On Trustworthy Scalable Hardware/Software Platform Design

The continuously growing importance of today’s technology paradigms such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and the new 5G/6G standard open up unique features and opportunities for smart systems and communication devices. Famous examples are edge computing and network slicing. Generational technology upgrades provide unprecedented data rates and processing power. At the same time, these new platforms must address the growing security and privacy requirements of future smart systems. This poses two main challenges concerning the digital processing hardware. First, we need to provide integrated trustworthiness covering hardware, runtime, and the operating system. Whereas integrated means that the hardware must be the basis to support secure runtime and operating system needs under very strict latency constraints. Second, applications of smart systems cover a wide range of requirements where "one- chip-fits-all" cannot be the cost and energy effective way forward. Therefore, we need to be able to provide a scalable hardware solution to cover differing needs in terms of processing resource requirements.In this paper, we discuss our research on an integrated design of a secure and scalable hardware platform including a runtime and an operating system. The architecture is built out of composable and preferably simple components that are isolated by default. This allows for the integration of third-party hardware/software without compromising the trusted computing base. The platform approach improves system security and provides a viable basis for trustworthy communication devices.