Area compactness architecture for elliptic curve cryptography

Abstract

Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) is an alternative to traditional public key cryptographic systems. Even though, RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) was the most prominent cryptographic scheme, it is being replaced by ECC in many systems. This is due to the fact that ECC gives higher security with shorter bit length than RSA. In Elliptic curve based algorithms elliptic curve point multiplication is the most computationally intensive operation. Therefore implementing point multiplication using hardware makes ECC more attractive for high performance servers and small devices. This paper gives the scope of Montgomery ladder computationally. Montgomery ladder algorithm is effective in computation of Elliptic Curve Point Multiplication (ECPM) when compared to Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). Compactness is achieved by reducing data paths by using multipliers and carry-chain logic. Multiplier performs effectively in terms of area/time if the word size of multiplier is large. A solution for Simple Power Analysis (SPA) attack is also provided. In Montgomery modular inversion 33% of saving in Montgomery multiplication is achieved and a saving of 50% on the number of gates required in implementation can be achieved.