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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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15 years ago

How to prevent MAX II CPLD to be decryption?

I am a Chinese engineer.In China, you only need to spend $ 3000 to decrypt the MAX II CPLD.I want to know how to prevent MAX II CPLD to be decryption.

Thank you!

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

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    you only need to spend $ 3000 to decrypt the MAX II

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    I don't belive.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    I don't belive.

    --- Quote End ---

    Neither me. MAX II configuration isn't actually encrypted rather than read protected. Provided that Altera didn't design a weakness or even a backdoor to the read protection, there are basically two solutions to get the MAX II configuration:

    - Acquire the volatile data from flash storage cells, during configuration load or from configuration RAM. There are a few advanced techniques to tap signals on a chip in operation (after "freeing" it from the package material without damage), e.g. electron beam sampling. They don't work in any case. I doubt, that the service is offered for $3000.

    - Synthesize the logic from a behavioral analysis. Considering, that the chip may have up to 2 raised nLE (nLE is the number of registers) states, the analysis time possibly exceeds the lifetime of the galaxis. But it can work for trivial design.