Graf Research has been awarded a Phase 0 BAA research project entitled DPA Title III Trusted FPGAs.
Brief Program Summary: The Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) have identified Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as a critical enabling technology across a wide variety of present and future systems. Advanced, commercially available FPGAs do not meet DoD's requirements for Trusted Systems as they are manufactured in un-Trusted fabrication facilities, primarily off-shore, and are considered vulnerable to tampering and insertion of malicious software and/or hardware. This program seeks to improve the security posture and reduce the risk associated with FPGA technology by addressing security concerns in the design, development, fabrication and supply lifecycle of FPGA devices. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis and develop an approach to ensure the availability of advanced “Trusted” and space qualified re-programmable FPGAs technology to support DoD/IC applications including satellite and strategic missile systems. “Trust” is defined as assurance of the integrity and availability of a product wherein that product will reliably operate as intentionally designed and not contain any malicious hardware and/or software that will compromise the intended application; e.g., exfiltration of sensitive data, etc. Efforts envisioned during this Phase 0 study include: analysis of current FPGA manufacturing capabilities; analysis of future technical capabilities needed to meet the needs of the FPGA market (USG and commercial); creation of a draft technical plan and schedule to establish a Trusted source for space qualified FPGA devices, to include (non-binding) high-level cost projections, to establish quantitative “Trust” criteria for FPGAs; identification and analysis of the markets for FPGAs; and identification of business strategies to ensure long term success in the Trusted and space qualified FPGA market.
