Hardware Interfaces

Parameters

Note that parameters prefixed with RndCnst are random netlist constants that need to be regenerated via topgen before the tapeout (typically by the silicon creator).

Signals

Referring to the Comportable guideline for peripheral device functionality, the module lc_ctrl has the following hardware interfaces defined

• Primary Clock: clk_i
• Other Clocks: clk_kmac_i
• Bus Device Interfaces (TL-UL): regs_tl, dmi_tl
• Bus Host Interfaces (TL-UL): none
• Peripheral Pins for Chip IO: none
• Interrupts: none

Inter-Module Signals

Security Alerts

Security Countermeasures

Power Manager Interface

The power manager interface is comprised of three signals overall: an initialization request (pwr_lc_i.lc_init), an initialization done response (pwr_lc_o.lc_done) and an idle indicator (pwr_lc_o.lc_idle).

The power manager asserts pwr_lc_i.lc_init in order to signal to the life cycle controller that it can start initialization, and the life cycle controller signals completion of the initialization sequence by asserting pwr_lc_o.lc_done (the signal will remain high until reset).

The idle indication signal pwr_lc_o.lc_idle indicates that the life cycle controller is idle. If this bit is 0, the life cycle controller is either not initialized or in the middle of carrying out a life cycle state transition. The power manager uses that indication to determine whether a power down request needs to be aborted.

Since the power manager may run in a different clock domain, the pwr_lc_i.lc_init signal is synchronized within the life cycle controller. The power manager is responsible for synchronizing the pwr_lc_o.lc_done and pwr_lc_o.lc_idle signals.

See also power manager documentation.

OTP Interfaces

All interfaces to and from OTP are explained in detail in the OTP Specification Document.

KMAC Interface

The life cycle controller interfaces with KMAC through a side load interface in the same way as the key manager. Since the KMAC and life cycle controller are in different clock domains, the KMAC interface signals are synchronized to the life cycle clock inside the life cycle controller.

Control Signal Propagation

For better security, all the life cycle control signals are broadcast in multi-bit form. The active ON state for every signal is broadcast as 4'b1010, while the inactive OFF state is encoded as 4'b0101. For all life cycle signals except the escalation signal ESCALATE_EN, all values different from ON must be interpreted as OFF in RTL. In case of ESCALATE_EN, all values different from OFF must be interpreted as ON in RTL. To that end the functions lc_tx_test_true_strict(), lc_tx_test_true_loose(), lc_tx_test_false_strict() and lc_tx_test_false_loose() in the lc_ctrl_pkg must be employed unless there is a strong reason not to. The reason must be documented and agreed at block sign-off.

Since many signals cross clock boundaries, their synchronization needs to be taken into account. However, since the ON / OFF encoding above has been chosen such that all bits toggle exactly once for a transition from OFF to ON (and vice-versa), all that needs to be done is guard against metastability using a two-stage synchronizer, as illustrated below.

In other words, since each bit in the encoding flips exactly once upon an OFF -> ON or ON -> OFF transition, we can guarantee that there are no transient patterns toggling back and forth between enabling and disabling a function. It is crucial however that the design follows the guidance above and interprets all undefined values as either ON or OFF in order to avoid issues due to staggered bits after synchronization.

Note that even though synchronization can be achieved with a simple two-stage synchronizer, designs must use the prim_lc_sync primitive. This primitive has additional LC-specific assertions and provides a parametric amount of separately buffered copies of the life cycle signal to prevent logic optimization by the synthesis tool (buffers have a ‘size_only’ constraint in synthesis). For all signals except ESCALATE_EN, it is recommended to structure the design such that at least two separately buffered copies of the life cycle signals have to be consumed in order to unlock a certain function.

Key Manager Interface

The lc_keymgr_div_o signal is a 128bit diversification constant that is output to the key manager once the life cycle controller has initialized, and is asserted at the same time as lc_keymgr_en_o. Depending on which group the life cycle state is in, this signal is assigned a different random netlist constant as defined in the table below.

Note that this signal is quasistatic. It is hence recommended to place a max-delay constraint on it and leverage the synchronized version of lc_keymgr_en_o to enable any downstream register in different clock domains than the life cycle controller.