Microchip introduces the industry's first tool for enhancing FPGA design protection

     Mission-critical and other high-security systems deployed around the world are facing a rapidly evolving threat from cybercriminals seeking to steal critical program information (CPI) via field Programmable gate arrays (FPgas). Microchip Technology announced the launch of a development tool called DesignShield to further enhance the security of the FPGA family of products and prevent the malicious extraction of CPI.

     Bruce Weyer, vice president of Microchip's FPGA business unit, said: "As a leader in security, Microchip offers a product line that incorporates the latest countermeasures to reduce the risk of cloning, intellectual property theft, reverse engineering or malicious Trojan horse intrusion. Protecting CPI in deployed systems with our DesignShield tools is critical to keeping our country safe and our economy vibrant. "This tool pushes the boundaries of bitstream protection and provides an additional layer of defense to ensure that deployed systems perform as intended and protect against counterfeiters that threaten developers' design investment and brand reputation."

     The DesignShield tool is designed to protect developers of aerospace, defense, and other high-security systems from cybercriminals obtaining FPGA bitstreams from deployed systems in the field. It prevents reverse engineering of a bit stream by using a combination of logic and route-based encryption techniques to mask the logical equivalent of a bit stream, often including CPI. This approach improves the security and integrity of the design, while reducing the risk of system damage and reducing the possibility that custom code, intellectual property, or information critical to national security could be used by unauthorized persons.