Steven Woo, VP of solutions marketing and distinguished inventor at Rambus, recently sat down with Anne Fisher of Embedded Systems Engineering to discuss the burgeoning security requirements of a rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT).
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Securing silicon with a hardware-based root of trust
Steven Woo, VP of solutions marketing and distinguished inventor at Rambus, recently sat down with Anne Fisher of Embedded Systems Engineering to discuss the burgeoning security requirements of a rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT).
According to Woo, the semiconductor industry now realizes security is a critical goal that needs to be treated as a first class design parameter.
“Some [companies] choose to do everything in software because it’s relatively easy to deploy and layer on top of existing systems,” Woo told the publication.
“The problem is software-only protection can be hacked, and we’ve seen numerous cases of that in the past year alone. This goes back to the point about treating security as a first-class design parameter—legacy systems often weren’t designed with software security in mind, so the system doesn’t enable software to do the best job possible for securing the system.”
In contrast, says Woo, a silicon-based hardware root of trust provides a range of robust security options.
“From the moment power is applied to [a] system or device, the first thing that comes up is the hardware, and at this point the chip or system can be attacked. Solutions exist that use hardware as a basis for security, but having hardware integrated into the silicon increases the security of [both] the silicon and system,” he explained.
“[Yes], there are tradeoffs to be made, and in some cases people will be willing to live with lower levels of security provided by software-only solutions. But as you begin to interconnect more and more devices, some are inevitably going to want higher levels of security, so providing hardware security and a hardware root of trust is going to be very important going forward.”
As Woo points out, that is precisely why Rambus CryptoManager offers chip manufacturers an integrated hardware-based root of trust.
“On the surface, it provides some very interesting capabilities, but when you dig a little deeper and you look at how devices are used you begin to realize the elements contained within CryptoManager actually offer a very powerful tool kit that allows you do to things beyond what you might [have thought] about initially,” he continued.
“[For example], CryptoManager has a hardware root of trust that provides a secure foundation for connected communication. This core allows you to very securely enable and disable features and functionality in the chip that core sits in, and secures the chip throughout the lifecycle from manufacturing through deployment and end of life.”
Essentially, says Woo, the secure core acts like a vault door, barring access to all unauthorized entrants, save those with the correct combination. Meaning, a semiconductor device is secured throughout its lifecycle, with managed keys effectively locking and unlocking functionality.
“One thing that CryptoManager enables is that as the silicon travels from facility to facility—for example, from fab to wafer cutting to die packaging to testing packaged die to fabrication to integration into a device like a phone—is to ensure that the semiconductor device itself has manufacturer-specific keys put in there that no one else can get to or manufacturer-specific capabilities enabled or disabled,” he explained.
“A great example is managing access to the JTAG port of a chip. During device test, you need access to the JTAG port. The problem with JTAG and other debug ports is that it is almost like having the master keys to the house. [Via debug ports] you can get deep access to many areas of a chip, and once the device is in the field you may not want people to get access to some or all of these areas.”
In addition, manufacturers can choose to activate the debug port only when the device is being debugged. The port can then be de-activated once it leaves the factory.
“[Meaning], once the device leaves, say, the phone manufacturing facility and gets deployed into the field, you can actually enable and disable features in the silicon itself, so that you can now think about new kinds of business models where carriers can enable and disable features on the phone,” Woo added.
“Or you could enable or disable certain kinds of content to be played on that phone so you get this interesting way of looking at new revenue models and usage models—and it all relies on the same CryptoManager platform and toolkit that manages keys to enable and disable functionality.”
Keep reading: Hardware Root of Trust: Everything you need to know »
Moore’s Law accelerates smart sensor evolution
Named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, Moore’s Law observes that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.
According to Intel, the continuation of Moore’s Law means the rate of progress in the semiconductor space will far surpass that of nearly all other industries. In fact, the future of Moore’s Law could deliver a magnitude of exponential capability increases – driving a fundamental shift in computing, networking, storage and communication devices.
