Dialog signs up to use Intrinsic-ID on-chip security

LONDON – Fabless chip company Dialog Semiconductor plc has integrated security technology from startup Intrinsic-ID BV into its SC14453S voice-over-IP processor.

Intrinsic-ID (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), founded as a spin-off from Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in 2008, provides hardware and software IP to derive security from physical attributes of an integrated circuit that are unique to that circuit. This so-called Hardware Intrinsic Security IP (HIS) also referred to as Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) is similar to technology from Verayo Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).

In both the Verayo and Intrinsic-ID HIS offerings a secret key is extracted like a silicon biometric or fingerprint from silicon hardware directly and only when required.

Dialog (Kirchheim-unter-Teck, Germany) is using the Intrinsic-ID technology to ensure that only authenticated software can run on the SC14453S platform. A message authentication tag for a bootloader or software image of a particular customer is stored with the Intrinsic-ID core, without the need for embedded non-volatile memory, which would be a hacking weakness.

"We selected Intrinsic-ID's HIS technology because of its proven reliability, ease of integration and cost-effective silicon area footprint. The resulting SafeKey solution for secure boot is programmable while at the same time providing authentication and top-level security," said Rene Kohlmann, senior director at Dialog Semiconductor, in a statement from Intrinsic-ID.

The HIS technology has been deployed in smartcards, set-top box, pay-TV, FPGA, networking and government applications, Intrinsic-ID said.


Related links and articles:

www.intrinsic-id.com

www.verayo.com

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