NXP and Intrinsic-ID collaborate to raise the bar in chip security

Enhances Secure Authentication Of Electronic Devices Through Hardware Intrinsic Security

SAN JOSE, CALIF., January 20, 2010—NXP, a leading semiconductor provider for security  solutions, and Intrinsic-ID, an emerging semiconductor intellectual property (IP) and services provider, today 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 QuiddikeyTM solution to secure SmartMX-powered assets against cloning, tampering, theft-of-service and reverse engineering. 

Pressing Industry Need for Device Protection 

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.”

A New Approach: 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 Daniël 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.  More information on Quiddikey can be found at www.intrinsic-id.com.

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

About NXP Semiconductors

NXP Semiconductors provides High Performance Mixed Signal and Standard Product solutions that leverage its leading RF, Analog, Power, Digital Processing and manufacturing expertise.  These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, industrial, consumer, lighting, medical, computing and identification applications.  Headquartered in Europe, the company has about 29,000 employees working in more than 30 countries and posted sales of USD 5.4 billion in 2008.  News from NXP is located at www.nxp.com.

About Intrinsic-ID

Intrinsic-ID is an emerging semiconductor intellectual property and services company whose mission is to make counterfeiting a thing of the past.  Intrinsic-ID offers the only technology-independent key storage without storing the key for semiconductor companies.  Headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Intrinsic-ID was founded in 2008 as a spin-out of Royal Philips Electronics.  Its hardware intrinsic security products are based on patented physically unclonable function (PUF) technology that has been deployed in Philips’ production environment.  To find out more, please visit www.intrinsic-id.com.