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Crack open many of the appliances that populate network and content delivery stacks and you'll find a lot of processing power — but few CPUs. Instead, you're likely to find a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) providing the single-purpose processing required for the job. FPGAs will be part of IoT and infrastructure devices for a long time to come, because they are flexible, quickly redefined, and reasonably priced for the functions they deliver.
FPGAs are similar in some aspects to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application-specific standard parts (ASSPs), and other components designed to perform a specific task with high performance and reliability. FPGAs are often used to deliver specific application functions, like encoding the video stream in a camera or editing deck, providing security functions that begin before applications begin running on an IoT device, or calculating mission-critical parameters for defense applications.
There's a key difference, though, that makes FPGAs both a boon to security professionals and a component that adds to their burden of worry.
That difference is in their ability to be updated. ASICs and most ASSPs contain firmware that is "baked in" at the factory; once programmed, they're frozen in development time. An FPGA, on the other hand, can be reprogrammed each time it's re-booted. An FPGA is a blank slate that can be redefined over and over again. Security professionals should be aware of the unique capabilities and growing catalog of vulnerabilities these blan ..
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