Microchip Technology DesignShield tool for bitstream protection

Mission-critical and other high-assurance systems deployed worldwide are under rapidly evolving threats from cybercriminals who attempt to extract critical program information (CPI) via the FPGAs that power them. Microchip Technology has extended its FPGA family’s security with the DesignShield development tool that further helps prevent this information from being extracted for malicious purposes.

Microchip offers a portfolio featuring the latest countermeasures for reducing the risk of cloning, intellectual property theft, reverse engineering or the insertion of malicious Trojan horses. The company’s latest tool is designed to advance the state of bitstream protection mechanisms and to help ensure that deployed systems behave as intended and are safe from counterfeiters and their threat to a developer’s design investments and brand reputation.

The tool was created to protect developers of aerospace, defence and other high-assurance systems from cybercriminals trying to acquire an FPGA’s bitstream from the fielded system. It deters reverse-engineering of the bitstream, which can often include CPI, by obscuring its logical equivalent using a combination of logic and routing-based encryption techniques. This should improve design security and integrity while reducing system corruption risks, and reduce the possibility that custom code, intellectual property or information critical to national security is used by non-authorised agents.

The tool is available under licence as part of Microchip’s Early Access Program, which enables users to begin designing with FPGA devices and design tools ahead of broader commercial availability. It is part of Microchip’s Libero Development Tool Suite.