Article View: comp.lsi
Article #250Re: A Truly Secure (tm) ROM access
From: David Chapman
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 1990 05:18
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 1990 05:18
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1538 bytes
In article <39144@mips.mips.COM> mark@mips.COM (Mark G. Johnson) writes:
>There was an EPROM built which was indeed secure. It was the Intel
>...
>Also, I recommend talking to your favorite IC engineer and asking
You rang? :-)
>the question "Suppose I want to use microprobes to discern the logic
>states on 64 different signals of a chip, and suppose those signals
>don't connect to the metal layer. How easy and/or costly would this be,
>and how many samples (chips) would be required?"
I'd say 1 chip and not that expensive. All you need is the Schlumberger
E-beam prober. Assuming that the E-beam won't erase your EPROM (and I
don't know the answer to that one), you can read the signals directly
off the chip. Chip designers love them; they can compare the signals
on the chip with their simulations (we have one, and I'm told it works
like a charm)!
No physical probing is necessary.
P.S. "Not that expensive" is marginal cost; the prober itself is $500K,
I think.
--
David Chapman
{known world}!decwrl!vlsisj!fndry!davidc
vlsisj!fndry!davidc@decwrl.dec.com
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!ames!apple!voder!pyramid!leadsv!practic!vlsisj!davidc From: davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman) Newsgroups: comp.lsi Subject: Re: A Truly Secure (tm) ROM access Message-ID: <15589@vlsisj.VLSI.COM> Date: 1 Jun 90 05:18:19 GMT References: <39144@mips.mips.COM> Reply-To: davidc@vlsisj.UUCP (David Chapman) Organization: VLSI Technology Inc., San Jose, CA Lines: 28