Method and apparatus for security systems are provided to protect
electronic designs from unauthorized usage. An obfuscation system is
provided for creating secure simulation models of IP cores that allow
efficient evaluation of an electronic design incorporating an IP core but
do not allow practical implementation of the IP core. The obfuscation
system identifies regions for obfuscation within an IP core. Logic
obfuscation is inserted into these regions. Examples of obfuscation
include additional circuitry that produces time dilatation, space
dilatation, or a combination of the two in the circuitry of an IP core.
Typically, the inserted obfuscation does not change the ultimate behavior
of the internal signals, but is complicated enough to make an electronic
design so slow and/or so large that it cannot be implemented practically.
Further, the inserted obfuscation should be of a type is not normally
removed by that normal logic optimizations such as synthesis.