Lattice reduces time to market for NIST-compliant PFT software
Low power, programmable semiconductor company, Lattice Semiconductor says its Lattice Sentry solutions stack and Lattice SupplyGuard supply chain protection service protect designs and reduce development time.
The Sentry stack is a robust combination of customisable, embedded software, reference designs, IP and development tools to accelerate the implementation of secure systems that are compliant with NIST Platform Firmware Resiliency (PFR) Guidelines (NIST SP-800-193).
“The Lattice Sentry solutions stack makes it easy for customers to implement a hardware root of trust (RoT)-based PFR solution compliant with the NIST SP-800-193 guidelines,” said Deepak Boppana, senior director, Segments and Solutions Marketing at Lattice. “With Sentry’s validated IPs, pre-verified reference designs, and hardware demos, developers can quickly customise the PFR solution by modifying the C code provided with the RISC-V and Propel design environment to cut time-to-market from 10 months to just six weeks.”
The Lattice SupplyGuard service extends the system protection provided by the Sentry stack throughout the rapidly changing supply chain by delivering factory-locked devices to protect them from cloning and malware insertion attacks. It also enables secure device ownership transfer. Both hardware security solutions can be applied to projects in communications, data centre, industrial, automotive, aerospace and client computing applications.
According to Patrick Moorhead, president and founder of Moor Insights & Strategy, “5G, edge computing, and IoT are accelerating the pace at which devices are becoming connected, and security concerns are on the rise among high-tech OEMs serving every market.” He believes developers need security solutions that support comprehensive protection throughout a product’s entire operating life in the field, and which must be able to dynamically adapt to threats as they evolve and emerge.
The Lattice Sentry stack provides a pre-verified, NIST-compliant PFR implementation that enforces strict, real-time access controls to all system firmware during and after system boot. If corrupt firmware is detected, Sentry can automatically roll back to a previously known good state version of the firmware so secure system operation continues without interruption.
Developers can drag-and-drop Sentry’s validated IPs and modify the included RISC-V C reference code in the Lattice Propel design environment without any prior FPGA experience.
Providing pre-verified and tested application demos, reference designs, and development boards can slash development times for PFR applications and Sentry also offers comprehensive, real-time PFR support for firmware and programmable peripherals. It can act as a root of trust in a system and/or complement any existing BMC/MCU/TPM-based architecture for full NIST SP-800-193 compliance.
Key features of the Lattice SupplyGuard supply chain protection service include robust security throughout device lifecycle. The subscribed service offers peace of mind by tracking locked Lattice FPGAs from the point of manufacture, through transport through the global supply chain, system integration and assembly, initial configuration, and deployment. It ensures only authorised manufacturers can build an OEM’s design, regardless of their location.
Providing OEMs with a secure key infrastructure to prevent the activation of their IP on unauthorized components stops product cloning and overbuilding. Another benefit is securing devices against the download and installation of Trojans, malware, or other unauthorised software to protect platforms and systems against equipment hijacking or other cyber attacks.
SupplyGuard is customisable to meet the specific security and supply chain needs of OEMs, says Lattice. The service lowers the operating costs associated with implementing a secure manufacturing ecosystem.
