Info on Clipper chip and fabrication of it

Doug Merritt doug at netcom.com
Tue Nov 9 20:08:45 PST 1993


tcmay at netcom.com (Timothy C. May) quoted someone else saying:
>VLSI progammable logic (EEprom based?) is used to both
>store the keys, and provide some other logic functions, so you can't read
>anything if you take the chip apart. I don't think any other exotic
>technologies are used. Mykotronix designs the mask- they're fabricated at
>VLSI.

What about triple layer metal interconnect? If they're serious about
making it reverse-engineering-resistant, they'd do that even if it
weren't functionally needed, simply to make it STM-opaque. I think (but
am not sure) that VLSI has that technology in their current fab lines.

I suppose that it's not quite "exotic" by now; maybe that's just assumed
as obvious?
	Doug






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