Arm demonstrates test chip and board for highly secure IoT designs – Technologist

British multinational semiconductor and software design company Arm has demonstrated the first internet of things (IoT) test chip and development board, which it says is designed to offer more choice to IoT designers in system-on-chip (SoC) development.

Developed in collaboration with Samsung Foundry, Cadence, and Sondrel, the test chip is a 28nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) embedded MagnetoResistive Random Access Memory (eMRAM).

“The promise of a world transformed by a trillion connected devices is not far in the future, but for IoT devices to scale we must continue to put a range of technology options in front of designers to test and evaluate,” said Gus Yeung, VP, GM and Fellow, Physical Design Group, Arm, in a news release.

He said the Musca-S1 test chip board would enable IoT designers to prototype their product designs from device-to-data security.

It includes, among others, testing and evaluation of new eMRAM technology for reliable, low-power, and secure device development through secure memory implementation.

Arm explained that eMRAM technology offers advantages over traditional embedded flash (eFlash) memory technology, as it can quickly scale below 40nm process technology.

The  Musca-S1 test chip demonstrates a combination of on-chip power control, Samsung Foundry’s Reverse Body Biasing (RBB) and eMRAM non-volatile memory power shutdown, allowing for testing and evaluation of new classes of highly energy-efficient, controlled IoT devices.

And for the first time on Samsung Foundry silicon, designers will have the opportunity to run Arm Mbed OS as well as test device and data management capabilities using the Arm Pelion IoT platform, the company said.

“The combination of Musca-S1 and working 28FD-SOI silicon reassures IoT designers they can achieve faster development, deploy body biasing and integrate eMRAM technology in their next-generation IoT devices for enhanced energy efficiency and IoT security,” said Jaehong Park, executive vice president of Design Platform Development, Samsung Electronics.

The Musca-S1 test chip and development board is on display at Samsung Foundry Forum North America in San Jose, California as part of an air sensor IoT application demo, featuring the device and data management capabilities of the Arm Pelion IoT platform.

Arm said it will be available in limited quantities in the third quarter of 2019, and is targeted for loan to customers in the fourth quarter of the year.