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Hardware suggestion to work on TrustZone in Android

Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 29th August 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Hi everybody,

For my MSc thesis I have to work on ARM TrustZone and the idea is to use it in Android OS (2.3+). I'm pretty new to this world but reading the forum and the documentation I understand that a dev board (or even a consumer device) powered by a TrustZone capable CPU (Cortex A15, A9, A8, A5 and ARM1176) is not enough to work on TrustZone since it would also requre to have a Protection Controller, an Address Space Controller and a TrustZone "aware" interrupt controller.
So, as fas as I can understand, I think that devices like Google Nexus S, which is powered by a Samsung Hummingbird Cortex-A8, will not guarantee that I can actually work with TrustZone.
- Does this mean I have to use a development board?
- Only development boards by ARM? I've never used a dev board but I see there are a lot of dev board manufacturers.
- Do you have any board to suggest me as candidate for the project? I must work on TrustZone but I also need to run Android.

Thank a lot for you help.
Bests,

Alberto

Martin Weidmann over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 31st August 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

All Cortex-A based devices will have some level of TrustZone support. But if you want to do something useful you'll need one with a proper TrustZone aware memory system. In some cases this is present, but not accessible (e.g. the Beagle board). The Versatile Express A9 board from ARM does have a TZ aware memory system, but might be a bit pricey. Your best bet might be to ping the board vendors - specifying that you want to run code in both Normal and Secure world.
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Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 31st August 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Thank you so much ttfn! I will also ask for Android support, just to be sure.
Thanks once again!
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jdbtx jdbtx over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 31st August 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Hi,

Along these same lines but probably an even more basic question. If I refer back to the ARM V7 Architecture Reference to the description of the Security Extensions, they are described as being "Implementation Dependent". When I look at one of the specific reference manuals for the processors mentioned above ( Cortex A8, A9, etc.) there doesn't seem to be any doubt that they are there. My initial interpretation was that it would be up to one of the ARM partners actually implemeting one of the above as to whether or not they wanted to include them. Now I'm thinking the that it actually means the particular design within the ARM v7 portfolio. In other words, if someone realizes a Cortex-A8 design, it will have the security extensions. True?

Thanks.
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Peter Harris over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Yes. To date all of the ARM Cortex-A family implement the security extensions; implementations from other companies with an architecture license can choose to implement them, or not.

As per TTFN's comment, it's not just about the processor though. The memory system around the processor must also be implemented to take advantage of the extra security signalling generated by the core extensions; it is possible to have a Cortex-A core in a SoC with no security benefits at all if the memory system isn't using the extra bus signalling to partition resources.
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Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Dear isogen74,

Thank a lot for your reply. Is there any way to understand if the memory system the extra bus signaling? I've read lots of board datasheets from many manufacturers but nobody seems to underline this aspect (and even writing to the their tech support does not help). Talking about ARM dev board, is there anything specific to look for?

Thank you so much.

Alberto
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Martin Weidmann over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

In the datasheets you could look out for components like TZPC (TrustZone Protection Controller), TZSAC (TrustZone Address Space Controller) or TZIMW (TrustZone Memory Wrapper). These are the kind of things you'd expect to see in a system that had a TZ aware memory system. As an example, here is the page from the Versatile Express board manual that covers one of the TZ peripherals --> http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.dui0448e/CHDHFEHG.html
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Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Thanks a lot ttfn! Checking the reference manuals it turns out that only two dev board fully support TrustZone:
- Versatile Express CoreTile Express A9x4 (V2P-CA9) --> http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dui0448e/CHDHFEHG.html
- RealView Platform Baseboard for ARM1176JZF-S (PB1176JZF-S) --> http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dui0425f/Ciabdfhj.html

Now it's time to understand if these boards will run Android! Any suggestion? On Versatile Express family board it says they can run a desktop OS like Linux.
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Peter Harris over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

The Versatile Express with A9x4 core tile does run Android.

See http://linux-arm.org/LinuxKernel/LinuxAndroidPlatform.

Iso
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Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

Thanks Iso. Any idea about the PB1176JZF-S?
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Alberto Maria Scattolo over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 1st September 2011 at http://forums.arm.com

According to this (http://www.arm.com/community/software-enablement/google/index.php?tab=Related+Products) Android should run
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suresh gopal over 11 years ago

Note: This was originally posted on 26th May 2012 at http://forums.arm.com

For a project on ARM trustzone , the ARM-fastmodels ,which supports TRUSTZONE, can be used.
ARM fastmodels are emulators. These fastmodels can be downloaded directly from the ARM website itself.

For a starter, one can look into the open source trustzone software provided by the company named
Sierraware, which is available at

http://openvirtualization.org/

The site also provides complete information for downloading and installing fastmodel.
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