Today Arm introduced its next generation System MMU, CoreLink MMU-600; which, protects real time low latency high bandwidth 4K content. Media content protection relies on CoreLink MMU-600 to deploy TrustZone Media Protection v2 (TZMP2).
TZMP2 systems use master side filtering to avoid extensive system memory carve-out for media protection. By removing the need to allocate dedicated memory on power up, as is done in current generation systems, CoreLink MMU-600 saves approximately $3 per device. This saving translates to >$1Billion savings for the overall industry taking into account the number of devices sold globally.
CoreLink MMU-600 is a ground up design based on the Arm SMMUv3.1 specification and is compatible with Armv8.2 page tables. CoreLink MMU-600 supports stage-1 and/or stage-2 translations defined in Arm Distributed Virtual Memory (DVM). The mechanism extends all the Core virtualization and protection to Non-Core accelerators and devices allowing each accelerator driver to work in its own domain. Shared page tables with cores simplifies memory management between CPU and Non-CPU devices.
Figure 1: CorelLnk MMU-600 in Media Protection Pipeline
To address new market applications, like premium content protection, the CoreLink MMU-600’s micro-architecture was re-architected and designed. The result is a vastly improved design with:
Figure 2: PPA comparison CoreLink MMU-600 vs. CoreLink MMU-500 for content protection over previous designs.
CoreLink MMU-600 also helps in simplifying the system fabric definition, specially when incorporating coherent accelerators. This is because master-side filter ensures un-authorized accesses are filtered at the accelerator boundary to prevent leaks.
Internet of Trust, a security consultancy, which operates the Global Platform TEE assurance program, performed an evaluation of the security level of TZMP2 against TrustZone based TEE architectural approach. According to Carolina Lavatelli (CTO), the study showed that Arm TZMP2, provides, by design, a security level that is equivalent in security level to TEE-based solutions where the media pipeline is managed by the Trusted world.
The TZMP2 technology with CoreLink MMU-600 is gaining trust of industry stalwarts who have a lot of interest in ensuring the media content is protected from piracy. Here is a quote from a key player in the movie industry:
Arm CoreLink MMU-600 builds on a standard system architecture and security model but provides a more flexible and lower cost solution. We look forward to this lower cost more flexible turnkey solution making it easier for companies across the globe to provide effective solutions for premium video and VR content.”
Ian Harvey SVP Advanced Technology at Twentieth Century Fox
In addition to CoreLink MMU-600 Arm also announced its next generation display controller Mali-D71, which relies on CoreLink MMU-600 to manage the address translations to access memory. The combination of Mali-D71 and CoreLink MMU-600 ensures a secure high-quality consumer visual experience even under the most demanding frame-rates associated with next generation 4K display panels.
For more detailed technical specifications and application notes for CoreLink MMU-600 please visit:
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For Mali-D71 details please visit:
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