GlobalPlatform announced the launch of Pavona, an open‑source silicon distribution that provides production‑grade, certification‑ready IP and the first openly available post‑quantum cryptography (PQC) stack for embedded silicon. The initiative, backed by twelve founding members spanning semiconductor, AI, and academic sectors, aims to give enterprises a modular, standards‑aligned framework for secure‑by‑default chip development.
Pavona Launch and Membership
GlobalPlatform introduced Pavona today, making the full IP repository, top‑level reference designs, continuous‑integration dashboards, and getting‑started documentation publicly accessible at www.pavona.org. Twelve founding members—Agile Analog, Analog Devices, Baochip, CrossBar, the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, Meta, Qualcomm Technologies, SIMPLE Crypto Association, Tenstorrent, the University of Oxford, Winbond Electronics, and ZeroRISC—have committed to the project. Additional organizations are expected to join in the coming weeks. Pavona offers three membership tiers (Platinum, Gold, Silver) plus an Associate tier for non‑profits and academia, with paying members gaining board representation and nomination rights for the Technical Steering Committee.
Open‑Source Architecture and PQC Stack
Pavona delivers a composable framework built on RISC‑V cores that includes both classical and post‑quantum cryptographic accelerators. The distribution features two taped‑out reference designs fabricated at TSMC 3 nm (N3): a standalone chip root of trust and an integrated root of trust for chiplet architectures. At Real World Crypto 2026 in Taipei, ZeroRISC, the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, and Academia Sinica presented hardware‑software co‑design results showing 6–9× performance improvements for the ML‑KEM and ML‑DSA algorithms, with 36–75% higher operating frequency and negligible area overhead. These results are incorporated into Pavona from day one, making it the first open‑source silicon platform to ship a production‑grade PQC stack out of the box.
Governance and Certification Alignment
Pavona is governed by a board of contributing members that funds operations, while an independent Technical Steering Committee controls the technical roadmap. The governance model draws on open‑source frameworks such as Yocto and Zephyr, combined with GlobalPlatform’s expertise in standards used for mass‑market certification. Pavona’s IP and designs are aligned with FIPS 140‑3 and Common Criteria requirements, positioning the platform for certification‑ready deployments across data‑center servers, AI accelerators, automotive controllers, and resource‑constrained IoT devices.
Key Takeaways
- Pavona provides the first openly available production‑grade post‑quantum cryptography stack for embedded silicon, including taped‑out reference designs fabricated at TSMC 3 nm.
- Twelve founding members from semiconductor, AI, and academic sectors have committed to the initiative, with additional participants expected soon.
- The platform’s governance mirrors successful open‑source models and aligns with FIPS 140‑3 and Common Criteria, aiming to simplify certification‑ready secure silicon development.
TechInsyte's Take
Pavona represents a concrete step toward open‑source, certification‑ready silicon that can meet emerging post‑quantum security requirements. While the modular approach and governance model reduce reliance on single‑vendor solutions, enterprises should monitor the pace of member onboarding and the availability of production‑level support as the ecosystem matures.
Source: Businesswire
