TII’s Suresh Sugumar, Executive Director of Silicon Security, Secure Systems Research Center (SSRC) has just completed an eventful year as Chair of the RISC-V Trusted Computing Group (TCG) Special Interest Group (SIG) under the Security Horizontal Committee (HC). Sugumar’s role has helped shape and improve RISC-V Security as well as enhance the Zero Trust ecosystem.
RISC-V (Reduced Instruction Set Architecture 5th generation) is a free and open architecture that offers its customers multiple benefits such as a flexible, low-cost ecosystem, and pride of ownership through customization – and has deployed over 12 billion cores in 2021 alone. The RISC-V TCG SIG group is a subdivision of RISC-V International, a global non-profit organization based in Switzerland that is paving the way for a new era of processor innovation via open-source collaboration.
So, what is the RISC-V TCG SIG and why is it important? This working group of more than 120 top security specialists - all volunteering from across the globe - is dedicated to defining trusted computing strategies for RISC-V. What it does is develop cutting-edge, hardware-assisted technologies such as confidential computing, trusted execution environments (TEE) and capabilities-based architecture. In addition, the SIG develops an RISC-V Security model that ties together everything related to security to produce specifications and recommendations for RISC-V based platforms.
Speaking on the milestone, Sugumar said: “My experience in the last year has been very rewarding. By bringing more than 100 security champions from across the world - spanning academia and industry - into one room, we are encouraging them to share their unique perspective to shape intrinsic security for the RISC-V platform. Every meeting is filled with incredible conversations - and from threat models to brainstorming solutions, we discuss it all. Next, we pull together a team to write out a specification document. That’s real teamwork with a mission.”
SSRC is committed to advancing the growth of end-to-end zero-trust security and resilience technologies. SSRC’s contribution on the SIG team complements the Center’s approach towards delivering breakthroughs that in addition to enabling open community collaboration and technological advancements in the RISC-V domain, will benefit society as a whole and boost the UAE’s economic development.
