Design of a scalable RSA and ECC crypto-processor

In this paper, we propose a scalable word-based crypto-processor that performs modular multiplication based on the modified Montgomery algorithm for finite fields GF(P) and GF(2^m). The unified crypto-processor supports scalable keys of length up to 2048 bits for RSA and 512 bits for elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). Further extension of the key length can be done easily by enlarging the memory module or using the external memory resource. With the proposed parity prediction technique, our pipelined crypto-processor achieves a 512-bit RSA encryption rate of 276 kbps and a 160-bit ECC encryption rate of 73.3 kbps for a 220 MHz clock rate.