A Novel Architecture of ECC Coprocessor for STT-MRAM Based Smart Card Chip

Abstract

In order to insure the message security between smart card and reader, a novel architecture of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) coprocessor for spin-torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) based smart card chip is presented in this paper. By ingenious simplification of the formula and flexible conversion from affine coordinate to projective coordinate, several efficient algorithms are given from point multiplication operations to finite field computations. An elaborate module called modular arithmetic logical unit (MALU) is presented to effectively perform finite field computations over binary extension field GF($2^{163}$). Simulation and hardware implementation results show that the proposed ECC coprocessor can complete an encryption in only 3.3ms with only 1621 LUTs and 654 slices. The coprocessor is both compact and efficient, thus verify its feasibility and coordination with STT-MRAM in smart card chip.