• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information Security & Cryptology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.53-64
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• 2002

This paper describes a design of cryptographic processor that implements the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) block cipher algorithm, "Rijndael". An iterative looping architecture using a single round block is adopted to minimize the hardware required. To achieve high throughput rate, a sub-pipeline stage is added by dividing the round function into two blocks, resulting that the second half of current round function and the first half of next round function are being simultaneously operated. The round block is implemented using 32-bit data path, so each sub-pipeline stage is executed for four clock cycles. The S-box, which is the dominant element of the round block in terms of required hardware resources, is designed using arithmetic circuit computing multiplicative inverse in GF($2^8$) rather than look-up table method, so that encryption and decryption can share the S-boxes. The round keys are generated by on-the-fly key scheduler. The crypto-processor designed in Verilog-HDL and synthesized using 0.25-$\mu\textrm{m}$ CMOS cell library consists of about 23,000 gates. Simulation results show that the critical path delay is about 8-ns and it can operate up to 120-MHz clock Sequency at 2.5-V supply. The designed core was verified using Xilinx FPGA board and test system.