Progressive and secure performance unlocking for digital integrated circuits
Renuka Lokare, Ranga R. Vemuri · 2018
This paper proposes a secure architecture to progressively unlock the performance of an integrated circuit based on the level of authorized access. A key comparison module authenticates the usage of the IC, uniquely identifies it and unlocks a specific mode of operation based on the authorized level of access. We present methods for tuning the performance at run-time based on the response from a key comparison module. IP owners can gain control over the activation, testing and usage of an IC by implementing the proposed authentication protocol. We have analyzed the proposed architecture on several ISCAS99 benchmark circuits and an image normalization application.