Protecting the rights of an IP buyer using cryptosystem-based multivariable fingerprinting

This chapter describes a cryptosystem-based fingerprinting approach for IP cores that is employed during the register allocation phase of electronic-system level synthesis. The need for a buyer's fingerprint and its desirable features are highlighted. Further, a detailed elaboration on the fingerprint selection and encoding technique followed by the embedding process and, finally, implementation details on case studies are provided. The chapter is organized as follows: Section 6.1 discusses the various challenges in electronic system design, followed by some fingerprint basics; Section 6.2 introduces some of the prior works in this domain; Section 6.3 presents an overview of the crypto-based fingerprinting process; Section 6.4 illustrates in detail the fingerprinting approach for digital signal processing (DSP) cores; and Section 6.5 discusses the security and design cost analyses using different case studies.