lowRISC C.I.C., the open-source silicon, and tool technology partner, announced today that it is working with ETH Zurich, Google, G+D Mobile Security, Nuvoton Technology and Western Digital on OpenTitan. These are benchmark design and integration guidelines for open source hardware (RoT) trusted anchors that enable chip manufacturers and platform providers to create high-quality hardware RoT chips, transparently implemented and specifically designed for servers in data centers and other devices.
There is no doubt that the cloud has become a single entity with a major impact on the sustainability of the activities and operations of many companies such as Amazon, IBM, and Google.
These companies have data centers that, due to their volume, can only be managed in this area.
This is a big attraction for hackers who see data centers like the Holy Grail to test their skills and access information that is inaccessible to the general public. In this sense, intelligence services from countries such as the United States and China have demonstrated their ability to access and attack data centers at spy-related events.
For this reason, Google recently made an announcement related to the development of a new open-source chip called OpenTitan. This chip comes from the experience of using Titan, a chip that has been part of the first security layer of the company’s 19 data centers on five continents for two years.
Google’s primary goal in implementing OpenTitan is to demonstrate that its $8 billion cryptographic machines are capable and reliable enough to prevent the emergence of vulnerabilities that could hand them over to any hacker trying to access the information they store.
With regard to the open-source chip, it has been developed with sufficient efficiency to enable execution that creates transparency and trust in the machines operating at the lowest levels of the data center. This with the aim of enabling any qualified person to monitor and understand their operations in an integrated manner, as it is a LowRISC company, commissioned by Google to manage the project.