Abstract
This paper discusses our approach to crypto acceleration and asset protection using novel techniques that help bring high levels of security to low-cost microcontrollers with minimal power and area penalty. CASPER, our asymmetric cryptography acceleration engine, aims to optimize crypto algorithm execution (e.g., RSA, ECC). It is built on a hardware-software partitioning scheme where software functions map asymmetric crypto functions to the hardware modules of the accelerator, delivering sufficient flexibility to software routines to enable mapping of new algorithms. Further efficiency is achieved by making use of the co-processor interface on the Arm® Cortex®-M33 core. Important assets such as keys, proprietary and/or licensed application software are protected against side-channel analysis or cloning using SRAM PUF and PRINCE. SRAM PUF technology enables secure storage of root-of-trust keys and user keys by exploiting the deep sub-micron process technology variations. PRINCE is a low-latency lightweight cryptography algorithm implementation in hardware that allows encrypted non-volatile storage and real-time, latency-free decryption of the execution code.
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