Microsemi and Athena Partner on Anti-Tamper Security Microprocessors

Microsemi and The Athena Group, a provider of security, cryptography, anti-tamper and signal processing intellectual property (IP) cores, announced a comprehensive portfolio of IP cores with state-of-the-art side channel analysis (SCA) and differential power analysis (DPA) countermeasures.

The companies said this new portfolio, based on Athena's TeraFire cryptographic microprocessor family, is designed for users of Microsemi's SmartFusion2 system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and IGLOO2 FPGAs.

Microsemi's SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 DPA-resistant FPGAs deliver design security and protection for the valuable IP embodied within users' programmable designs. While users choose SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 for these capabilities, many users require additional cryptographic data security soft IP as part of their own programmable applications. Teaming with Athena enables users to employ sophisticated cryptographic microprocessor technology employing advanced DPA countermeasures as a soft IP, maintaining the highest levels of data security throughout the device/application operational cycle.

"DPA countermeasures are critical to any tamper-resistant system," said Paul Quintana, director of vertical marketing, Microsemi Defense, Security and Computing. "As threat vectors increase in sophistication, so must the security solutions. Microsemi customers are looking for the most robust and proven anti-tamper and information assurance capabilities for their products. Athena is now delivering its best-of-breed family of silicon-proven security products as soft IP for license on the industry's only DPA-resistant FPGAs certified by Rambus Cryptography Research, SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2."

"Partnering with Microsemi, a leader in highly secure, low-power FPGAs, to offer SmartFusion2 and IGLOO2 customers the most robust countermeasures available, has been groundbreaking," said Stuart Audley, director of engineering at Athena. "To give Microsemi customers confidence that they are deploying IP with effective countermeasures, Athena has pushed the limits of test vector leakage assessment (TVLA) testing of our DPA solutions. We have demonstrated through measurements and statistical analysis that even after a billion traces, leakage is effectively minimized."

http://www.microsemi.com/applications/security
http://www.athena-group.com