or tamper with the devices. No key is stored and the key is not present in the power-down state.
For more information contact Microsemi SoC Products Group online at www.microsemi.com/soc, or Intrinsic-ID at www.intrinsic-id.com.
Related stories
-- Microsemi adds FPGA technology to its portfolio of system-level solutions with acquisition of Actel;
-- Anti-tamper technologies seek to keep critical military systems data in the right hands.
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
