Hologram-based structural obfuscation for DSP cores

Abstract

This chapter highlights an alternative paradigm for the design of structurally obfuscated digital signal processing (DSP) cores inspired by security hologram. Discussion on different structural-obfuscation techniques have been included in this chapter with emphasis on the algorithms used for obfuscation during design synthesis of high-level synthesis (HLS). The chapter is organized as follows: Section 8.1 introduces the importance of obfuscation for IP cores during the system-on-chip design process; Section 8.2 discusses the background on security hologram; Section 8.3 highlights the possible use of applying the hologram concept for structural obfuscation; Section 8.4 explains the hologram-based obfuscation methodology for DSP cores; Section 8.5 presents illustrative examples for hologram-based obfuscation on DSP cores; Section 8.6 discusses the process of determination of gate count for un-obfuscated and obfuscated designs; Section 8.7 presents a demonstration and examples of high-level transformation-based obfuscated DSP circuits; Section 8.8 presents design examples of un-obfuscated (baseline) DSP circuits; Section 8.9 presents analysis on case studies; Section 8.10 concludes the chapter. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2020.