The world’s first “safety chip” was launched in Nanjing

This morning, at the 4th Cyberspace Intrinsic Security Academic Conference and the 7th “Strong Network” Mimicry Defense International Elite Challenge held in Nanjing, Purple Mountain Laboratory officially released a series of major scientific research results including the ESC0830 Intrinsic Security MCU chip.

“This is the world’s first intrinsically secure MCU chip. The global market size of MCU is tens of billions of chips per year. Isn’t it earth-shattering to achieve intrinsic security?” Wu Jiangxing, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, deputy director and chief scientist of Purple Mountain Laboratory, said excitedly, “I have always had a wish. Can intrinsic security contribute to the security of basic materials for the digital base? This chip has made it happen!” 

MCU refers to micro control unit, which is the most widely used integrated circuit chip in the world. It is used in smart products such as mobile phones, drones, cars and toys, and is especially widely used in the Internet of Things and industrial control systems.

Endogenous security technology is a technology originally created in China and proposed by Academician Wu Jiangxing 11 years ago. It has opened up a new path of out-of-the-box and default security. This technology combined with MCU is equivalent to using the safest “bricks and tiles” for the “digital building”.

It is reported that previous MCUs were inherently “weak and sickly” and had inherent structural defects. They could not resist “hacker” attacks and needed firewalls to act as “bodyguards”. The inherently secure MCU chip released today has built a dynamic heterogeneous redundant three-core architecture system from the beginning of its design. When a “hacker” attacks one of the cores, the system’s adjudication mechanism will automatically determine the abnormality and immediately stop the output. At the same time, the other two cores operate normally to ensure the operation of the system. The attacked core automatically cleans data and implements defense. The chip’s constantly changing “indestructible body” raises its own “immunity” to a new level.

The chip took two years to be officially launched. Its price is comparable to that of current commercial MCUs, but its security is worlds apart, which has found a new blue ocean for the industry. The biggest design highlight of the chip is its universality – it is compatible with mainstream chips on the market and can be directly replaced without changing the peripheral circuits, greatly saving corporate costs. It is reported that the chip is participating in a national key R&D plan led by the State Grid and has passed relevant verification.

Purple Mountain Laboratory is a major national scientific and technological innovation platform, and its innovation strength in the field of network communication and security is leading the world. How strong is the endogenous security system it leads? Since the “Strong Network” Mimic Defense International Elite Challenge was held in 2018, top “hackers” from the CTFtime Flag-grabbing website, which once ranked first in the world, and teams with excellent performance in major domestic competitions have launched network attacks, and no one has broken through the defense so far.

Li Yishen, a doctoral student in cyberspace security at Tsinghua University who has participated in three competitions, said: “It is something to be proud of that the endogenous security system can withstand the ever-changing forms of attack. This is a reflection of Chinese wisdom in cybersecurity.”

“The intrinsically secure MCU chip has ended the era of previous MCU insecurity ,” said Academician Wu Jiangxing proudly.