Intellectual property protection in self-reconfigurable embedded systems

This paper discusses security requirements for self-reconfigurable consumer products build on commercially available programmable logic devices such as FPGAs. A secure reconfiguration controller (SeReCon) algorithm within embedded intellectual property (IP) core is presented which provides IP protection for self-reconfigurable systems. The SeReCon algorithm performs on-line verification of an IP core structure prior to reconfiguration and guarantees physical separation of un-trusted IP cores within the reconfigurable consumer device.