DEF CON 33 - How to secure unique ecosystem shipping 1 billion+ cores? - Adam Zabrocki, Marko Mitic

Nvidia redesigned their processor security ecosystem using RISC-V to create a flexible, secure architecture that supports their diverse product range, from consumer GPUs to data center AI platforms 0:15.

Key Takeaways:
• Nvidia transitioned from their proprietary Falcon architecture to RISC-V to address scalability and security requirements across their billion-core ecosystem 3:01
• The Paragrine ecosystem implements hardware security features like pointer masking and control flow integrity through RISC-V extensions 14:37
• Nvidia uses formal verification with SPARK language for critical firmware components to ensure absence of runtime errors 25:56
• Their partition architecture creates isolated execution environments for mixed criticality applications on a single RISC-V controller 8:29

Security requires a holistic approach combining hardware and software co-design, with flexibility to adapt to evolving threats 35:17.

Sources:

• 0:15 Overview of Nvidia's diverse product ecosystem
• 3:01 Transition from Falcon to RISC-V architecture
• 14:37 Hardware security extensions for RISC-V
• 25:56 Formal verification using SPARK language
• 35:17 Lessons learned and holistic security approach