Reconfigurable RISC-V Secure Processor And SoC Integration

Abstract

In IoT (Internet of Things) applications, security issues are increasingly attracting attention. However, current embedded processors lack cryptographic protection mechanism. In this paper, an austere RISC-V core processor with RV32I subset instruction is deemed as a master device to cooperate with an AES cryptographic engine in an SoC, due to its openness and flexibility. This core contains separate instructions and a data bus connected to a Wishbone crossbar. A Spartan-6 XC6SLX9 board is taken as an architecture protocol verification platform, where the peak operating frequency of the RISC-V core and the encryption SoC is 105MHz and 111.5MHz, respectively. The hardware resource utilization is reduced compared with the MIPS core with identical efforts