Fault-tolerant embedded root of trust using lockstep processor cores on an fpga

Abstract

A field programmable gate array (FPGA) including a root of trust architecture. The architecture includes a system controller providing system control commands for the architecture and a cryptography processor for performing a hash or key operation for authentication of controller-embedded software and attestation of correct firmware in external system resources. The architecture also includes a lock-step fault-tolerant processor being responsive to messages from the system controller, and including a plurality of soft lock-step cores. Each soft core including separate memory and resources and operating on the same input, where each soft core provides output messages that are analyzed by a logic in the fault-tolerant processor that selects one of the messages to be output to the cryptography processor.