TWC: Large: Collaborative: Verifiable Hardware: Chips that Prove their Own Correctness

该项目解决了半导体设计人员如何验证他们从可能不可信的制造商那里采购的IC的正确性。 对该问题的现有解决方案或者基于法律的和合同义务，或者使用制造后IC测试，这两者都不令人满意或不健全。作为一个合理的替代方案，该项目设计和制造可验证的硬件：IC，为他们在现场执行的每个输入输出计算提供正确性证明。这些证明必须在更少的时间和精力比它需要重新执行的计算本身有效地验证。基于令人兴奋的最新理论和实践的进步，可验证的外包计算云，这个项目开发了新的技术，利用独特的约束和对手模型，涉及到可验证的硬件问题。此外，该项目还开发了新的实用方法来解决一般可验证计算的问题。作为一个更广泛的影响，计算系统安全是当今社会面临的最大的技术问题之一。可验证硬件是构建可靠且不受灾难性安全故障影响的未来计算系统的重要基础。该项目的最终目标是通过开源工具使可验证的硬件实用并可用于加密和关键任务硬件应用程序。私人研究所通过制作广泛使用的课程材料，并在为少数群体服务的大学、社区学院、学生组织和高中的外联活动中发挥积极作用，坚定地致力于教育和公共外联。

This project addresses how semiconductor designers can verify the correctness of ICs that they source from possibly untrusted fabricators. Existing solutions to this problem are either based on legal and contractual obligations, or use post-fabrication IC testing, both of which are unsatisfactory or unsound. As a sound alternative, this project designs and fabricates verifiable hardware: ICs that provide proofs of their correctness for every input-output computation they perform in the field. These proofs must be efficiently verifiable in less time and energy than it takes to re-execute the computation itself.Building upon exciting recent theoretical and practical advances in verifiable outsourced computation for the cloud, this project develops new techniques that exploit the unique constraints and adversary models that relate to the verifiable hardware problem. In addition, the project also develops new practical approaches to the problem of general verifiable computation. As a broader impact, computing systems security is one of the greatest technological problems faced by society today. Verifiable hardware is an essential foundation for building future computing systems that are reliable and free from catastrophic security failures. The ultimate goal of this project is to make verifiable hardware practical and accessible for use in cryptographic and mission-critical hardware applications through open-source tools. The PIs are strongly committed to education and public outreach by producing widely-used course materials and taking active roles in outreach at minority-serving universities, community colleges, student organizations and high schools.