Dave,

Of course there is room for non-volatile keys!

I am happy that you did your research and discovered what you think your
customers want, but I question the results: was the question "do you
want an easy to use and effective* security system that doesn't need a
battery?"

If so, then the answer is always "yes. I do!"

But, if you had said: "Non-volatile keys are not NIST approved for use
in any federal system, and not generally used in any private security
application. Knowing this, would you choose to use a non-volatile key
to protect your assets? or would you use a battery backed key"

If so, then I suspect the answer would be "no.....you should have told
me this."

To have a press release that touts a "superior security solution" is the
worst of the worst marketing. To claim to be able to protect IP from
ASSP vendors is quite honestly, false and misleading. If I can get the
IP that is a secret for less than $5,000, then I can clone the devices
without paying anything at all.

To imply that you have military customers satisfied with this level of
security is amazing. Perhaps they have a thermite charge to destroy the
device if it is tampered with. That does work, and makes getting parts
back for RMA a non-problem, but is not a preferred solution! Or perhaps
these devices are used for smart bombs and smart bullets. Hard to read
it out when they are blowing up all around you.

If what you are protecting is less than $5,00 in value, then it is
great, and works just fine.

By the way, when will you publish how the keys are programmed into the
device? Seems there is an NDA in place, and you are keeping a secret.

What are you hiding?

Austin

What is missing from all those press releases:

*Disclaimer: non-volatile poly-efuse EM technology can be read out by a
microscope using polarized light for a total investment of less than $5,000




Dave Greenfield wrote:
> Could be there is a place for both volatile and non-volatile security.
> Majority of customers we (Altera) have spoken to prefer the
> non-volatile key and are extremely satisfied with the security. This
> includes multiple military customers.
>
> Non-volatile security provides significantly more flexibility on the
> manufacturing process and enables some new royalty-based business
> models that cannot be facilitated with battery back-up security.
>
> If you are interested in further detials, here's a link to an upcoming
> net seminar.
> http://www.altera.com/education/net_...-security.html
>
> Dave Greenfield
> Altera Product Marketing
>