[Orcnet] Cold Boot attacks on RAM

[Keith Lofstrom]

Not directly related to Orcnet, but interesting electronics anyway.

DRAM typically retains data images for much longer than a typical
refresh interval.  This paper describes cold boot attacks that
can read RAMs and extract encryption keys for minutes or even hours
after shutdown.  

http://citp.princeton.edu/memory/

BTW, the reason most DRAM cells can store bits for so long is that
the pass transistors of the cells are designed to work at the extreme
outliers of power supply, temperature, process spread, and device
mismatch, and in the presence of small leakage defects.  So 99.99999%
of the cells are overdesigned, so the one in a trillion transistor
that is excessively leaky won't kill an otherwise good part.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs