BACKGROUND:  The field of embedded systems is growing at a rapid rate due to the growth of the portable electronic market (mobile phones, PDAs, digital cameras, smart cards, etc). With this growing market also comes a growing need for security of embedded systems, as many of these systems contain or transmit sensitive data. The use of Java in secure embedded systems is popular due to Java's security advantages - such as a safe memory model, byte-code verification, cryptographic interface libraries, and the sandbox model. However, Java has one primary drawback, which is performance, as it is slower than its counterpart in C, and much slower than is counterpart in pure hardware.

INNOVATION:  The invention describes a design method called HW/SW acceleration transparency, a systematic method to accelerate Java functions in both software and hardware. The HW/SW acceleration transparency involves three closely related items: 1) incremental acceleration, 2) Java function emulation, and 3) interface transparency.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:  Biometrically secured data transmission or storage for wireless credit card payments, keychain flash memory replacement, universal key functionality (house, car, and office), storage of sensitive medical data, and IR secure printing.

ADVANTAGES

• 333X increase in performance gain
• Smooth interface design flow - interfaces are built incrementally, so the next interface incrementally refines the previously constructed interface.
• System performance modeling and verification - using HW/SW acceleration transparency allows for system performance modeling at each abstraction level.
• Smooth Java application design flow - As the system progresses from software to hardware, the original Java application requires only minor modification.
• Reconfiguration - the system can be reconfigured in a systematic way.

DEVELOPMENT-TO-DATE:  The design flow has been applied to a secure embedded system that combines a microcontroller, fingerprint image sensor, signal processing hardware acceleration, cryptographic hardware acceleration, and a memory module enclosed within a form factor similar to an automobile keychain transmitter. The design flow example showed C acceleration yields of 6.8X performance gain and hardware acceleration yielding a 333X performance gain compared to a pure Java solution.

Reference: UCLA Case No. 2003-473

PCT Application: US04/017545