During a recent presentation at Intel in Santa Clara, Steve Woo, VP of Solutions Marketing and distinguished inventor at Rambus, told the Chinese American Semiconductor Professional Association (CASPA) that Moore’s Law was also helping to accelerate the development and adoption of smart sensor technology.
“The Internet of Things (IoT) has prompted the semiconductor industry to place an emphasis on more efficiently capturing, securing, moving and analyzing an increasing volume of digital data,” Woo explained in a follow-up interview with Rambus Press in Sunnyvale.
“Rambus shares the industry’s vision of 50 billion connected devices by 2020, which will also include always-on, always-connected smart sensor endpoints tasked with capturing and delivering a wide range of data. Moore’s Law is a critical factor in making this vision a reality.”
Indeed, says Woo, the size of refractive imagers is currently limited by optics. However, many applications don’t actually require extensive high resolution imaging capabilities provided by a standard lens-based configuration.
“How can we build even smaller imagers? By replacing the traditional camera lens with a diffraction grating, while leveraging advanced algorithms and chip processing capabilities,” he continued.
“Now this is where Moore’s Law comes into play, because it continues to help enable the technology necessary for Rambus scientists to create and refine miniature, lensless smart sensors (LSS) that can be as small as the size of a human hair. While Moore’s Law has been a driving force in the computing industry for decades, we’re seeing a growing number of benefits in computation imaging and sensing applications such as LSS.”
According to Woo, Rambus’ low power sipping sensors can perform a wide range of functions, including image change detection, point tracking, range finding, sophisticated gesture recognition, object recognition and image capturing.
“These versatile capabilities make LSS technology suitable for at least five key ‘smart’ verticals, including consumer, cities, transportation, manufacturing and medical,” he added.
It should be noted that lensless smart sensor technology recently garnered significant attention from analysts, journalists and industry experts after Rambus officially kicked off its LSS POD program in Barcelona, Spain during Mobile World Congress 2015. The POD program offers partners early access to LSS hardware along with optimized algorithms.
Interested in learning more about the technology behind Rambus lensless smart sensors? You can check out our LSS article archive here.
Semiconductor Engineering goes 1:1 with Steven Woo
Ernest Worthman of Semiconductor Engineering recently interviewed Steven Woo, a VP and distinguished inventor at Rambus. The two discussed the numerous challenges facing the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT), including security and low power sipping requirements. As Woo points out, security and privacy are critical topics, with a significant amount of concern being expressed over potential vulnerabilities in connected cars, homes and appliances.
Semiconductor Engineering goes 1:1 with Steven Woo
Ernest Worthman of Semiconductor Engineering recently interviewed Steven Woo, a VP and distinguished inventor at Rambus. The two discussed the numerous challenges facing the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT), including security and low power sipping requirements.
As Woo points out, security and privacy are critical topics, with a significant amount of concern being expressed over potential vulnerabilities in connected cars, homes and appliances.
“There is concern that, with all the different sensors and connectivity points, each one is a potential vulnerability that has to be able to be individually locked and unlocked to outside access,” he explained.
“There is a general consensus of agreement that security is difficult and it needs to be architected in from the ground up. The infrastructure needs to be able to define and limit access to such I/O ports. Today, many products still haven’t done that.”
Essentially, says Woo, the industry is retrofitting security on top of what currently exists.
“There is concern that there still isn’t a very well thought out security architecture that has been developed as a part of the IoT infrastructure. [Nevertheless], the industry has started to intersect some of the stuff we do with the envisioned infrastructure,” he continued.
“We have done a lot of work in memory, interfaces and security. We are also working on making energy sources more efficient, while at the same time chip power requirements will drop. That is kind of where the chip community is heading.”
According to Woo, Rambus has been active in the area of port security, which he described as one of the “driving forces” behind the development of CryptoManager.
