Applied DNA Sciences Inc (APDN)

[speed_of_light]

"The latest promising countermeasure against electronics cloning is something called the physical unclonable function (PUF), which can potentially protect chips, PCBs, and even high-level products like routers. PUFs give each chip a unique “fingerprint.” They rely on the physical variations among transistors or other components on a chip, like the width of metal traces, which in turn cause subtle differences in behavior."

"...some companies, including Microsemi Corp. and Xilinx, have started to use PUFs for chip identification. And researchers have been extending the concept to printed circuit boards. In this case, they use random variations inside the chips that go onto the PCB as well as variations in the metal traces that connect them. This approach is particularly exciting because, unlike chip fingerprints, PCB fingerprints can be checked remotely to verify the authenticity of a piece of equipment. So the technique could be used, for example, to ensure that critical infrastructure components, once installed, aren’t later replaced with clones."

Good article! Thanks, Rode!

BTW, what does "DNA tagging is pretty much clone proof" mean?

Is "pretty much" some kind of scientific or technical jargon?

GL!