NXP and Intrinsic-ID to raise smart chip security

CAMBRIDGE, UK — NXP and IP provider Intrinsic-ID announced a collaborative agreement to license and deploy a hardware intrinsic security (HIS) solution in NXP's next generation SmartMX security chip technology. 

The partnership enables NXP to use Intrinsic-ID's Quiddikey solution to secure SmartMX-powered assets against cloning, tampering, theft-of-service and reverse engineering.

 The security and authenticity of electronic devices is fundamental to electronics companies, serving the security market and assuring that assets of companies and end-users are protected. 

With so much at stake, hardware security systems aim to protect IP and revenue by avoiding a range of security breaches, such as counterfeiting, tampering, theft-of-service and reverse engineering.

Hardware Intrinsic Security (HIS) combines the advantages of existing approaches by extracting the secret key from the hardware instead of storing it. This approach allows a device to generate a secret key only when needed and power down with no key present.

Because no key is stored, attackers have nothing to find. “The equipment and methodology used for chip analysis gets more advanced every year, which plays into the hands of determined attackers,” stated Daniël Schobben, CEO of Intrinsic-ID. 

“Through this partnership, NXP will be able to implement Quiddikey, the first production-proven HIS solution, to achieve unparalleled security levels because the secret key is not present when the device is switched off.”

Quiddikey is based on patented technologies and industrialized through extensive R and D efforts.  The solution uses a unique ID that is intrinsic to each and every device, using only standard components. 

Quiddikey provides cost-effective key storage to secure semiconductor products against today's common security breaches. NXP SmartMX products incorporating Intrinsic-ID Quiddikey are targeted to enter the market in 2011.

Intrinsic-ID was founded in 2008 as a spin-out of Royal Philips Electronics.  Its hardware intrinsic security products are based on patented physically unclonable function (PUF) technology that has been deployed in Philips' production environment.

More information on Quiddikey can be found at www.intrinsic-id.com