Title: A cryptographic processor for arbitrary elliptic curves over GF(2^m)

Authors: Hans Eberle, Nils Gura, Sheueling Chang Shantz, Vipul Gupta

Addresses: Sun Microsystems Laboratories, 16 Network Circle, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. ' Sun Microsystems Laboratories, 16 Network Circle, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. ' Sun Microsystems Laboratories, 16 Network Circle, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. ' Sun Microsystems Laboratories, 16 Network Circle, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA

Abstract: We describe a cryptographic processor for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). The processor performs point multiplication for elliptic curves over binary polynomial fields GF(2^m) up to a field degree of 255. In contrast to other designs that only support one curve at a time, our processor is capable of handling arbitrary curves. We have implemented the cryptographic processor in a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) running at a clock frequency of 66.4 MHz. Its performance is 6955 point multiplications per second for named curves over GF(2¹⁶³) and 3308 point multiplications per second for generic curves over GF(2¹⁶³).

Keywords: cryptographic coprocessors; public key cryptography; ECC; elliptic curve cryptosystems; arbitrary elliptic curves; security; field programmable gate arrays; FPGA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJES.2008.022395

International Journal of Embedded Systems, 2008 Vol.3 No.4, pp.241 - 255

Published online: 03 Jan 2009 *

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