A Security Review of the Cell Broadband Engine Processor

The Cell Broadband Engine processor is a multicore processor that provides high throughput for vector processing that is being considered for use in secure communication and data processing environments. Prior to its acceptance in these facilities, its security features and flaws must be fully explored. However, as a the Cell BE is a multicore system composed of one "normal" core and 8 smaller, SIMD cores, the analysis is of a different order of difficulty than that of a single core processor. This paper highlights some concerns seen in the Cell BE when considered from a security perspective and possible solutions to some of these security concerns.