Re: [1076.1] Information on proposed IP support in VHDL-200X

Olivier,

> In order to make the point clear to evrybody, my proposal is to provide, 
> to all of you ,an obfuscated VHDL-AMS model (with its spec documents and 
> testbench and simulation results) running on the three VHDL-AMS 
> platforms avalaible (Ansoft, Mentor Graphic and Dolphin), and to give 
> you 15 days to re-engineer this model back (having all initial value, 
> variables names and comments provided back).
> I do not want to go against the mailing list policy, this is why I aske 
> here the moderator authorization to share an obfuscated model with 
> everybody.

Providing an example of an obfsucated VHDL-AMS model is not a problem 
regarding the mailing list policy. However, I think important to clearly 
define the context and the objective of such an exercise.

The context is to define a standard based on well-defined, well 
characterized and open methods and algorithms. The IP protection 
mechanism currently in development for VHDL, Verilog and their AMS 
extensions (and probably also for other design languages or formats) is 
proposing a standard way to use existing encryption/decryption methods 
that have been extensively studied and published. As John said, the 
secret here is in the keys. The obfuscation method you are advocating is 
based on a private algorithm you are obviously not going to publish and 
share since it is the key (and the secret) of a commercial tool. I can 
hardly see a way to make a standard out of that.

Now the objective. What do you want to show with the challenge? Assuming 
nobody will be able or have the time or resources (or even care) to win 
your challenge, what would then be the conclusion? To me, as far as I 
can say, there would not be any evidence that the obfuscation approach 
is secure in all cases. Again, the result of the exercise would not 
bring more light for developing a standard.

Best regards,
Alain Vachoux