NEW YORK and PARIS, August 23, 2010 – With each new model year, cars are becoming more dependent on microprocessors and complex software, challenging the auto industry to ensure that these systems are secure, safe, and reliable. According to AdaCore, this challenge is not being met: security and safety issues are not being properly considered at the start of the automotive system design cycle, but are instead being addressed as an afterthought. A recent paper from Rutgers University and the University of South Carolina, detailing preventable security flaws of in-car wireless networks, confirms AdaCore’s thesis.

“It is totally unacceptable for safety and security to be treated as add-on features for any safety-critical system, much less an automobile,” said Robert Dewar, President and CEO of AdaCore. “Car makers simply must consider these issues from the very start of a new vehicle design, because trying to add them in later, sometimes even after cars are on the road, is dangerous for drivers and expensive for manufacturers.” 

AdaCore is a leading provider of tools and services that help software developers meet stringent safety and security standards.

Hacked Tire Sensors a Possibility

Researchers from Rutgers University and University of South Carolina found, for example, that wireless communications between new cars and their tires can be “hacked” – intercepted or even forged – just like vulnerable computers on a data network. The report also shows that digital eavesdropping is possible at a distance of roughly 40 meters from a passing vehicle, and safety-critical messages from sensors in the car can be triggered and spoofed remotely. 

“While the potential for misuse may be minimal, this vulnerability points to a troubling lack of rigor with secure software development for new automobiles,” said Wenyuan Xu, in a recent Business Week interview with Joab Jackson of IDG News Service.  Prof. Xu, from the Computer Science department at the University of South Carolina, was a co-lead on the study.

This specific security flaw is a symptom of a larger problem: electronic systems are being developed and deployed in automobiles without considering security requirements. AdaCore says this is a particularly surprising omission for software systems where development costs will ultimately be distributed across a very large volume of vehicles, since the added effort needed to integrate security is negligible on a per-vehicle basis.

Existing Techniques for Ensuring Safety and Security

The software discipline has come up with a wide range of technologies that have proven over the years to increase both safety and security. For example, the avionics industry has adopted the DO-178B safety standard to make sure that software in commercial aircraft systems is safe. Similar standards are used in many other safety-critical industries, including high-speed rail, nuclear reactors, and medical devices. Analogous standards, most notably the Common Criteria, address security issues. There are established communication encryption mechanisms, and also computer architectures that allow multiple programs to operate securely on a single computer system. Both of these technologies make sense for the computer systems on board an automobile, where typically various sensors communicate data to remote processors that, in turn, are managed and coordinated by a central computer.

This central computer will be running multiple programs at different security or criticality levels. The entertainment system, although nice to have, is not essential to the safe operation of the car. In contrast, the cruise control system is safety critical; a bug that, for example, prevented the driver from overriding the set speed could cause an accident.  The Bluetooth wireless interface and, in the case of the tire pressure system considered in the Rutgers / Univ. of South Carolina study, sensor communication channels can allow outside access, and that’s the source of the security problem. These systems, along with the many other systems operating on a modern automobile, need to be protected from one another (and from outsiders) so that one system cannot adversely affect another.

The Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) architecture was specifically designed to support this sort of multi-program computer system. It isolates separate programs into their own partitions where each can operate safely and securely without interfering with others. It also supports secure communication between these various programs in a policy-defined manner. This architecture is available commercially (GNAT Pro High-Integrity Edition for MILS), and can solve many of the security issues presented by a modern automobile with its many computer systems.

About AdaCore

Founded in 1994, AdaCore is the leading provider of commercial software solutions for Ada, a state-of-the-art programming language designed for large, long-lived applications where safety, security, and reliability are critical. AdaCore’s flagship product is the GNAT Pro development environment, which comes with expert on-line support and is available on more platforms than any other Ada technology. AdaCore has an extensive world-wide customer base; see http://www.adacore.com/home/company/customers/ for further information.

Ada and GNAT Pro continue to see a growing usage in high-integrity and safety-certified applications, including commercial aircraft avionics, military systems, air traffic management/control, railroad systems, and medical devices, and in security-sensitive domains such as financial services.

