Trident Microsystems selects Cryptography Research for pay TV security

Trident’s new TSC100 TM family of SoCs to include CryptoFirewall TM technology from Cryptography Research. “The advanced security protection provided in our solutions is a strategic differentiator for Trident,” said Mark Samuel, senior vice president and general manager of Trident Microsystems’ set-top box business unit. “As high-value digital content becomes more pervasive, it is critical to develop dedicated STB solutions to counter piracy in the pay TV markets.”

The Trident TSC100 family, unveiled at IBC designed for the worldwide satellite, cable and IPTV markets. Trident has integrated CRI’s CryptoFirewall security core to provide conditional access companies and operators with robust hardware-level protection against tampering and emulation. The CryptoFirewall core is an on-chip, hardware-based security block that protects cryptographic keys and computations from attack. Successfully deployed in over 100 million devices, CryptoFirewall has helped eliminate signal theft in some of the world’s highest-threat environments. The CryptoFirewall core can prevent the theft of pay TV broadcast signals, simplify compliance with content owners’ anti-piracy requirements, and streamline product development.

“Trident has developed an impressive platform of semiconductor solutions for digital televisions and set-top boxes to transform the consumer experience,” said Paul Kocher, president and chief scientist for CRI. “Implementing our CryptoFirewall security hardware into Trident chips provides a hardware foundation that conditional access and security solutions can leverage for securing content delivery.”