Agile Analog delivers new anti-tamper solution

Agile Analog, the customizable analog IP company, has announced the successful delivery of a comprehensive anti-tamper solution to a major fabless company in Taiwan. The Agile Analog team has delivered a selection of highly configurable multi-process analog security IP, including its new Clock Attack Monitor (agileCAM) and enhanced Voltage Glitch Detector (agileVGLITCH), as well as its Digital Temperature Sensor (agileTSENSE_D) and IR Drop Detector (agileIRDROP), in order to provide a data center application with advanced tamper detection and prevention capabilities.

According to Chris Morrison, VP Product Marketing:

“At Agile Analog, we are leading the way in the security space with our customizable analog anti-tampering IP. Our timing, voltage, and temperature sensors, which detect potential security attacks by monitoring for suspicious behavior, are becoming increasingly popular due to growing security threats across the globe. Demand is also being fuelled by the requirement for customers to address the latest security standards, including FIPS140-3 Level 3 and Common Criteria EAL 6+. We have novel technology to help our customers contend with these evolving threats, with comprehensive anti-tamper solutions tailored to their specific needs.”

Morrison continues:

“We are delighted to have delivered such a far-reaching anti-tamper solution to this customer, which includes our new clock attack monitor. Focusing on tamper detection and prevention is a key concern for many. Our highly configurable analog IP is truly unique in the market, allowing companies the opportunity to access security IP that fits their specifications on their chosen process.”

Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, Agile Analog has a radically new approach, automatically creating analog IP to match a customer’s precise requirements for any foundry and on any process. These digitally wrapped and fully verified solutions for data conversion, power management, IC monitoring, security, and always-on IP can be seamlessly incorporated into any SoC design. There are a vast array of use cases, including HPC (High Performance Computing), AI, IoT and security.

This anti-tamper solution delivery included the following customizable multi-process analog IP:

agileCAM: This new mixed-signal ring oscillator-based Clock Attack Monitor is designed to detect clock attacks involving changes in clock frequency, clock hold and clock glitch errors. It provides frequency measurement with programmable alarm thresholds.

agileVGLITCH: This enhanced Voltage Glitch Detector offers protection against voltage side-channel attacks (SCAs) and tampering, with programmable glitch threshold levels and the ability to detect glitches with nanosecond resolution.

agileTSENSE_D: This is a Temperature Sensor with an integrated digitizer to provide a digital output. Agile Analog’s unique temperature sensor architecture provides increased accuracy at a lower power than competing solutions. Temperature sensing is critical for the detection of security attacks and optimization of power, performance, and area (PPA).

agileIRDROP: This IR Drop Sensor is useful to detect loss of power or attacks to the power supply. It consists of a voltage reference and comparator(s) set at different threshold levels for multi-level detection.

Together, these customizable analog IP products can provide a comprehensive anti-tamper solution for monitoring a device’s power supply, clock, and temperature for indications of a security attack.

Learn more: To understand about the benefits of using clock attack monitors, please take a look at our blog post about guarding against the threat of clock attacks with analog IP.

To see examples of how voltage glitch detectors can help with voltage side-channel attacks, please check out our blog post about leveraging analog IP for protection against side-channel attacks.