Design software update enables data security demo

28th January 2016

Avnet Abacus

Mick Elliott

0 0

Design software on the SmartFusion2 KickStart Development Kit has been updated by Avnet to offer a data security demonstration. The kit, sold exclusively through Avnet, is an entry-level development platform designed to facilitate rapid prototyping using Microsemi’s SmartFusion2 system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).

The SmartFusion2 KickStart Development Kit’s board features Microsemi’s low-power, single event upset (SEU)-immune SmartFusion2 SoC FPGA, a secure and integrated programmable device with 10,000 logic elements and a 166 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 processor.

The kit is ideal for those utiliing Microsemi’s SmartFusion2 in Internet of Things (IoT), industrial networked equipment, medical networked products and other applications that require the highest levels of data communications security.

A Windows app is used to control and view the steps to establish a secure Bluetooth Low Energy connection between a SmartFusion2 “server” and an Android “client.”

“The data security reference design for the KickStart Kit provides an easy-to-follow implementation of basic security building blocks,” said Stefan Rousseau, senior technical marketing engineer for Avnet. “Designers who are new to design for security should be able to understand and re-use the given examples, while others who are already familiar with these concepts will see how the secure elements and architecture of the SmartFusion2 SoC are used for securing the system.”

According to the Aberdeen group, by the year 2020 approximately 50 billion machines will be connected.

Not only do these machines need to be secure, but they need to be secured at the device, design and system levels.