ARM Ltd. has released a free API (application programming interface) to security extensions available for the ARM instruction set. The TrustZone Software API targets embedded device developers wishing to create secure, interoperable applications that work across multiple device categories, including mobile phones, portable media players, set-top boxes, and home gateways.

According to ARM, security-aware applications today must be rewritten for every security platform they run on, “fragmenting the market and inhibiting a rich ecosystem of applications and services.”

ARM shipped its TrustZone extensions to the ARM instruction set in May of 2003, saying the technology could be used to create hardware that enforces a separate memory space for secure processes, allowing trusted code to execute in a secure environment, or “TrustZone,” alongside the main OS. ARM's first core to implement a TrustZone, the ARM1176JZ(F)-S core, was announced in the Fall of 2003, for shipment in Q2, 2004.

ARM says its TrustZone Software API interfaces with its TrustZone processor security extensions, providing an “open and interoperable framework” for developing secure applications running under Linux, Symbian, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile. The API was developed in cooperation with Trusted Logic, which a year ago shipped a Security Module for Windows CE based on TrustZone.

ARM's product manager for TrustZone, Tiago Alves, said, “Operators and handset developers are increasingly motivated to create even more advanced features for mobile phones, such as one that would enable a phone to double as a credit card or a digital TV player, but they have to ensure that users and devices are adequately protected.”

ARM claims that its customers endorsing TrustZone include Freescale, Infineon, Jaluna, Microsoft, NCipher, NDS, Samsung, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instruments, Trusted Logic, Vodafone, and Wave Systems.

The TrustZone Software API is freely available for download from the ARM website.

 
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