1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hardware device and a method for producing the hardware device, such as a manipulation-proof hardware chip in the style of a trusted platform module.
2. Description of the Related Art
A trusted platform module (TPM) is understood to mean a chip that is fabricated in accordance with prescribed specifications from the trusted computing group (TCG). In this case, the TCG provides open standards for trusted computing platforms, a trusted platform being understood to mean a chip or a computer platform that reliably behaves in a predefined manner for the prescribed purpose.
In this case, a corresponding piece of TPM hardware implements security functions as an integrated circuit or chip and can be used in various devices, such as PCs, notebooks, PDAs, mobile telephones or network devices in networks. In this case, a TPM comprises an explicit cryptographic key that can be used to identify the computer in which the TPM is used. In standard applications, such as for personal computers that are equipped with TPM modules, the computation speed of the TPM is usually insignificant. Cryptographic coprocessors in industrial applications also usually have no realtime capability.
However, it is desirable, in areas with realtime requirements, such as automation engineering, also to provide reliable realtime-compatible modules that implement cryptographic applications, in particular. In this case, it has been particularly difficult in the past to specify such hardware devices reliably.