Forum Discussion
Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor
15 years ago --- 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.