Emerging Applications

There are a variety of other applications for which the Acalis Secure Processor may be appropriate. Some of these depend on third party Government certifications and processes occurring outside CPU Tech. Please contact us for more information about these efforts.

Secure Boot Manager

As a subset of the Acalis Secure Anchor Point, the Acalis CPU872 can act as a boot manager for a variety of other bootable embedded processor or Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices. In a system utilizing this configuration, the Acalis Secure Processor boots first in a system boot sequence, and then unpacks, decrypts, and authenticates boot commands and bitstream loading for other semiconductor devices. This elevates the boot security and tamper resistance of the system to the level of the Acalis Secure Processor with respect to boot attacks and vulnerabilities.

Hardware Security Modules

The hardware modules that perform the encryption and other sensitive key management in banking, financial, and credit transactions follow a strict set of information assurance and anti-tamper guidance from the National Institute of Standards (NIST). Many of these hardware modules are composed of multiple semiconductor devices and tamper sensors integrated into a package. With the Acalis Secure Processor, some level of anti-tamper sensing and response is built directly into the device, offering a higher degree of integration, and simplification in design and certification. Please contact CPU Tech for additional details on this application.

Cyber Security

Defining territory in cyberspace means marking that territory. This is not a trivial or simple task. Generally speaking, this requires hardware based unalterable markings, identity management, and user attribution. Physical boundaries will always be preferable to digital (alterable) boundaries.

Recognizing incursions means recognizing untrusted behavior on trusted systems. Robert Lynn Carter, researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, concludes that for trusted computing:

“Key elements of security must be implemented in the hardware so physical security can be used to guarantee cyber security.”

To defend one’s territory, this territory must be defined with secure hardware.