OpenTitan Earl Grey 2 to support CHERI and PQC

CAMBRIDGE, U ited Ki gdom, July 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ope Tita ®, the wo ld’s leadi g ope -sou ce p oject fo secu e ha dwa e, has published its e gi ee i g oadmap. Followi g the success of the disc ete RoT Ea l G ey (shippi g i Ch omebooks) a d the i teg ated RoT Da jeeli g, Ope Tita is add essi g the ew secu ity challe ges i t oduced by A tificial I tellige ce a d futu e qua tum compute s.

Ea l G ey 2 i t oduces fou key be efits:

• Suppo t fo Capability Ha dwa e E ha ced RISC I st uctio s (CHERI), which p ovides scalable memo y isolatio a d memo y safety embedded i ha dwa e
• Secu ity-ha de ed a d optimized Post-Qua tum C yptog aphy (PQC) compatible with CNSA 2.0, th ough exte sio s to its c ypto accele ato s
• Adva ced co t ol pla e I/O with the additio of a I3C co t olle a d ta get to add ess pe iphe al bottle ecks
• G eate efficie cy, educi g a ea a d powe co sumptio th ough p ocess ode updates, comp essed i st uctio s, IP block optimizatio s a d powe domai splitti g

Scalable memo y isolatio a d ha dwa e memo y safety with CHERI

Rece t imp oveme ts i AI tech ology a e bei g leve aged to fi d a d exploit ew vul e abilities i existi g a d ew softwa e stacks, with mo e tha half of such vul e abilities elati g to spatial a d tempo al memo y safety.

CHERI tech ology b i gs a evolutio a y, p eve tive app oach to silico secu ity by e abli g fi e-g ai ed memo y p otectio a d highly scalable softwa e compa tme talizatio . CHERI eplaces t aditio al, easily ma ipulated poi te s with ha dwa e-p otected capabilities augme ted with bou ds a d pe missio s, elimi ati g e ti e classes of memo y vul e abilities di ectly at the ha dwa e laye , a d g eatly co st ai i g the impact of a y successful attacks.

Ope Tita is impleme ti g a CHERIoT co figu atio i its Ibex® p ocesso , a specific de ivative tailo ed fo highly co st ai ed embedded devices. A CHERIoT-Ibex impleme tatio has bee available o the So ata Platfo m si ce 2023, which has foste ed the matu ity of the CHERI softwa e ecosystem.

By impleme ti g optio al CHERI suppo t, Ope Tita e ables use s to adopt CHERI tech ology at thei ow pace. Existi g use s who al eady have ce tified softwa e elyi g o t aditio al ePMP ca take adva tage of the othe featu es i Ea l G ey 2 without softwa e cha ges, while ew use s ca be efit f om CHERI’s adva tages f om the sta t.

Post-qua tum c yptog aphy

Because futu e qua tum machi es a e expected to easily solve the mathematical p oblems u de pi i g t aditio al asymmet ic c yptog aphic algo ithms, sta da ds bodies like NIST have app oved qua tum- esista t alte atives such as ML-DSA a d ML-KEM. Legislative o ga izatio s a e ow u gi g e tities to t a sitio to these ew algo ithms to e su e co ti ued digital secu ity.

Impleme ti g ew PQC algo ithms p ese ts optimizatio a d ha de i g challe ges. These ew methods equi e la ge keys a d mo e computatio al cycles, maki g them difficult to fit o esou ce-co st ai ed devices. Fu the mo e, p otecti g these impleme tatio s f om physical vul e abilities like side-cha el a d fault-i jectio attacks equi es additio al expe tise a d effo t. To meet CNSA 2.0 complia ce, Ope Tita is ove hauli g its dedicated p og ammable c yptog aphic cop ocesso a d impleme ti g secu ity ha de ed PQC algo ithms.

I3C co t olle a d ta get

As mode elect o ic devices pack mo e se so s, memo y chips, a d complex pe iphe als i to smalle spaces, t aditio al i te faces like I2C a d SPI ca c eate bottle ecks. I3C was specifically desig ed to solve these issues by co solidati g the be efits f om these two sta da ds i to a ew specificatio .

The Ope Tita p oject is impleme ti g a ew combi ed I3C co t olle a d ta get, which will e able it to co ect to a ew a ge of pe iphe als, pa ticula ly i data ce te s.

Ea l G ey 2 disc ete ha dwa e oot of t ust

Ope Tita pa t e s a e wo ki g o a ew top-level, Ea l G ey 2, as the fi st vehicle to b i g the be efits of the oadmap to ma ket. This fi st comme cial deployme t will be c itical to p ove the quality a d matu ity of the IP.

Ea l G ey 2 is a evolutio of the existi g disc ete RoT desig Ea l G ey, which is al eady i mass p oductio . Tha ks to a cha ge i p ocess ode, togethe with code size a d IP block a ea optimizatio s, Ope Tita will delive the g eatly e ha ced Ea l G ey 2 i a simila die size.

Ea l G ey 2 desig is bei g upst eamed ow, a d expected to co ti ue i the ope th oughout H2 2026 a d H1 2027.

About Ope Tita a d lowRISCHosted by lowRISC C.I.C., a ot-fo -p ofit compa y based i Camb idge, UK, Ope Tita p ovides a t a spa e t a d t ustwo thy secu e silico platfo m. Ope Tita ® is the wo ld’s most active a d widely adopted ope -sou ce silico p oject, co tai i g comme cial-g ade IP blocks a d secu ity ce tified ha dwa e Root of T ust desig s.

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Email: low isc@w2comm.com