Intellectual Property Protection in Self-Reconfigurable Embedded Systems

This paper discusses security requirements for self-reconfigurable consumer products build on commercially available programmable logic devices such as FPGAs. A Secure Reconfiguration Controller (SeReCon) algorithm within embedded Intellectual Property (IP) core is presented which provides IP protection for self-reconfigurable systems. The SeReCon algorithm performs on-line verification of an IP core structure prior to reconfiguration and guarantees physical separation of un-trusted IP cores within the reconfigurable consumer device.