EnSilica has joined the CHERI Alliance, a group promoting the use of CHERI security technology in commercial chips and computing systems.
The move connects the Oxford-based chip designer with an ecosystem of industrial members, academic researchers, and government organisations focused on hardware-backed approaches to cybersecurity. The alliance includes Google, Codasip, lowRISC, Siemens, and Verisilicon, as well as research organisations such as SRI and the University of Cambridge.
EnSilica designs mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). As a fabless company, it designs chips and relies on manufacturing partners to produce them. It works across communications, industrial, automotive and healthcare markets.
Hardware memory safety
CHERI-Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions is an open technology that changes how processors handle memory and access permissions. It targets memory corruption and unauthorised code execution, which remain common causes of security flaws in software and connected devices.
CHERI adds memory protection and compartmentalisation at the hardware level. Advocates argue it can reduce the risk of entire classes of software defects being exploited. The alliance and its members also position CHERI to strengthen security without a major redesign of existing software.
The push for hardware-led controls reflects ongoing concerns about the security of connected products, from consumer devices to industrial systems. Attackers often exploit weaknesses in how software manages memory, particularly in low-level code and embedded environments. For chip companies, the challenge is raising the baseline of security without making products too complex or too expensive for high-volume markets.
Supporters also point to power and performance constraints. Embedded systems and battery-powered devices operate under tight processing budgets, and security features that add overhead can face resistance from product teams. The CHERI model aims to improve security while maintaining chip-level efficiency.
Alliance role
The CHERI Alliance describes itself as a non-profit, community interest company that coordinates work across industry and research. It runs working groups and provides a forum for sharing experience among chip designers, software developers and system integrators.
Membership gives EnSilica access to the network and to CHERI-related software and tooling. It plans to apply its design expertise to CHERI-enabled ASICs, bringing CHERI concepts into chips built for specific end markets.
Custom silicon often sits at the heart of devices with long service lives, including medical equipment, industrial controllers and automotive systems. Because these products can remain in use for many years, building stronger security foundations into the underlying hardware becomes more valuable.
The alliance argues that progress depends on more suppliers offering CHERI-based building blocks and more developers becoming familiar with the programming and tooling implications. To move from research to broad deployment, product teams need validated designs, documentation and development workflows.
"The CHERI Alliance exists to build an ecosystem that turns groundbreaking research into real-world impact," said Mike Eftimakis, founding director of the CHERI Alliance. "As soon as next year, regulators will ban insecure devices, and product manufacturers will rush to integrate security by design. EnSilica and our members will enable CHERI-enabled products that meet security requirements."
Regulatory pressure has become a recurring theme in cybersecurity. Governments have introduced or proposed measures that place more responsibility on manufacturers for software maintenance, vulnerability handling and default security settings. Industry groups have also warned about the cost of retrofitting security controls once products are in the field.
For EnSilica, joining the alliance aligns its ASIC roadmap with a broader industry push to adopt hardware memory-safety mechanisms. The company targets markets where reliability and safety are critical, including industrial and automotive applications.
"Security is a cornerstone of modern computing, and CHERI represents a paradigm shift in how we achieve it," said Ian Lankshear, chief executive officer of EnSilica. "Joining the Alliance allows us to collaborate with the brightest minds in the industry and deliver CHERI's benefits to our customers at scale."
EnSilica will work with other alliance members through working groups and partner engagement as the ecosystem develops CHERI-related software and tools.