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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

encrypt my IP

Hi,

I am sending the customer my IP component for integrating into their SOPC but do not know yet how to encrypt it like Altera MegaCore IP. Actually, I just want them to work with my component as a black box.

Does Quartus provide us such tool ?

Could you recommend some other solutions ?

Thanks in advance,

Quan

7 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    16 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hi,

    I am sending the customer my IP component for integrating into their SOPC but do not know yet how to encrypt it like Altera MegaCore IP. Actually, I just want them to work with my component as a black box.

    Does Quartus provide us such tool ?

    Could you recommend some other solutions ?

    Thanks in advance,

    Quan

    --- Quote End ---

    Hi,

    as far as I know there is no tool in Quartus available for encryption. The only way of a kind of encryption is to send your IP as a design partition. When you export a design partition Quartus generates a qxp file. Maybe that is sufficient for you.

    Kind regards

    GPK
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    16 years ago

    Hello Quan,

    Altera offer Ampcrypt encryption software which will take of this for you, (it is not part of Quartus). You can encrypt your design for a single computer and time and device limit it.

    David Shih at Altera is the custodian of this software at Altera so you need to contact him.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    16 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hi,

    as far as I know there is no tool in Quartus available for encryption. The only way of a kind of encryption is to send your IP as a design partition. When you export a design partition Quartus generates a qxp file. Maybe that is sufficient for you.

    Kind regards

    GPK

    --- Quote End ---

    Thanks, GPS

    I will try qxp and let you know.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    SingMai,

    Thank you for your information. I will contact him very soon.
  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    16 years ago

    --- Quote Start ---

    Hi Pletz,

    I just found this link in the forum :

    http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3863&highlight=encrypt

    At the last reply, Rysc implied qxp is breakable. So is it safe to use qxp ?

    Regards,

    Quan

    --- Quote End ---

    Hi Quan,

    I was not aware that an encryption SW is available from Altera. If this is true, then I would recommend to go that way. The qxp-file was not intented to be used us "encryption", so I assume it is possible to break it more easier then a "real" encrypted design.

    Kind regards

    GPK
  • eolse's avatar
    eolse
    Icon for New Contributor rankNew Contributor
    7 years ago

    I designed a co-processor to the NIOS, its taken five years, but I cannot sell it due to the fact that Quartus has no portal or capability to protect my IP. Only Intel themselves, and their very select partners, get to have the benefit of IP protection. I hoipe Intel someday realizes this is a major flaw in their policy. This is why hardware engineers cannot get anywhere in today's markets. Software is protected for start-ups, hardware IP in FPGA's is NOT.