Overview
The most obvious reason for implementing encryption or other security algorithms in hardware
is to meet high throughput targets. However, sometimes hardware implementation is beneficial for
other reasons - perhaps for the higher levels of security that hardware can offer,
or to reduce power consumption over a software implementation. Maybe it is simply more
convenient to implement in hardware, as the requirement sits in a highly embedded system
where access to a processor is not readily to hand.
Low-area - Low-power - Feature Rich
Whatever the reason, Helion identified this situation many years ago, and supports its
customers with a range of specially designed "Tiny" IP cores. These cores are fully featured,
and have been designed so as to offer meaningful throughput rates, whilst minimising logic
utilisation and power consumption.
In all cases, the cores are designed with each target technology firmly in mind, so as to
fully utilise the strengths of each. For example, in technologies such as FPGA where RAM is a
low-cost resource, full use is made of available RAM resources; whilst in ASIC, where RAM is
relatively costly, it is only used where totally justified, and even then the choice of RAM
configuration is carefully made to minimise silicon area and power.
What cores are available in "Tiny" versions?
Helion currently offers "Tiny" versions of its AES, Hashing, and Modular Exponentiation cores.
This means that a super-efficient full security subsystem can be assembled using our suite of Tiny IP cores.
| Core type |
Typical Performance |
Applications |
| Tiny AES |
0 to 100 Mbps |
Data Encryption |
| Tiny Hash |
0 to 100 Mbps |
Data Authentication & Integrity |
| Tiny Mod Exp |
0 to 5 ops/sec |
Public/Private Key Exchange |
Tiny AES
The heart of most secure systems, Helion offer the lowest resource AES cores for use
in FPGA, as well as completely RAM-free AES implementations for use in ASIC. Support
is available for all modes of AES, including all the basic block cipher modes
(ECB, CBC, CFB, OFB and CTR) plus combined modes such as AES-CCM and AES-GCM.
Please visit our Tiny AES page for full details.
Tiny Hash
Alongside AES encryption, hashing is often the next requirement on the list. Helion
offer an extremely powerful multi-algorithm solution supporting SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256,
SHA-384 and SHA-512, all with the option of HMAC. Please visit our
Tiny Hash page for full details.
Tiny ModExp
The final part of the equation is acceleration of Modular Exponentiation, which is
often needed to support Key Exchange protocols. Helion offer a fully featured
Tiny ModExp core which is ideal for hardware offload for a CPU in implementing what
is a heavyweight algorithm in software terms. Please visit our
Modular Exponentiation page for full details.
Contact
For more detailed information on these or any of our other products and services,
please feel free to email us at
helioncores@heliontech.com and we will be pleased to discuss how we can assist
with your individual requirements.
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