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Security is complex and designers need building blocks they can trust to achieve stringent security requirements for their IoT designs. The risk of getting security wrong is incredibly high. In order to simplify the design of secure IoT nodes ARM^® recently announced a comprehensive suite of products to address the IoT market. Check out nandannayampally's blog post "Accelerating the deployment of secure IoT: From chip to cloud" for more information on the launch.

Within that announcement ARM launched two new products which complete the story around the brand new ARM Cortex®-M33 and Cortex-M23 processors. Together they bring security to these low cost constrained IoT devices:

ARM CoreLink SIE-200 System IP for Embedded A collection of interconnect and controllers IP to allow designers to extend TrustZone security to the entire SoC. The low power IP components are optimized to design TrustZone compatible secure IoT/embedded SoCs around ARMv8-M processors.	ARM CoreLink™ SSE-200 Subsystem for Embedded An IoT subsystem based on the Cortex-M33 processor for the fastest, lowest-risk path to ARMv8-M silicon. The subsystem is an integration of the latest ARM IP and provides a foundation for building a secure IoT node.

The two new products are complementary and the intention is to provide designers with a spectrum of solutions to choose from to meet their product requirements for secure IoT solutions. Let’s look at six things you need to know about these new products…

1: CoreLink SIE-200 allows you to secure your system beyond the processor

CoreLink SIE-200 System IP for Embedded is a collection of low power IP components that can be used to architect a secure IoT/embedded design around ARMv8-M processors. The CoreLink SIE-200 building blocks are built on top of the AMBA 5 AHB5 protocol to form the foundation of a system wide security solution. The interconnect IP, along with the TrustZone controllers provide hardware-enforced isolation between trusted and non-trusted applications. As an example use of the IP, not only is the CoreLink SIE-200 system IP used in stitching the various elements in the CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem, it will also be used in extending TrustZone protection to all peripherals and external IP SoC designers will integrate to build their own IoT solutions (radios, peripherals, sensors).

2: SIE-200 IP provides the lowest-risk IP route for building ARMv8-M SoCs

CoreLink SIE-200 IP provides TrustZone compatible System IP that has been co-developed and validated with the ARMv8-M processors from ARM. The IP follows best practices and recommendations from ARM security architects in building secure systems around the latest ARMv8-M processors. Furthermore, the IP is used to help the ARM tools and OS vendor ecosystem to port to ARMv8-M architecture. Ecosystem partners such as ARM Keil® MDK, mbed OS, IAR, free RTOSA and  Lauterbach also develop their tools with our FPGA platform based on CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem. This ensures compatibility and increased verification for the  SIE-200 system IP. Product designers architecting their secure IoT SoCs with CoreLink SIE-200 can do so with peace of mind and focus on differentiation and value-add.

3: CoreLink SIE-200 IP enables custom IoT solutions

The CoreLink SIE-200 IP blocks support a range of configuration options and the choice of multiple components give SoC architects maximum flexibility in building their secure system architectures. The intention is to allow designers to “buy once and use many” and support multiple architectures (single processor systems to multi-processor systems; coarse or fine-grained memory partitioning; security control options for integration of legacy masters; single or multiple power/clock domains; and many more), all while saving significant verification time. This means you can tailor each design to suit a specific application with efficient sharing of memory and peripherals across secure and non-secure applications.

4: The ARM CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem is the fastest and lowest risk route to ARMv8-M silicon

CoreLink SSE-200 is a second generation subsystem for embedded and it is the foundation on which SoC designers will build secure IoT products. The design of IoT products requires expertise, time and a significant hardware and software integration effort. In order to help partners get to market faster, ARM has mobilized its best experts to create this integrated secure solution. CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem has been thoroughly verified and packaged it in a way that allows product designers to quickly get a state-of-the-art, IoT device to market.

5: CoreLink SSE-200 builds on many new components developed by ARM

The CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem combines all of the latest ARM IP to provide a foundation for building a secure IoT node. The fully verified IP enables you to get security right and keep power consumption low. The system allows you to tweak the configuration, depending on your system requirements:

The CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem hardware components:

• Cortex-M33 processor
• CoreLink SIE-200 System IP components and interconnect
• Power infrastructure (enabling Automatic and dynamic power and clock gating depending on the state of the device)
• Secure debug infrastructure (controlled by ARM TrustZone CryptoCell, to control access from debug port to the internals of the SoC)
• TrustZone CryptoCell (optional)
• Cordio radio (optional) for Bluetooth low-energy and/or 802.15.4 connectivity

The CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem also integrates software components:

• mbed OS
• Cordio Bluetooth stack
• Secure libraries from ARM TrustZone CryptoCell
• Various drivers and power management features

6: The CoreLink SSE-200 has many different applications

Not all IoT applications are the same and you cannot just have a single design target. Luckily, there are lots of ways that you can configure the new CoreLink SSE-200. Here are two example use cases:

Simple battery powered sensor

A simple battery powered sensor will spend most of it life in hibernate mode to maximize its battery life.  So in this example, to minimize power, the system will keep most of its components powered off. Each block has its own intelligence and does not need to rely on the processor for power gating. From time to time the device will also need to securely connect and stream data to the cloud. Doing a short burst of local processing on the sensor data minimizes power, transmit time and bandwidth. The second, higher performance processor, can perform  the more complex tasks faster  (eg. as required by NB-IoT). As soon as this burst of activity is complete, the system can then switch back to the lower frequency processor, to minimize power consumption.

Plugged system

You may also have an IoT application that is plugged into the wall (e.g. smart home alarm system). Even if preserving battery life is no longer a concern, energy saving is still key to sustainable development. In this use case, the energy-efficient processor can manage local device management, while the high performance processor will improve user experience and can perform advanced processing (e.g. running machine learning algorithms). All of this can happen with a limited power budget thanks to the efficiency of the Cortex-M33 processor.

For more information, follow the links below!

If you'd like to learn more about SSE-200 check out ftbug's blog post Security and the ARM CoreLink SSE-200 subsystem – what you need to know!