Hello everyone!

First of all, we’d like to share our most important news: the SKUDO Kryptor campaign is going live in about two weeks! You will be able to reserve your boards starting on August 17th.

Our Work With the ESA

Over the past year, in addition to our efforts to bring SKUDO Kryptor to the maker community, we have been busy developing hardware-security-module (HSM) functionality for a very particular (and very interesting) sector: space applications.

In the summer of 2020, SKUDO signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop and demonstrate an encryption solution that combines the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Space-Data Link Protocol (SDLS) telecommand/telemetry (TC/TM) protocols with a public-key infrastructure (PKI), asymmetric cryptography functions, and our own HSM FPGA chip.

The boards that we are making available through this campaign will be the same (aside from a different MAX10 model) as those used for the ESA project, and the HSM softcore functions used for that contract are derived from the ones that will be provided to our SKUDO Kryptor backers. We are extremely excited to be able to bring the technology from our space projects to a wider audience so that the maker community can benefit from this level of encryption.

Stay tuned for more details!

Our New JTAG Adapter

Regarding the new JTAG adapter we discussed in a previous update, we can now confirm that it behaves smoothly and in accordance with our expectations. Testing was successful, and we now use it regularly for many of our projects. Thanks to the simple pogo-pin mechanism we adopted, it is now extremely easy to attach the adapter and program SKUDO Kryptor’s FPGA chip. To do so, you can just follow the two guiding pin headers and the connection will be kept under pressure due to loaded springs. All it takes is a couple of fingers on one hand!

During the campaign, we will send you instructions and a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the JTAG connector to re-program SKUDO Kryptor’s FPGA chip. So be sure to register for campaign updates so we can keep you informed!

Meanwhile, you are welcome to join us on Telegram or on Twitter @SkudoTech