Peripheral device comportability with security circuitry

Abstract

An IC chip can provide silicon root of trust (RoT) functionality. In described implementations, the IC chip includes a processor, an interconnect, and multiple peripheral devices. These comportable circuit components are designed to facilitate interoperability and consistent, expected communications for security circuitry. Each peripheral device includes an interface that adheres to a common framework for interacting with the processor and with other peripheral devices. The interface includes an interconnect interface coupling the peripheral device to the interconnect and an inter-device interface coupling the peripheral device to at least one other peripheral device. The peripheral device is realized based on a peripheral device design code that indicates inter-device signaling in accordance with an inter-device scheme of an interface specification. Manufacturers fabricate the peripheral device, based on the design code, to be physically and logically coupled to another peripheral device in a predictable manner. This fosters more-robust and reliable security circuitry.