Complete Communications Engineering

With the MIPS® CorExtend™ Capability, VOCAL Achieves Cryptography Engine on an Industry-Standard Microprocessor

BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ — VOCAL Technologies, Ltd., a leading developer of software and hardware solution for the communications industry, announces the availability of an AES hardware engine for MIPS cores.

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) provides very high security with relatively low processing requirements. With these two key properties, AES not only replaces old DES based products but it opens up many new markets that require higher security but are limited by processing bandwidth. New protocols such as CCMP and DTCP are just “wrappers” of AES making a software solution with an AES hardware core the most practical implementation.

VOCAL has developed the “Perfect Cryptography Engine”, an AES hardware core wrapped by a MIPS processor. The MIPS core controls the fixed AES hardware through the UDI extension instructions allowing the “AES wrapper” or encryption protocol to be programmable. The VOCAL 128-bit Co-Processor solution amounts to 1.28 Gbps encryption/decryption per 100 MHz processing power.

 Encoder

128-bit key

(MIPS/Mbit)

 

ROM

 

Gates

Optimized MIPS Assembly

6.00

none

none

UDI AES 32-bit Block Accelerator

0.50

4-256×8

4,950

UDI AES 64-bit Co-Processor

0.16

8-256×8

6,012

UDI AES 128-bit Co-Processor

0.08

16-256×8

9,096

 

 Decoder

128-bit key

(MIPS/Mbit)

 

ROM

 

Gates

Optimized MIPS Assembly

6.50

none

none

UDI AES 32-bit Block Accelerator

0.50

4-256×8

5,916

UDI AES 64-bit Co-Processor

0.16

8-256×8

7,808

UDI AES 128-bit Co-Processor

0.08

16-256×8

13,936

For a 10 Mbps video application a pure software implementation requires approximately 65 MIPS to decrypt the compressed video. With the VOCAL 128-bit AES Co-Processor the decryption is less than 1 MIP. Current set-top boxes using a MIPS core can be upgraded to decrypt video with a simple drop in solution and no integration issues. A 54 Mbps WLAN software solution implementation would consume 353 MIPS while the VOCAL 128-bit Co-Processor consumes 4 MIPS. Any products that use a MIPS core can now provide AES encryption by using VOCAL’s cryptography engine.

Advantages of VOCAL’s solution include flexibility to program and configure the AES solution, engineering experience and the expertise needed to integrate individual modules to make a complete low cost solution.

VOCAL invites you to visit its booth at the WiFi Planet Show in San Jose on December 3rd.

About VOCAL Technologies, Ltd.

Founded in 1986, VOCAL Technologies, Ltd., is an industry leader in providing innovative telecommunications and networking solutions to a large base of international OEM customers. VOCAL has the industry’s largest data and telephony software modem and 802.11a/b/g/e/i libraries and supports all major platforms including Analog Devices, ARM, MIPS, and TI.

MIPS is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, and Pro, Pro Series and CorExtend are trademarks of MIPS Technologies.