Secure Flash Programming is an optional feature that reduces the risk of intellectual property being pirated during the production process. Using breakthrough, proprietary technology, Softlog System’s Secure Flash Programming protects against piracy at the manufacturing plant.
Available with every programmer that we sell, Secure Flash Programming introduces several layers of protection for your business-critical intellectual property.
Softlog Systems starts protecting your Hex file before it ever reaches the manufacturer. We help you extract a security buffer from the hex file, and using our software GUI, upload the password-protected firmware to the Softlog programmer. The programmer can then be safely sent to the production facility.
Next, you’ll create an environment file that contains the hex file with dummy values and configuration information. Secure Programming software encrypts the environment file using an encryption algorithm and adds an optional counter to limit the amount of successfully programmed devices. This creates an encrypted secure environment that can only be accepted by the password-protected programmer unit. The encrypted secure environment file can be sent electronically to the production facility.
At the production facility, the encrypted secure environment file is uploaded into the programmer. The programmer validates the file and replaces dummy values with real values from the security buffer. This creates a production file image that is only available for the specific programmer unit and, if activated, has a predefined counter to prevent spillage. The programmer programs devices until the counter reaches zero.