NXP, Intrinsic-ID to raise bar in chip security

SAN JOSE, USA: NXP and Intrinsic-ID, an emerging semiconductor IP and services provider, announced a collaborative agreement to license and deploy a hardware intrinsic security (HIS) solution in NXP's next-generation SmartMX security chip technology.

The partnership enables NXP to utilize Intrinsic-ID's Quiddikey solution to secure SmartMX-powered assets against cloning, tampering, theft-of-service and reverse engineering.

The security and authenticity of electronic devices is fundamental to electronics companies, serving the security market and assuring that assets of companies and end-users are protected. With so much at stake, hardware security systems aim to protect IP and revenue by avoiding a range of security breaches, such as counterfeiting, tampering, theft-of-service and reverse engineering.

Guenter Schlatte, vice president and general manager, secure identity at NXP, said: "As a response to the growing number of security attacks we constantly innovate to stay ahead of hackers to provide top end security products to our customers. Our collaboration with Intrinsic-ID and its ground-breaking solution allows us to stay in the forefront of security for eGovernment products, conditional access management systems for Pay TV and authentication solutions for electronic devices and peripherals."

Hardware Intrinsic Security (HIS)
Hardware security is crucial to preventing security breaches, and a new approach to secure key storage must be adopted. HIS combines the advantages of existing approaches by extracting the secret key from the hardware instead of storing it. This approach allows a device to generate a secret key only when needed and power down with no key present. Because no key is stored, attackers have nothing to find.

"The equipment and methodology used for chip analysis gets more advanced every year, which plays into the hands of determined attackers," stated Daniel Schobben, CEO of Intrinsic-ID. "Through this partnership, NXP will be able to implement Quiddikey, the first production-proven HIS solution, to achieve unparalleled security levels because the secret key is not present when the device is switched off."

Quiddikey is based on patented technologies and industrialized through extensive R&D efforts. This revolutionary solution uses a unique ID that is intrinsic to each and every device, using only standard components. Quiddikey provides cost-effective key storage to secure semiconductor products against today's common security breaches.

NXP SmartMX products incorporating Intrinsic-ID Quiddikey are targeted to enter the market in 2011.