The OpenTitan coalition has announced the first commercial silicon chip that includes open-source built-in hardware security. This chip, called Earl Grey, utilizes a RISC-V based processor core and incorporates a number of built-in hardware security and cryptography modules. OpenTitan goes beyond the open-source instruction set of RISC-V by delivering an open-source design for the silicon itself. The project, modeled after open-source software projects, has been developed over the course of five years by contributors from around the world. The methodology developed by OpenTitan, called Silicon Commons, provides rules for documentation, predefined interfaces, and quality standards, and its success was attributed to choosing hardware security as a problem that all partners would have an incentive to continue participating in. This chip, with its transparent security and cost-saving benefits of reusing hardware components, has the potential to pave the way for open-source hardware development in other collaborations.
| Signal | Change | 10y horizon | Driving force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial silicon chip with built-in hardware security announced by OpenTitan coalition | Adoption of open-source hardware security | Increasing use of open-source hardware security | The need for transparent and secure chip design |