On May 26, GlobalPlatform officially launched Pavona — the world’s first open-source silicon distribution featuring production-grade Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Built around a RISC-V core, Pavona offers a modular IP library and synthesis engine, enabling integrators to tailor secure subsystems for diverse architectures such as data centers, AI accelerators, automotive controllers, and IoT devices. It also aligns with FIPS 140-3, SESIP, and Common Criteria certifications. Two reference designs have already been taped out: a standalone chip-based Root of Trust and an integrated Root of Trust designed for Chiplet architectures; both utilize TSMC’s 3nm (N3) process node. The PQC technology stack was developed over several years through close hardware-software collaboration between ZeroRISC, the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, and Academia Sinica. Findings presented at Real World Crypto 2026 in Taipei show that ML-KEM and ML-DSA — newly standardized PQC algorithms — achieve performance improvements of 6–9× on embedded silicon, while operating frequencies rise by 36–75% with virtually no increase in area overhead.
Twelve founding members represent semiconductor, AI, academic, and IP sectors: Agile Analog, Analog Devices, Baochip (founded by renowned hardware hacker Andrew “bunnie” Huang), CrossBar, the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, Meta, Qualcomm Technologies, SIMPLE Crypto Association, Tenstorrent (led by CEO Jim Keller), the University of Oxford, Winbond Electronics, and ZeroRISC. Governance follows a model akin to Yocto/Zephyr: a governing board composed of contributing members oversees operations, while an independent Technical Advisory Committee charts the technology roadmap. Source code, CI dashboards, and onboarding documentation are now publicly available; new contributors can build and simulate the reference Root of Trust design within an hour by following the provided guidelines.