Enhanced Security with Crypto-Agile FPGA Control

Lattice Semiconductor has recently unveiled a cutting-edge secure control FPGA, the MachXO5D-NX, equipped with agile cryptography support. This new FPGA family, based on Nexus technology, is accompanied by the Sentry software stack. The primary focus of these innovations is to cater to the evolving security landscape by offering industry-standard compliant features, crypto-agile capabilities, and a hardware root of trust. Additionally, the integrated flash and fail-safe remote field updates ensure reliable and secure product lifecycle management.

The latest iteration of the Lattice Sentry stack introduces customizable FPGA-based platform firmware resiliency (PFR) specifically designed for the MachXO5D-NX family. This combination of FPGA hardware and software stack supports a range of security algorithms, including AES-256, ECDSA-384/521, SHA2-256/384/512, and RSA 3072/4096, as specified by the Commercial National Security Algorithm (CNSA) Suite for robust bitstream and user data protection.

Key security features of the MachXO5D-NX FPGA family include an immutable boot ROM that facilitates secure dual-boot operations alongside integrated flash for fail-safe updates. The Unique Device Secret (UDS) ensures the protection of device identity, while the presence of integrated non-volatile configuration memory and up to 57 Mb of configurable user flash memory (UFM) allows for secure data storage and management. Moreover, the fully configurable programming interface via SPI and JTAG locking control adds an extra layer of defense against advanced external attacks.

The v4.0 Sentry stack offers a NIST SP800-193 compliant PFR solution development environment suitable for various applications such as communications, computing, industrial, and automotive sectors. It includes features like multiple QSPI/SPI monitoring with I2C peripheral attack protection, SPDM and MCTP support for efficient platform management, and secure server operations. Additionally, a new design workspace template reference design enables PFR 4.0 solutions with I3C support, newer crypto algorithms (ECC384/512), and full DC-SCM compatibility.

According to Dan Mansur, Corporate Vice President of Product Marketing at Lattice Semiconductor, “At Lattice, we’re focused on addressing our customers’ evolving security needs and helping them stay ahead of accelerating cyberthreats to system data and infrastructure. Crypto-agile security based on hardware root of trust devices is increasingly fundamental in this digital age, and we’re excited to further expand our product portfolio with the MachXO5D-NX FPGA family and the latest Sentry solution stack release.”