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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday August 11 2018, @12:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the another-day-another-CPU dept.

Although a wide range of potential applications exists for the ARMV8-M processors, developers working on secure real-time applications will certainly see the largest benefit. So far, the ARMV8-M architecture can be found in M23 and M33 Cortex-M and M35P processors. Let’s take a look at the new features included in ARMV8-M and how these processors differ from previous generation ARMV7-M parts.

[...] The ARMV8-M feature that really sets the M23, M33, and M35P apart is their support for ARM TrustZone. TrustZone is a security extension that provides hardware isolation within the microcontroller so that developers can create secure and unsecure regions. These regions can be locations in RAM, Flash, or even interrupts and peripherals. The separation between secure and unsecure regions creates isolation within the microcontroller, allowing developers to protect mission-critical code and data.

The isolation creates two new modes that the processor can be running in: secure and unsecure. When in secure mode, the executing code can access all memory within both the secure and unsecure zones. However, if the processor is executing in the unsecure zone, only the unsecure regions can be seen. The secure regions are hidden and cannot be executed from the unsecure state without special code being added, which creates a gateway to access a secure call. This makes it possible to use secure functions while hiding what is happening behind the scenes. 

There are several other new features that developers will find interesting besides the TrustZone extension. These include:

  • Simpler MPU setup
  • Flexible breakpoint configuration
  • Improved trace support
  • Instruction set enhancements
  • Dynamic reprioritization of interrupts

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Saturday August 11 2018, @12:59AM (8 children)

    by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 11 2018, @12:59AM (#720139) Homepage Journal

    Of course the real question is whether the chips available to the general public will have all the trustzone code baked into the chip and inaccessible, or whether the people implementing OS's like GNU/Linux will be able to install their own trustzone code.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by ataradov on Saturday August 11 2018, @01:15AM (7 children)

    by ataradov (4776) on Saturday August 11 2018, @01:15AM (#720144) Homepage

    ARMV8-M does not run Linux, and TrustZone there is very different from the regular one. It is much less useful.

    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday August 11 2018, @01:48AM (6 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday August 11 2018, @01:48AM (#720156) Homepage

      Niggers, Jews,

      Bad News.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 11 2018, @02:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 11 2018, @02:07AM (#720159)

        EF opens his mouth and stupid spews forth. Not unexpected at all.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by dwilson on Saturday August 11 2018, @02:54AM (4 children)

        by dwilson (2599) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 11 2018, @02:54AM (#720172) Journal

        Man when I first heard about soylantnews years ago, you were a regular poster with occasionally useful or interesting things to say.

        Now you're a piss-poor imitation of a drunk old guy. I know how the liqueur works: you drink it, you're drunk.

        But you are something else. What gives?

        --
        - D
        • (Score: 4, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 12 2018, @01:52AM (3 children)

          by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday August 12 2018, @01:52AM (#720413) Journal

          My hypothesis, stated several times, is that there's really no such thing as an "ironic" Nazi/troll/racist/whatever. After a while, they get so used to saying/doing X Y and Z that they start believing it, maybe only subconsciously at first, but they do. I'd phrased this as "making the mistake of all amateur drug dealers and getting high on his own supply." Which supply happens to be entirely jenkem.

          --
          I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by dwilson on Sunday August 12 2018, @03:45AM (1 child)

            by dwilson (2599) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 12 2018, @03:45AM (#720448) Journal

            I'd be very surprised if that was strictly a "ironic Nazi/troll/racist/whatever" thing. It sounds like more of a human-condition thing. Probably a fancy name for it, and everyone's got a touch of it to one degree or another.

            --
            - D
            • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:52PM

              by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday August 12 2018, @07:52PM (#720664) Journal

              I don't know what that name might be, but a quote presents itself: "We are who we pretend to be, so we must be very careful what we pretend to be."

              That said, I'm not *actually* a time-jumper with a sword made from a letter opener doused in my big sister's life force that takes over my body in crisis situations and cuts everything from monsters to evil spirits in twain with a single stroke...

              --
              I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
          • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday August 16 2018, @07:00PM

            by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 16 2018, @07:00PM (#722428) Homepage Journal

            there's really no such thing as an "ironic" Nazi/troll/racist/whatever. After a while, they get so used to saying/doing X Y and Z that they start believing it, maybe only subconsciously at first, but they do.

            That describes their transition from ironic to iconic.