System-On-a-Chip (SOC) is the new revelation in the present time, integration of complex systems on a chip is changing the way the world uses electronics before. IP designs are not secured by any means to insure the designer rights. Creators and owners of IP designs want assurance that their content will not be illegally redistributed. Digital watermarking, used with most of the shared digital media, has emerged as a candidate solution for helping copyright protection of IP blocks.

     The goal of our project is to build an IP watermarking framework that transparently watermarks HDL codes to protect both the buyer and seller rights. We defined a general evaluation criteria for hardware IP watermarking techniques. We then investigated different IP watermarking techniques available, comparing them thoroughly and find the advantages and drawbacks of each. Depending on such information, we have introduced the Coinciding transitions technique; a new technique that we believe could give better results. Finally, we built a prototype for two algorithms that relies on such technique to watermark finite state machines (FSMs), and evaluated them both experimentally and mathematically. In this stage of the project, we are extending our work to handle industrial size projects, that includes hierarchal and modular FSMs.

Amr T Abdel-Hamid

Dr. Sofiene Tahar

Dr. El. Mostafa Aboulhamid

A.T. Abdel-Hamid, S. Tahar, and E.M. Aboulhamid, “A Survey on IP Watermarking Techniques”; International Journal on Design Automation for Embedded Systems, Kluwer press, August 2003. (Accepted for publishing)

A. Abdel-Hamid, S. Tahar, and E.M. Aboulhamid, “A Public-Key Watermarking Technique for IP Designs”; Proc. IEEE/ACM Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), Munich, Germany, March 2005, pp. 330-336. 

 A.T. Abdel-Hamid, S. Tahar, and E.M. Aboulhamid, “A Tool for Automatic Watermarking of IP Designs”; Proc. of ReSMiQ\IEEE 2nd Northeast Workshop on Circuits and Systems (NEWCAS), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 2004, pp. 57-60.

A.T. Abdel-Hamid, S. Tahar, and E.M. Abulhamid: IP Watermarking Techniques: Survey and Comparison; Proc. IEEE 3rd International Workshop on System-on-Chip (IWSOC'03), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 60-65, June-July 2003.

A.T. Abdel-Hamid, S. Tahar, and E.M. Abulhamid: Surveying IP Watermarking Techniques, Technical Report, Concordia University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, April 2003