High Performance Microchip Supply - Under Secretary of Defense ...

INTRODUCTION _______________________________________________________________
equipment and process know-how. Sophisticated process knowledge
is now provided by equipment suppliers as part of equipment
purchases. Scientists and engineers trained in U.S. graduate schools
are free to move to other nations. In some cases, students may no
longer seek education in the United States; for example, the number
of engineering graduates in China is far outpacing U.S. totals so that
students no longer have to come to the U.S. to attend school. The
primary beneficiary countries of the foundry trend have been in the
Far East (Taiwan, Singapore, People’s Republic of China, Korea, and
Japan), some of whose future interests may not align with those of
the United States. Taiwan dominates global foundry production with
about two-thirds of current capacity; China, a relatively new entrant
with 8 percent of global capacity, is rapidly increasing its market
share.
Similar trends are evident in the mask-making and materials
businesses that support integrated circuit fabrication. These ancillary
industries, like that of integrated circuit fabrication, play critical roles
in the integrity of the military microelectronic components supply.
THE THREAT
The changes underway in the integrated circuit supply structure
are directly contrary to the best interests of the Department of
Defense with regard to non-COTS ICs. The shift from United States
to foreign IC manufacture endangers the security of classified
information embedded in chip designs; additionally, it opens the
possibility that “Trojan horses” and other unauthorized design
inclusions may appear in unclassified integrated circuits used in
military applications. These surreptitious inclusions are similar to
viruses, Trojan Horses, and worms 13 common in today’s public
13. A Trojan horse is a program that disguises itself as another program. Similar to viruses,
these programs are hidden and usually cause an unwanted effect, such as installing a
back door in your system that can be used by hackers. Worms spread without any user
interaction, typically by exploiting a flaw in popular software. Once activated, they
generally use the Internet or your LAN (local network) to self-propagate and often take
advantage of vulnerabilities in email programs.
22 _________________________________________________________ DSB TASK FORCE ON