April 30, 2012 -- Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. has announced a reference design to protect Xilinx, Inc. Spartan-6 FPGAs. The reference design comprises free security software from Maxim or Xilinx and the Maxim DS28E01-100, a 1-Wire secure memory device.

Operating over a single pin, the built-in challenge-and-response SHA-1 authentication scheme in the DS28E01-100 prevents unauthorized product builds and safeguards FPGA IP. The reference design lets manufacturers remotely turn on fee-based software-controlled feature upgrades, without physically altering the installed hardware. The security scheme requires secret keys to be loaded in the FPGA and the 1-Wire secure memory. Maxim's reference core seamlessly overlays on the Spartan-6 device; utilizes less than 5% of the logic cell resources and eases the loading of secret keys into the FPGA. Maxim can also preprogram the DS28E01-100 with customer-specified keys prior to delivery.

"Maxim's security system provides best-in-class protection for licensing control and feature-set upgrades. If the DS28E01-100 and the FPGA do not recognize each other, the FPGA design is effectively disabled," said Prem Nayar, Business Manager for Secure Information and Authentication Products at Maxim.

"With the use of a Maxim DS28E01-100 1-Wire secure memory device, Xilinx users can easily add a level of design security to their products," said Jim Burnham, Platform Marketing for Zynq, Virtex-4,-5,-6, Spartan and CPLD Development Boards and Kits at Xilinx. "While targeting the Xilinx Spartan-6 families today, this could also be used with Artix-7, Kintex-7, Virtex-7 and the Zynq-7000 families."

Availability and Pricing

The reference security scheme (Xilinx XAPP780) for the Spartan-6 family is evaluation ready.

The DS28E01-100 reads and writes over a 2.8-V to 5.25-V range and operates at -40°C to +85°C. Rricing for DS28E01 starts at $0.84 (1000-up, FoB USA).