Synopsys PUFs Create Cryptographic Keys That Never Get Stored

By Pat Brans, EETimes Europe (November 6, 2024)

EE Times Europe sat down with Vincent van der Leest, senior staff for product marketing at Synopsys, in advance of electronica 2024 to talk about what SRAM PUFs mean for the company’s customers and partners.

On March 20, 2024, Synopsys announced its acquisition of Intrinsic ID, adding SRAM physical unclonable function (PUF) technology to its cybersecurity portfolio. EE Times Europe sat down with Vincent van der Leest, senior staff for product marketing at Synopsys, in advance of electronica 2024 to talk about what SRAM PUFs mean for the company’s customers and partners.

According to van der Leest, SRAM PUFs solve two big problems. The first is that they decrease the attack surface by providing each chip with a cryptographic key that never needs to be stored in nonvolatile memory. The second is that they simplify manufacturing because no extra steps are required for key injection. Different entities within the supply chain can now own their keys without relying on a partner to program them.

SRAM PUFs work like fingerprints: Tiny variations in the manufacturing process, beyond the manufacturer’s control, make each chip slightly different. If you know where to look, you can exploit this phenomenon to solve some pressing security challenges within chips.

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