California is shopping in Eindhoven again: Synopsys acquires Gerard & Anton Award winner Intrinsic ID

By Bart Brouwers

Intrinsic ID, acquired today by Sunnyvale-based Synopsys Inc, was one of the winners of our very first Gerard & Anton Award (in fact, they won the prize even before it was named after the two Philips founders), and now their technology is used in more than half a billion devices worldwide. All along the fifteen years of their existence, digital security was Intrinsic ID‘s focus.

Formed in 2008 as a spinout of Philips Research, where the founders of Intrinsic ID were conducting groundbreaking research on security for ambient intelligence, the company has pioneered the use of Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) for security and authentication applications in embedded systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, the biggest tech and semiconductor companies worldwide deploy the Intrinsic ID PUF-based security solutions worldwide in more than 600 million devices. Intrinsic ID’s technology provides an additional level of hardware security by utilizing the inherent uniqueness of every silicon chip.

Synopsys, Inc. today announced that it has completed the acquisition the Eindhoven-based company. The acquisition adds production-proven PUFs to Synopsys’ broadly used semiconductor IP portfolio, enabling SoC designers worldwide to protect their System-on-Chips (SoCs) by generating a unique identifier on the chip utilizing the inherent and distinctive characteristics of every silicon chip. The acquisition also adds Intrinsic ID’s team of experienced research and development engineers with deep PUF technology expertise. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

From Philips spinout to global pioneer in Physical Unclonable Functions: Intrinsic ID turns 15

The Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) Technology transformed Intrinsic ID into a world-leading embedded security solutions provider protecting sensors in devices from smart watches to satellites.

Connected world

“In our increasingly connected world, chip designers are integrating PUF technology in their SoCs for many applications, including identification and the creation of a product ID for track and trace,” said Joachim Kunkel, general manager of the Solutions Group at Synopsys. “The acquisition of Intrinsic ID complements our extensive semiconductor IP portfolio, further helping designers create SoCs that are at the heart of today’s smart and connected devices. We look forward to expanding our R&D presence in the Netherlands with Intrinsic ID’s team and establishing a center of excellence for PUF technology in Eindhoven.”

Synopsys is a leading provider of high-quality, silicon-proven semiconductor IP solutions for SoC designs. The broad Synopsys IP portfolio includes logic libraries, embedded memories, analog IP, wired and wireless interface IP, security IP, embedded processors, and subsystems. Synopsys’ IP Accelerated initiative provides architecture design expertise, hardening, and signal/power integrity analysis to accelerate IP integration and silicon bring-up.