Do they get the complete core designs including what transistor does what? I was under the impression that the ARM company just sold generic cores but not information on their internal workings.
Do they get the complete core designs including what transistor does what?
Depends on how large the customer is and/or how much they pay. They can also do 3D X-ray scanning to compare the layout provided with what is actually delivered. X-ray-ing stuff and closely monitoring manufacturing including cryptographically signed layouts for wafer production is pretty common in the militaries and other highly sensitive areas.
Do they get the complete core designs including what transistor does what? I was under the impression that the ARM company just sold generic cores but not information on their internal workings.
Depends on how large the customer is and/or how much they pay. They can also do 3D X-ray scanning to compare the layout provided with what is actually delivered. X-ray-ing stuff and closely monitoring manufacturing including cryptographically signed layouts for wafer production is pretty common in the militaries and other highly sensitive areas.
See also: https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-hunt-for-the-kill-switch / https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21698 / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_backdoor