P1619 / 802.1ae (MACSec) GCM/XTS/CBC-AES Core

LAN security standard IEEE 802.1ae (MACSec) uses AES cipher in the GCM mode, while the disk/tape encryption standard IEEE P1619 uses the XTS mode. Since GCM and XTS share some of their basic components, a combo GCM/XTS/CBC core is not much larger than a dedicated core for either of the modes.

The GXC3 core is tuned for mid-performance P1619 and 802.1ae applications at the data rates up to 10 Gbps. The core contains the base AES core AES1 and is available for immediate licensing.

The design is fully synchronous and available in both source and netlist form.

AES-GCMFunction Description

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm is a new NIST data encryption standard as defined in the http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips197/fips-197.pdf

The GXC3 implementation fully supports the AES algorithm for 128 and 256 bit keys in Galois Counter Mode (AES-GCM) as required by the 802.1ae IEEE standard, in AES-XTS mode as required by the IEEE P1619 (SISWG) standard, a the CBC-AES mode per NIST specification SP800-38A.

The core is designed for flow-through operation, with input and output interfaces of flexible width. GCM additional authentication data precede the plaintext in the flow of data. GXC3 supports both encryption and decryption modes.

• Small size: From 70K ASIC gates (at throughput of 18.2 bits per clock)
• 500 MHz frequency in 90 nm process
• Easily parallelizable to achieve higher throughputs
• Completely self-contained: does not require external memory. Includes encryption, decryption, key expansion and data interface
• Support for Galois Counter Mode Encryption and authentication (GCM) , XEX-based Tweaked CodeBook mode (TCB) with Cipher Text Stealing (CTS) (abbreviated as XTS) mode per IEEE P1619, and Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode with 128 and 256-bit AES keys
• Flow-through design
• Test bench provided

• IEEE 802.1ae
• LAN switches, routers, NICs
• IEEE P1619
• Hard drive and tape encryption, SAN, NAS

HDL Source Licenses

• Synthesizable Verilog RTL source code
• Testbench (self-checking)
• Vectors for testbenches
• User Documentation

Netlist Licenses

• Post-synthesis EDIF
• Testbench (self-checking)
• Vectors for testbenches
• Place & Route script