false alarm

Yesterday, this story came to my attention. Sounds scary; an unnamed Chinese-made chip sold to U.S. military manufacturers has a built-in backdoor.

But it isn't true. It turns out that the chip is a Microsemi/Actel ProASIC3 and it isn't a military-grade chip. It is commercial grade. That a commercial chip would be used in a military design is not at all unusual, in fact it is the norm. But the scary story makes it sound much more malicious.