Microsemi enhances SmartFusion2 SoC FPgas and IGLOO2 FPgas with physically unclonable capabilities

     Microsemi Corporation, a leading provider of differentiated semiconductor technology solutions in terms of power, safety, reliability and performance, has announced its flagship SmartFusion 2 SoC FPGas and IGLOO 2 FPGas The device's portfolio of leading network security features joins Intrinsic-ID, B.V licensed Physically Unclonable Function (PUF). Intrinsic-id is a world leader in secure IP cores and applications based on its patented Hardware Intrinsic Security technology. Hardware-enhanced PUF technology becomes a part of Megasome Devices, giving system architects and designers an ultra-secure solution they can trust when developing a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

     The Microsemi SmartFusion2 SoC FPGas and IGLOO2 FPGas are the industry's first and only FPgas to integrate hardware-enhanced PUF technology. Using dedicated on-chip SRAM, Megalo Semi implements PUF technology developed and patented by Intrinsic-ID to uniquely form an FPGA-like "fingerprint" or "biometric signature" in the fabrication of each silicon chip.

     By defining a hardware-enhanced design with additional countermeasures such as dedicated SRAM and tamper-proof grid and dedicated PUF power control, Microsemi achieves a higher level of tamper-proof that goes far beyond FPGA software IP or software-based solutions. When the PUF power is turned off, the PUF key effectively disappears from the chip, and there is no known technology to read the PUF key when the power is turned off.

     The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that IP theft costs U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that counterfeiting and piracy cost businesses as much as $638 billion annually. Because each PUF is unique and effectively "non-clonable," it can be used to identify devices and help prevent IP theft, counterfeiting, and other types of supply chain fraud.

     An important aspect of cybersecurity when it comes to iot is that legitimate devices are able to authenticate each other during operation for secure machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, thus forming part of iot, while rejecting data from counterfeits and malicious systems.

     The high-density SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA and IGLOO2 FPGA devices use the breakthrough capabilities of integrated RAM-PUF technology and now incorporate one of the most tamper-resistant device authentication and key storage mechanisms of any integrated circuit on the market. These FPGA devices combine an integrated elliptic curve encryption (ECC) engine and have been designed using Cryptography Research, Inc. Licensed patented DPA defense countermeasures to defend against differential power analysis (DPA) attacks. The integrated PUF/ECC security features can be used to generate a public-private key pair, while only the SmartFusion2 or IGLOO2 devices know the private portion of the key pair.

     Russ Garcia, executive vice president of global marketing at Microsemi, said: "This became the seed of public key infrastructure (PKI), where only the chip knew the unique private key, and the verifiable public key was certified. This technology allows customers to trust our SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 devices, and then easily extend the root-of-trust in these devices to other components in the system or network, greatly simplifying system security."

     Dr. Pim Tuyls, CEO of Intrinsic-ID, co-author of Security with Noisy Data and inventor of more than 50 PUF-related patents, said: "Wherever advanced integrated circuit identification and key storage is required, Intrinsic-ID customers can also use the hardware inherent security of RAM-PUF technology." For the first time, Mesome is bringing to the FPGA market a very robust, tamper-proof hardware enhancement implementation of PUF technology with the SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 devices, providing best-in-class security for a wide variety of data security applications implemented by security architects and engineers using FPGA devices.