Cycuity Radix-ST identifies security weaknesses earlier in chip design
Cycuity introduces Radix-ST, a new product in its Radix portfolio of security solutions designed to leverage static analysis techniques to identify potential weaknesses early in the design cycle without requiring simulation or emulation.
As hardware designs become increasingly complex and security threats grow, semiconductor design teams require effective tools capable of proactively identifying issues during the development process. Analogous to functional verification, security assurance can greatly benefit from a spectrum of complementary technologies.
While dynamic methods such as Radix-S and Radix-M are most powerful by leveraging simulation and emulation, Radix-ST’s static analysis only requires RTL (Register Transfer Level) source code and can be applied as early as first design components are being developed. Although static methods can only find specific types of security issues they are considerably more efficient and can detect problems that are challenging to identify using dynamic techniques.
Radix-ST processes the design RTL and produces a detailed report that highlights detected weaknesses, pinpoints their locations in the source code, and automatically maps them to the relevant hardware CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration) from the MITRE-maintained public database of root cause weaknesses. Radix-ST goes beyond basic source code linting by focusing on deep security issues and integrating its application into the overall Radix security assurance workflow and user interface.
“Radix-ST offers an effective static security analysis solution that complements our Radix-S (simulation) and Radix-M (emulation) products,” stated Mitch Mlinar, VP of Engineering at Cycuity. “By providing a powerful and user-friendly source code analysis capability, we can further assist our customers in efficiently addressing security as early as possible in the design cycle, thereby minimizing cost and increasing productivity.”
“Using Radix-ST, we have been able to start our security analysis very early in our verification cycles,” said Mark Labbato, Senior Lead Engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. “We can bring up the design even before we have a full simulation environment online, proactively helping us identify areas in the design where we might need to focus more or make targeted improvements.”
Radix-ST is now available as part of Cycuity’s portfolios of hardware security products.