The Production Control Core is a key component of Certicom Security for Silicon Design Protection. It locks and unlocks chip designs to protect valuable IP.
At each step in the chip manufacturing process, Certicom® KeyInject™ is used to inject key information into the OTP (One Time Programmable memory). At power on reset, the KeyGen/KeyExpander combines this keying information to derive a single key, which is then fed into the AES decryption block and used to decrypt data and instructions from encrypted ROM. If the chip has followed the defined manufacturing process, it will function correctly, otherwise it will be crippled.
Download the Certicom Security for Silicon Design Protection application note to understand how this production control core can protect you from overproduction and the gray market.