Cryptographic rights management of FPGA intellectual property cores

ABSTRACT

As the capacity of FPGA's increases to millions of equivalent gates the use of Intellectual Property (IP) cores becomes increasingly important to control design complexity. FPGA's are becoming platforms for integrating a system solution from components supplied by independent vendors in the same way as printed circuit boards provided a platform for earlier generations of designers. However, the current commercial model for IP cores involves large up-front license fees reminiscent of ASIC NRE charges. In order to match the IP core business model to the low to medium volume applications addressed by FPGA customers it is important to develop cryptographic techniques which allow IP core vendors to sell their product on a pay-per-use basis rather than through up-front license fees.

REFERENCES

• 1: Dipert, B., "Cunning Circuits Confound Crooks," EDN Magazine, October 12, 2000.
• 2: Actel Corporation, "Protecting your Intellectual Property from the Pirates", presentation at DesignCon '98. Available from www.actel.com.
• 3: Xilinx Inc., "Using Bitstream Encryption", in Chapter 2 of the Virtex II Platform FPGA Handbook available from www.xilinx.com.
• 4: Austin, K., US Patent 5,388,157 "Data Security Arrangements for Semiconductor Programmable Devices"
• 5: Algotronix Ltd., "Method and Apparatus for Secure Configuration of a Field Programmable Gate Array", PCT Patent Application PCT/GB00/04988.
• 6: Algotronix Ltd., "Method of using a Mask Programmed Key to Securely Configure a Field Programmable Gate Array", European Patent Application EP01124330A2.
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• 10: Algotronix Ltd., "Method of Protecting Intellectual Property Cores on Field Programmable Gate Array", unpublished pending patent application.

INDEX TERMS

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Economics, Legal Aspects, Security

Keywords:
FPGA, cryptography, intellectual property, rights management