AdaCore has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris. www.adacore.com

SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 23, 2010 – Magma® Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq: LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today launched Quartz iPOP, the “improved Productivity, Operability and Performance” initiative to facilitate designers’ adoption of the Quartz™ DRC and Quartz LVS software for designs targeted at 65 nanometers (nm) and below. Magma’s Quartz products, the first truly scalable physical verification solutions, handle larger designs and provide turnaround time up to an order of magnitude faster than traditional solutions – without sacrificing accuracy or requiring additional hardware. These unique capabilities provide the improved productivity and performance necessary to cope with the higher verification burden for designs at 65 nm and smaller without increasing the physical verification budget.

“The proportion of design activity at smaller geometries continues to increase. Just to maintain the same level of productivity means the physical verification needs to get faster,” said Anirudh Devgan, general manager of Magma’s Custom Design Business Unit. “Because the Quartz line is the only set of products that is fully scalable, it’s the best verification option as design geometries shrink.”

Foundry Report: 40-nm Wafer Shipments up 30 Percent

In its second quarter 2010 earnings report, TSMC revealed that 43 percent of its revenue comes from its 65- and 40-nm process nodes, and the number of 40-nm wafer shipments increased by 30 percent over the previous quarter. The adoption rate of advanced process nodes is accelerating, and many wireless, networking, graphics and other high-volume semiconductor companies have already migrated to 65-nm and smaller process technologies. 

Faster, Higher Capacity Physical Verification Required at 65-nm and Below

The number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 2 years – consistent with the predictions of Moore’s Law. At 65 nm and below, the rule complexity and number of rules increase significantly. As a result, the cost of hardware and software, along with the runtime required for physical verification may quadruple as customers move to each new process node. At 65 nm and below, traditional physical verification solutions fail to meet capacity, turnaround time and accuracy requirements.

“At 65-nm and below, IC size and design rule complexity make physical verification an even tougher, time-consuming challenge – frequently pushing chip delivery past acceptable deadlines,” Devgan said. “With easy access to Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS through the Quartz iPOP program, designers targeting 65-nm and smaller processes can experience firsthand the tremendous time- and cost-saving advantages of the industry’s fastest, fully scalable physical verification solution.”

Quartz iPOP: Better ROI, New Licensing Model and Free Trial of Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS

The iPOP program is designed to demonstrate the superior productivity and performance delivered by Magma’s Quartz DRC, Quartz LVS and Talus® qDRC physical verification solutions, and to ease adoption of the Quartz product the iPOP program features a new licensing model that enables designers to increase the return on investment (ROI) in Magma’s physical verification tools.

The Quartz products have been proven to provide sign-off quality results across a wide range of customers, design styles and process nodes. Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS enjoy broad foundry support and can be used for sign-off or in conjunction with third-party physical verification tools. Users of Magma’s Talus IC implementation system can achieve additional improvements in turnaround time and predictability with Talus qDRC, which provides Sign-off in the Loop™ physical verification. Unlike traditional tools, Talus qDRC runs during placement and routing to immediately identify and correct design rule violations, allowing Talus to generate sign-off-clean designs.

In addition to a new licensing model, the iPOP program features a free trial of the Quartz DRC and Quartz LVS software and an online quiz that lets designers demonstrate their knowledge of physical verification and enter into a monthly drawing for an Apple iPad. Designers can request the Quartz software evaluation and take the quiz by visiting www.magma-da.com/QuartziPOP. Only current and prospective Magma customers are eligible to win. No purchase necessary to enter, play or win. A purchase will not improve chances of winning.

About Magma

Magma’s electronic design automation (EDA) software provides the “Fastest Path to Silicon”™  and enables the world’s top chip companies to create high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) for cellular telephones, electronic games, WiFi, MP3 players, digital video, networking and other electronic applications. Magma products are used in IC implementation, analog/mixed-signal design, analysis, physical verification, circuit simulation and characterization. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma’s stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDA and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.