Making Content Protection Elemental
Silicon Alliance Has A Proposal: Protect Content on Chips In Devices
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 10/8/2006 8:00:00 PM
The digital-media world these days is taken with the idea of funneling any content to any device via any network connection, but that ability carries with it the threat that the rules governing content rights protection might not necessarily go along for the ride.
The most recent effort to solve this problem comes from the Secure Video Processor Alliance, an industry vendor coalition that has made its formal debut with a technology that makes content protection a matter of down-to-earth hardware.
Formed in 2004 by conditional-access provider NDS Group plc and chipmaker ST Microelectronics, the SVP Alliance has come up with a silicon-based digital content-protection scheme.
| Tech Spec |
|---|
| Secure Video Processor Alliance |
| What's planned: A method of content protection that is incorporated into chips used in digital devices ranging from set-tops to portable media players. |
| Who plans it: A vendor group called the Secure Video Processor Alliance, founded by NDS and ST Microelectronics but also including Broadcom, Conexant, Humas, Pace Microelectronics and Samsung. |
| Why it's important: Advocates say it would be more durable against hacker attacks than software and would work with whatever conditional-access schemes are used by a content distributor. |
GRAFTED ON SILICON
With this scheme grafted onto silicon used on digital-media devices ranging from set-top boxes to portable media players, content providers can have better assurance that no matter where their content goes, the consumer devices that display it will obey the distribution rules they set, according to Jas Saini, the Secure Video Processor Alliance’s chairman.
“It’s actually content protection, rather than digital-rights management,” he said. “It’s how do you actually have the content-usage rules, and how do you store those in a secure fashion within silicon?”
SVP’s content protection works by essentially plugging into the digital rights-management (DRM) scheme attached to the content by the network operators.
DRM provides information about how and where content can be viewed or transferred, and with that the SVP silicon can make sure those rules are carried out on that device or any other devices linked to it.
“So you could have content X on a number of devices, or you could have the content for a particular week of time — say, a week, under a rental model,” Saini said. “So it basically allows any business rule defined by the DRM to be translated over the SVP network.”
In addition, the SVP processors have the ability to sense when users are trying to transfer content to a device that has no SVP silicon. They can then essentially check the distribution rules provided under the content provider’s DRM system to either allow the transfer or deny it.
Up until now, various content-protection schemes have centered on software added to devices and content delivery systems, but as such they are vulnerable to hacker attacks. Offering the content protection in hardware — where designers can use tamper-resistant features such as instant deactivation if a circuit is disrupted — makes it less vulnerable tampering and attack.
BROADCOM INTERESTED
Over the years, Broadcom has made room for a number of security schemes for its devices, including modems and set-top chipsets. But the SVP technology is a new way to go about it “that I believe is going to be needed in the future,” said Brian Sprague, Broadcom’s vice president of marketing.
“It’s new in that it is securing the content. It’s not a conditional access scheme that allows an operator to give you rights for services you subscribe to, and it doesn’t just secure the stream,” he said. “Securing the content means it can work with any conditional-access system or DRM system. It’s a lower layer of security.”
Sprague, too, notes that security in hardware is inherently more secure than software-based systems. He points to an August incident in which Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media 10 digital-rights management scheme was thwarted by a new hacker tool, and even though a software patch was issued only a few hours later, the system was cracked again in less than 24 hours.
The vulnerability is not just a problem for Microsoft, and “from my standpoint, a hardware-based system is more robust,” Sprague said. “We think it is a good thing to be incorporating into our chips so people can access that as a technology for products they develop.”
SVP was heavily influenced by the conditional access systems developed for pay TV systems, and that is reflected in the fact that SVP’s content security lies in a combination of numeric code-encryption keys and circuitry on the silicon, and that is tailored to each device.
COST ADVANTAGE
“I’m not saying it can never be hacked, but it is more robust,” Sprague said. Even at that, “if you break one device, you can’t take the secrets you find and expect them to work on another one. That doesn’t work in this environment. You break one device and you’ve got that one device broken.”
Another advantage is if the content security is baked directly onto the silicon, it won’t significantly raise the cost of devices, because software does not have to be loaded or accommodated within the devices.
“It actually goes into an existing processor that goes into most devices — the video processor,” Saini noted. “It’s not a new device; it actually overlays on an existing device. And in terms of silicon cost, it’s really peanuts — for the whole price of the circuit, it doesn’t make much difference.”
To make it flexible, the SVP silicon is designed to work independently of any network protocols, opening the door for its use in any kind of network design.
It also works with any existing digital rights-management scheme content providers or network operators may have used for content that is funneled into an SVP-powered device.
“The solution that we come up with must work with existing content delivery solutions, because we don’t believe that SVP will be the only solution out there, and so we must be able to import and export the contents and the rights to these other solutions as well,” Saini said.
The SVP Alliance also is minding the bottom line by charging a license fee for using the design, but not recurring royalties based on the number of devices a manufacturer may produce.
WHO PLANS USING IT
There are signs that the scheme is gaining some traction. In addition to the SVP specification release, members Broadcom Corp., Conexant Corp., Humax Co., Pace Microelectronics and Samsung Electronics America have all licensed the SVP chip technology and are now planning to use it in future consumer devices.
STMicroelectronics and Broadcom have already stated that they will offer the first SVP-compliant chips later this year, with Broadcom shipping in volume in early 2007.
“It’s a building block now,” Sprague said. “So as I do new chips, it just gets carried into them, and right now I have seven devices with it in it.”
Additionally, Pace and Samsung are the first device manufacturers that will produce next-generation set-top boxes with SVP-ready chips implemented into their design.
Meanwhile, the alliance has grown to include 35 members ranging from silicon providers to content outlets, and it already has the endorsement of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). But while that does provide a boost, Saini noted that the goal now is to widen support among the chip and hardware manufacturers.
“The vision we have as far as SVP is concerned is if we can get it into the underlying processors — the chips that go into the hardware — it’s already in there,” he said.
“It’s then an easy sell to a CE manufacturer once he is already using the hardware, because it really doesn’t cost him anything in terms of implementation or software,” he added.
Saini expects SVP also will gain support from network operators eager to find better ways to offer home multimedia systems, he said.
With the unveiling of the SVP specification, it hopes to attract more members and work toward making SVP interoperable with the myriad DRM schemes and other device standards, Saini said.
“A number of the other members have various interests in other standards bodies, so they can help the alliance in making compatibility between these various standards.”
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