Securing SoC Platform Oriented Architectures with a hardware Root of Trust

The advantages of secure system-on-chip (SoC) configuration during post production

By Craig Rawlings, Certicom Corp.
Embedded.com (July 06, 2009)

While it has long been the purview of electronic product vendors to rise to the challenges of managing ever shortening product life cycles, a new trend is afoot that may turn the tables in favor of longer platform hardware life cycles.

As embedded programmable processor based features increase in power, increasingly sophisticated platform System on Chip (SoC) architectures, including configurable hardware, boot code, firmware, and system software now bring to systems the ability to modify basic hardware functions and features without redesigning the SoC from scratch.

The real trick is how to efficiently and securely manage these changes to system hardware throughout the supply chain. For conceptually newer products there will be requirements that drive configuration of in-market system features. In other words, the customer may have the ability in the future to upgrade his product with premium system features after his or her original purchase.

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