Controllers bring PQC to boot and root of trust
The TS1800 platform root of trust controller and TS50x secure boot controller expand Microchip’s TrustShield portfolio of post-quantum cryptography (PQC)-ready devices. These ICs address emerging cybersecurity mandates, including the European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite 2.0 (CNSA 2.0), across data center, compute, defense, and infrastructure systems.
Designed for external platform root of trust in multi-component systems, the TS1800 provides secure boot, secure firmware updates, attestation, and certificate handling using hardware-accelerated PQC. An Arm Cortex-M4F processor operating at up to 192 MHz provides up to 2× the processing power of previous generations to support the increased computational demands of PQC workloads. The controller also supports Open Compute Project (OCP)-compliant implementations, enabling firmware integrity validation and lifecycle management.
The TS50x series provides PQC-based secure boot for systems that do not require the full OCP-based platform root of trust feature set offered by the TS1800. With a simpler architecture, it focuses on signature verification using both PQC and classical cryptography for firmware stored in SPI flash. The controller holds the main chipset in reset until verification completes. This hybrid approach enables retrofitting existing ECC-based designs with PQC.
TS1800 and TS50x controllers and evaluation boards are available as part of Microchip’s early adopter program.
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