An Open Source Cryptographic Coprocessor

Allied Component Works offers cryptographic hardware support for the Nerves project.

Embedded devices are increasingly connected, as exemplified by a rapidly expanding internet of things (IOT) and industrial internet of things (IIOT).  In the interest of security, many of these small processors run applications that must authenticate with a cloud computing server in order to share their data or other resources.  Generally, one or several private keys and other secret information must be maintained at the server and at the IOT device to complete this authentication.  Many cloud computing services, such as AWS IOT, require a demonstrated level of care in an IOT device design to maintain the security of the connection. Cryptographic coprocessor chips are offered by several vendors to improve the security of the private information on an embedded device.

Nerves is a rapidly growing open source framework of tools for creating sophisticated embedded applications in the Elixir programing language running on an Erlang virtual machine.  Allied Component Works is providing the Nerves project with an ATECC608A cryptographic coprocessor chip from Microchip Technology mounted on a tiny breakout board, known as NervesKey, for easy integration with an embedded processor.  The NervesKey board is also designed specifically to outfit a Raspberry Pi in a manner that has minimal hardware impact.  This form factor was suggested by Nerves project collaborators for use in their demonstration and training efforts to authenticate with the NervesHub software update server.  Using Nerves support for the chip, developers will also be well on their way to creating applications that authenticate with other cloud computing resources.

Allied Component Works is proud to support the mission of the Nerves project by manufacturing the NervesKey in quantity to allow for economical availability. The NevesKey can be purchased on Tindie and is supported by Nerves project collaborator Troodon Software, LLC.