Air Force TFPGA vs ics_mem_collect: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Air Force TFPGA is a commercial industrial control system security tool by GrammaTech. ics_mem_collect is a free industrial control system security tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best industrial control system security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Mid-market and enterprise manufacturers with mission-critical industrial control systems need Air Force TFPGA to detect hardware Trojans and counterfeits at the component level, where supply chain compromise actually enters your infrastructure. The tool requires no golden reference model, meaning you can assess legacy FPGA inventory immediately without waiting for baseline data, and its self-characterization testing directly supports NIST GV.SC supply chain risk management. Skip this if your threat model doesn't include hardware-level adversaries or if you're sourcing components exclusively from tier-one vendors with ironclad provenance; the ROI shrinks fast for organizations with lower supply chain risk exposure.
ICS defenders doing firmware analysis and reverse engineering will find ics_mem_collect valuable for direct memory access on PLCs and RTUs without proprietary vendor tools; the free pricing and API-first design mean you can integrate it into existing automation workflows. The 31 GitHub stars signal early adoption among practitioners, though the project is still narrow in scope. This is not for buyers seeking a turnkey forensics platform or broad device coverage; ics_mem_collect is a developer tool that demands integration work and assumes you already know what memory regions matter to your devices.
