What Pavona Is and Why It Matters for IoT Security
Pavona is an open-source silicon distribution that combines certification-aligned security IP, a modular composition framework and reference roots of trust to help designers build secure, quantum-resistant chips for IoT and other embedded systems. In a market where IoT devices may run for a decade or more, security is now decided in hardware long before application code exists. Pavona addresses this by packaging secure silicon building blocks, including the first openly available post-quantum cryptography stack for embedded silicon, into a reusable platform. Instead of treating IoT security hardware as an afterthought, it enables a secure root of trust to be wired into the chip from day one. For device makers facing future quantum computing threats and fragmented supply chains, Pavona positions open-source silicon as a practical path to production-grade, certification-ready security.
Open-Source Silicon with Certification-Ready Security IP
Unlike one-off open cores or fixed reference chips, Pavona is a curated distribution of security IP tailored for real products. Hosted by GlobalPlatform, it packages composable subsystems aligned with FIPS 140-3 and Common Criteria requirements, so teams start closer to a certifiable architecture even though they must still complete product-specific validation. The distribution debuts with two TSMC 3 nm taped-out reference designs: a standalone chip root of trust and an integrated root of trust for chiplet-based systems. These silicon-proven blocks give IoT and semiconductor teams a concrete baseline rather than a paper design. According to GlobalPlatform, Pavona is “the home for composable open-source secure silicon,” combining community-driven development with standards infrastructure familiar from commercial certification, similar to how Linux helped move open-source software into production.
Post-Quantum Cryptography Baked into IoT Security Hardware
Pavona’s most distinctive feature is its production-grade post-quantum cryptography stack delivered out of the box for embedded silicon. This is critical for IoT devices that must withstand future quantum attacks on today’s public-key algorithms. Work from ZeroRISC, the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy, and Academia Sinica shows 6–9x performance gains for ML-KEM and ML-DSA post-quantum algorithms on embedded silicon, with 36–75% higher maximum operating frequency at near-zero area cost, and this work is included from the start in Pavona. For enterprises, that means quantum-resistant key exchange and signatures can be accelerated directly in silicon without blowing up power or die area. When combined with a secure root of trust, Pavona lets teams design IoT security hardware where post-quantum cryptography is not an add-on, but a native, cert-aligned feature of the chip.
Designing Secure Roots of Trust for Enterprise IoT Deployments
Pavona focuses on the secure root of trust as the anchor for device identity, key storage and lifecycle control in IoT fleets. The platform’s standalone secure element-style reference design suits discrete security chips, while its integrated root of trust targets microcontrollers and chiplet-based SoCs where security must coexist with application logic. This flexibility matters because a gateway, a sensor node and an automotive controller have different silicon budgets and threat models. With Pavona’s composition engine and library, integrators can assemble a root of trust tuned to their architecture rather than force-fitting a monolithic blueprint. The result is a hardware-native secure root of trust that supports field provisioning, firmware updates and decommissioning, while keeping the IP open-source so enterprises retain transparency into the security model they are shipping.
Open Governance and Enterprise-Grade Adoption
Pavona is structured to satisfy both open-source contributors and enterprise adopters. It grew out of GlobalPlatform’s Trusted Open Source Silicon Task Force, which called for a neutral, community-governed framework instead of single-vendor solutions. The project has a Governing Board of funding members and an independent Technical Steering Committee that owns the technical roadmap, echoing governance models from Yocto and Zephyr. Founding backers such as Meta, Qualcomm Technologies, Tenstorrent and the University of Oxford signal that the initiative targets high-volume, production environments, not only research. For IoT ecosystems, this means an open-source silicon platform with credible backing, continuous integration dashboards, and detailed onboarding material, all geared toward secure-by-default deployments. By keeping the security IP accessible yet aligned with certification expectations, Pavona aims to make enterprise-grade, quantum-resistant IoT security hardware a standard design-in choice rather than a niche option.