Policy Arbitrator for Multi-Die SOC Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity of manufacturing system-on-chip (SOC) assemblies due to shrinking transistor sizes leads to long manufacturing process hold times, which is mitigated by replicating multiple dies on the same package, but this introduces security challenges from differing security policies across dies, potentially allowing unauthorized access and tampering.
Innovation Solution
A policy arbitrator (PA) coordinates and synchronizes security policies across multiple dies or subsystems within an SOC, designating master and slave dies, and enforcing a unified security policy through an embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) to ensure all intellectual property cores adhere to a single, secure policy, preventing tampering and unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If multiple dies are replicated on the same package to reduce overall die size, then manufacturing complexity and hold times are reduced, but security policy coordination and synchronization become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A policy arbitrator component is introduced as an intermediary to coordinate security policies across multiple dies. The policy arbitrator receives security policies from each die, synchronizes them, and ensures consistent security enforcement throughout the multi-die system, thereby managing the complexity introduced by having multiple dies on a single package.
Solution Approach 2:
The security management system is segmented into distributed security policy components on each die and a centralized policy arbitrator. This segmentation allows each die to maintain its own security policies locally while the policy arbitrator coordinates them, enabling scalable security management as the number of dies increases.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple dies with different security policies are used, then manufacturing flexibility is improved, but security vulnerabilities and unauthorized access risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The security policy system is made dynamic through the policy arbitrator, which can adapt and synchronize security policies in real-time across multiple dies. This dynamic coordination ensures that even though each die may have different security policies initially, they are continuously synchronized to maintain security integrity while preserving manufacturing flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The policy arbitrator implements feedback mechanisms to monitor and coordinate security policies across all dies. By continuously receiving security policy information from each die and providing synchronization feedback, the system maintains security integrity while allowing manufacturing flexibility.
3Reliability
If a unified security policy is enforced across all dies, then security integrity is improved, but policy coordination overhead and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The policy arbitrator serves multiple functions: it receives security policies from each die, synchronizes them, enforces unified security policies, and coordinates security events across all dies. This multi-functional component consolidates the complexity of policy coordination into a single universal security management entity.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments herein relate to a die to form a system-on-chip (SOC) with one or more other dies, with a policy arbitrator disposed on the die to manage security policies of the plurality of dies of the SOC, where the PA is to receive information about a security policy and a die type from a first of the one or more other dies, compare at least the received information about the security policy and the die type of the first other die with a security policy and a die type of the die, determine, based on the comparison, a common security policy for the plurality of dies of the SOC, and transmit the determined common security policy and the die type of the die to at least a second of the one or more other dies.