IEEE VHDL 200X IP Encryption Change Proposal

ID:	       ????

Proposer:     Deepak pant/ Ajayharsh Varikat
email:        dpant@cadence.com
              ajay@cadence.com
 

Status:       Done
Proposed:     Aug 9, 2004
Analyzed:     Date
Resolved:     Date

Enhancement Summary:     IP Encryption support in VHDL 200x
Related issues:          -
Relevant LRM section:    Affects many LRM sections - see below

Enhancement Detail:
-------------------
Specific changes to incorporate support for source level encryption 
into VHDL 200x.

Goals
------

The goal of this proposal is to define a tool independent mechanism 
to incorporate constructs that allow IP authors to mark specific areas 
of VHDL code for encryption using standard algorithms. 

1. Introduce the concept of protected envelopes in VHDL.
2. Define constructs to demarcate protected envelopes in VHDL source.
3. Define keywords to allow specification of encryption algorithms 
   and keys to be used during encryption/ analysis

Guiding Principles
-------------------

1. This change proposal recommends a pragma-based approach for 
   demarcating protected envelopes and specifying the attributes 
   of a protected envelope. 
2. Any tool that adheres to this proposal and consumes encrypted 
   IP must not reveal any details through any of its interfaces 
   or in any other output it generates. The actual access control 
   will be implementation dependent.  For example a synthesis tool 
   should not generate a non-encrypted netlist for encrypted 
   portions of input. Use of configurations and back annotation of 
   SDF data should be allowed for protected IP. However, it is not 
   a goal of this proposal to explicitly specify the visibility 
   restrictions on protected IP.



Modifications to 1076-2002
----------------------------


We propose that a new section be added to the LRM to define constructs 
that can be used to specify a protected envelope. 

The rules for pragma protect and associated keywords will need to be 
added to Annex A (Syntax Summary).