Alif Semiconductor, a supplier of power-efficient Edge AI-enabled secure MCUs and fusion processors, has announced the launch of its state-of-the-art security solution for edge devices. The company’s innovative security architecture includes an integrated Secure Enclave with its own resources, a highly configurable secure firewall structure, multiple general-purpose and neural processing cores, and the in-factory creation of unique device key pairs. These elements work together to secure the next wave of edge devices powered by advanced processing, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
The Ensemble family of devices from Alif Semiconductor features a Secure Enclave, which is a dedicated isolated subsystem for managing vital security functions, such as secure key management and storage, secure boot with an immutable Root-of-Trust, attestation at run-time using certificates, hardware cryptographic services, secure debugging, read-out protection, secure firmware updates, power management, and complete lifecycle management. This solid foundation of trust ensures that security functions are effective and can establish a chain of trust from the network to the device.
The Ensemble family goes beyond the baseline security measures by offering a new class of multi-core devices. These devices combine Cortex-M55 MCU cores, Cortex-A32 microprocessor cores capable of running high-level operating systems, and Ethos-U55 microNPUs for AI/ML acceleration. Developers have the flexibility to allocate memory and peripherals using the Secure Enclave’s unique firewall mechanism, ensuring durable separation of resources between multiple processing subsystems and secure and non-secure operations. This extended security goes beyond traditional Arm TrustZone optimization for single-core operation.
Alif Semiconductor’s Ensemble devices provide affordable solid security by integrating robust and sophisticated security measures within the chip. This eliminates the need for additional external secure MCUs on the circuit board or the use of a third-party Hardware Security Module (HSM) service during manufacturing or in the field. The Secure Enclave also enables secure life cycle management, ensuring one-way progress from manufacture to retirement, blocking cloning, rollbacks, malware, and IP theft.
In terms of security standards, Alif Semiconductor is committed to providing a coherent security posture for future applications, deployments, and life cycle management. The company aligns its ambitions with industry standards such as IEC 62443, IEC/ISO 27001, ISA/SAE 21434, and OWASP to ensure renewable security and defense in-depth.
Alif Semiconductor was founded in 2019 with a vision to address the growing market need for power-efficient, connected AI-enabled embedded computing solutions. Their fusion processors unlock innovative low-power techniques, functional integration, AI/ML edge processing, high security, and operating system diversity.
