[HN Gopher] ZeroRISC Gets $10M Funding, Says Open-Source Silicon...
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       ZeroRISC Gets $10M Funding, Says Open-Source Silicon Security
       Inevitable
        
       Author : wslh
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2025-06-29 20:48 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eetimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eetimes.com)
        
       | tonetegeatinst wrote:
       | When we discuss the security of silicon, and are calling it open
       | silicon, is this because the design specs and libraries are all
       | open source, or is it due to being able to do research on chip
       | attacks without fear of being sued?
        
         | transpute wrote:
         | The hardware IP is Apache-licensed,
         | https://github.com/lowRISC/opentitan. Ideally, it will be
         | possible to buy commercial hardware that incorporates an open
         | silicon RoT, perform a reproducible build of open firmware for
         | the device RoT, then sign and install firmware with the device
         | owner's key.
         | 
         | From OP:
         | 
         |  _> Moving away from unverifiable 'black boxes' and towards
         | fully transparent and verifiable foundations unlocks a new
         | paradigm, putting device owners back in control of their
         | remotely connected devices without requiring physical diligence
         | by hardware manufacturers.. assurance-first approach ensures
         | that security starts below the operating system, offering
         | protection against the most sophisticated hardware and firmware
         | attacks and more common software vulnerabilities._
        
       | transpute wrote:
       | Hopefully 2025 will be the year of open-source silicon + open
       | firmware RoT!
       | https://opensource.googleblog.com/2025/02/fabrication-begins...
       | 
       | For client devices, https://lowrisc.org/news/lowrisc-a-decade-of-
       | bringing-open-s... _> OpenTitan's "Earl Grey", will be the plan
       | of record hardware RoT for [2025] Chromebooks.. Caliptra, another
       | open source Root of Trust project with wide industry adoption,
       | has incorporated a considerable amount of OpenTitan's IP into its
       | design.. OpenTitan's CPU core, the Ibex RISC-V microcontroller,
       | is an important project in its own right.. Microsoft based its
       | CHERIoT-Ibex design on lowRISC's commercial-grade Ibex CPU core,
       | extending it with the proven CHERI hardware security extensions._
       | 
       | For servers, https://github.com/chipsalliance/Caliptra &
       | https://146a55aca6f00848c565-a7635525d40ac1c70300198708936b4...
       | 
       |  _> Caliptra consists of IP and firmware for an integrated Root
       | of Trust block.. targets datacenter-class SoCs like CPUs, GPUs,
       | DPUs, TPUs.. implementing a Root of Trust for Measurement (RTM)
       | block inside an SoC. A Caliptra integration provides the SoC with
       | Identity, Measured Boot and Attestation capabilities._
       | 
       | https://opentitan.org/book/doc/use_cases/index.html &
       | https://github.com/Microsoft/ms-tpm-20-ref
       | 
       |  _> OpenTitan can be used to implement the full Trusted Platform
       | Module (TPM) 2.0 specification to meet client and server platform
       | use cases._
        
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       (page generated 2025-06-29 23:00 UTC)