“The number of high-profile break-ins that occurred in 2014 seemed to be much higher than in previous years. And one can definitely see the impact of security, or lack thereof, come to the forefront—2015 will see increased momentum in dealing with security,” he added.
In terms of power limitations, Woo notes that future IoT devices will likely function on a single charge for an extended period of time.
“The [trend] is to push the recharge times out for months, or even years, with some of the more remote or passive sensors. The movement is to have ‘watch battery’ form factors, but there is a lot of concern how that is actually going to happen with these IoT devices spewing out so much data,” he continued.
“There [is] a lot of general concern about how one minimizes power and what is the correct type of operating model for these IoT devices to conserve power. For example, if you have a bunch of data, is it better to send it at a very low data rate, with the idea that is will consume low power, or would it be better to burst it quickly at a high data rate, occasionally, where the device is in the off state most of the time?”
Interested in learning more? The full text of “One-On-One: Steven Woo” can be read on Semiconductor Engineering here.
Rambus lensless smart sensors win “Best Of” MWC 2015 award from Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware has announced that Rambus lensless smart sensors (LSS) won the publication’s “Best Of” (hardware) award for Mobile World Congress 2015. It should be noted that Rambus LSS technology clinched the “Best of MWC” award from Tom’s Guide in 2014.
Designed by Rambus scientists, LSS is roughly analogous to the way a human, animal or insect brain perceives the world: the real-time interpretation of a scene or object facilitated by inherent pattern recognition capabilities.
“Essentially, this means data leaving a human retina looks nothing at all like a map of light intensity, although it does contain all the information required to interpret an image,” LSS co-inventor Patrick Gill told Rambus Press.
“Similarly, LSS allows sensors to capture information-rich images using a low-cost phase grating. Even though the raw ‘snap’ is indecipherable to the naked human eye, the sensor, which is approximately the size of pinhead and as thin as a human hair, is capable of capturing all of the information in the visual world up to a certain resolution.”
According to Gill, the spiral grating of LSS diffractive optics (hardware), coupled with sophisticated computational algorithms (software), effectively reduces computation time while facilitating application-specific design flexibility.
“Computation is pushed past the ‘edge’ and performed on the LSS sensors themselves. However, unlike traditional PIR sensors that are only capable of detecting a general event such as motion, LSS algorithms can be tailored to monitor and even ‘decipher’ what is being captured,” he explained.
“In addition, LSS delivers more data (128 bits x 128 pixels versus two bits x two pixels), along with improved accuracy. In practical terms, this enables near infinite depth-of-field and eliminates the need for autofocus.”
Lensless smart sensor technology garnered significant attention from analysts, journalists and industry experts after Rambus officially kicked off its (LSS) POD (Partners in Open Development) program in Barcelona, Spain.
“Individuals and companies designing sensors for the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) are often forced to code complex algorithms from the ground up,” Kendra De Berti, a director at Rambus, told us on the sidelines of MWC 2015. “Our POD program will offer partners early access to LSS hardware along with optimized algorithms.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyD5mej-p0I]
As part of the POD initiative, Rambus, along with partners MLove and IXDS, hosted 4YFN’s MWC 2015 “Eyes of the IoT” workshop at MWC 2015. Participants discussed how smart vision facilitated by LSS technology could potentially impact the future of smart cities, medical equipment, transportation and manufacturing.
In addition, Rambus CMO Jerome Nadel participated in 4YFN’s MWC panel discussion about the Internet of Things (IoT), Rambus lensless smart sensors and the evolution of smart cities.
As Nadel told a packed audience, disruptive innovation is often contrarian.
“We need to think beyond the mobile status quo to a brave new future four years from now when ubiquitous intelligent sensors positively redefine human interaction with technology and our surroundings,” Nadel concluded. “Let’s work towards creating adaptable smart cities that empower residents by melding the physical world with the digital realm.”
Interested in learning more about the technology behind Rambus lensless smart sensors? You can check out our LSS article archive here.
