The Helion Fast Hash core family implements the NIST approved SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384 and SHA-512 secure hash algorithms to FIPS 180-3 and the legacy MD5 hash algorithm to RFC 1321. These are high performance cores that are available in single or dual algorithm versions and have been designed specifically for use in ASIC.
The hash algorithms take as input a message of arbitrary length, process the message as a series of 512 or 1024 bit blocks, and produce as output a compressed representation of the message data in the form of a message digest, the length of which varies with hash algorithm. Applications for the hashing cores include implementations of the standard Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC) described in FIPS 198-1. They are commonly used in the IPsec and TLS/SSL protocols, as well as Digital Signature applications, where a hash function is required to ensure both data integrity and origin authentication.
