NSF Awards $10 Million To Protect America's Processors

aarondubrow writes "The National Science Foundation and the Semiconductor Research Corporation announced nine research awards to 10 universities totaling nearly $4 million under a joint program focused on secure, trustworthy, assured and resilient semiconductors and systems. The awards support the development of new strategies, methods and tools at the circuit, architecture and system levels, to decrease the likelihood of unintended behavior or access; increase resistance and resilience to tampering; and improve the ability to provide authentication throughout the supply chain and in the field. "The processes and tools used to design and manufacture semiconductors ensure that the resulting product does what it is supposed to do. However, a key question that must also be addressed is whether the product does anything else, such as behaving in ways that are unintended or malicious," said Keith Marzullo, division director of NSF's Computer and Network Systems Division.

Comments

Wow, a whole $10 million?

[Maury Markowitz]

I remember watching some show on a river in Africa that never makes it to the coast. Every spring it starts as a rushing torrent, but as the thaw ends and the water spreads out it evaporates and sinks into the land, leaving a huge inland river delta.

On can construct a similar imaginary money river for this story. $10 million? It will never see hardware, that money will disappear into the bureaucracy like water into the African plains.

To put this in perspective, $10 million is what, one hour of iPhone sales? That's how important the NSF considers this?

Re:Wow, a whole $10 million?

[CastrTroy]

$10 million doesn't get you very far anymore. My city has spent over $10 million trying to construct a pedestrian bridge. The initial estimate was over 6.5 million. For a bridge. That people walk on. I think it allows for bikes too. Crazy. And it still hasn't been completed. Who knows how much it will cost by the end of it.