Secure development platform for Cortex-M

Computer/Embedded Technology

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20 April 2016 Computer/Embedded Technology Design Automation

Express Logic, provider of the ThreadX real-time operating system (RTOS), has introduced its X-Ware secure platform for ARM Cortex-M processors.

The platform delivers a fully integrated set of X-Ware components (ThreadX, NetX, USBX, FileX, GUIX and TraceX) for use with future ARMv8-M–based Cortex-M processors with TrustZone and with existing ARMv6-M– and ARMv7-M–based Cortex-M processors with MPU support.

To help embedded developers deliver secure IoT devices, X-Ware provides a comprehensive and secure foundation for Cortex-M processor based products, with its infrastructure for software partitioning. By using a system’s MMU or MPU, ThreadX can protect trusted code from errors that might occur within other code while enabling the trusted code to interact with the entire system.

The platform uses the Cortex-M’s MPU to assign memory range (partition) boundaries to non-trusted code, preventing such code from accessing any code or data outside of its own partition. This prevents any errors that might be present in that code from impacting the non-trusted code itself and from impacting trusted code or the RTOS. In this manner, designated code does not have full access to the entire address space, only to code and data within its own range of addresses as defined by the MPU boundary registers.

As well, in order to permit this ‘managed code’ to access RTOS services and exchange information with code in trusted regions, an efficient remote access mechanism is employed. This allows RTOS services to be performed for the requesting code while preventing the requesting code from having direct access to the RTOS or other trusted data and code regions. Developers are thereby able to create secure spaces protected from software infiltration.

The ARMv8-M architecture follows a similar protection process, except that the ARMv8-M is much more efficient, as it provides a hardware implementation of all features necessary to achieve the benefits of the X-Ware secure platform. ARMv8-M enables the RTOS to assign partition boundaries to multiple code regions, enabling non-trusted code to be confined to those regions and thereby prevented from accessing trusted regions or the RTOS itself. Like the earlier Cortex-M MPU solution, ARMv8-M provides a remote access capability, enabling managed code to request services from the RTOS while disabling the code from accessing trusted regions.

For more information visit www.rtos.com

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Secure development platform for Cortex-M

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