Cryptographic System on a Chip based on Actel ARM7 Soft-Core with Embedded True Random Number Generator

Abstract

The paper introduces a cryptographic system on a chip (SoC) implementation based on recent Actel nonvolatile FPGA Fusion chip with embedded ARM7 soft-core processor. The SoC is built on three main blocks - embedded soft-core with industry standard ARM7 architecture, internal Flash and static RAM memory blocks and custom true random number generator (TRNG) design. High flexibility of the SoC is based on efficient software implementation of main cryptographic primitives (AES, ECC, RSA, SHA) in soft-core. Implemented TRNG uses PLL-based simplified architecture with optional on- chip free running RC oscillator.