AES HWPE Accelerator

Introduction

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Hardware Processing Engine (HWPE) is a cryptographic accelerator developed to enhance data encryption and decryption capabilities on the PULPissimo platform. The project includes the Register Transfer Level (RTL) design, a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), an AES C driver, and an application that configures and runs the HWPE using the AES driver:

• RTL Design: The foundation of the AES HWPE, providing the low-level hardware design essential for its functionality.

• HAL Design: This layer abstracts the hardware specifics, offering a more accessible interface for higher-level software interactions.

• AES C Driver: A driver written in C that facilitates communication between the HWPE and application software, simplifying the process of configuring and controlling the HWPE.

• Example Application: Demonstrates the practical usage of the AES HWPE. This application showcases how to configure and operate the HWPE using the provided AES driver, serving as a guide for developers to integrate and utilize the HWPE in their own projects.

Key Specifications:

The AES accelerator supports different modes and specifications:

• Key Modes: The HWPE supports both 128-bit and 256-bit key modes.

• Encryption and Decryption: Designed to perform Electronic Codebook (ECB) encryption and decryption.

• Data Management: The AES gets data from one memory address, encrypts/decrypts it, and then stores it in another memory address. Can encrypt or decrypt up to 4GB if the hardware supports it.

• Configuration Flexibility: The engine provides several configurable options, including the selection of key mode, setting a key, setting a data length, configuring input and output addresses, and toggling between encryption and decryption modes.

Intended Use

The AES Hardware Processing Engine (HWPE) is designed for developers using the RISC-V PULPissimo architecture who need to offload AES-based cryptographic processing from the main CPU.

Prerequisites

This testbench requires a RISC-V GCC toolchain available and installed, for example https://github.com/pulp-platform/pulp-riscv-gnu-toolchain.

The toolchain path must be added to the system path:

export PULP_RISCV_GCC_TOOLCHAIN=/path/to/riscv/gcc/root

The testbench will look for the toolchain in $PULP_RISCV_GCC_TOOLCHAIN/bin.

Installation and Setup

Follow these steps to get your development environment running:

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/anh60/AES-HWPE

2. Navigate to the project directory

   cd hwpe-tb

3. Update the repository

   make update-ips

   This will solve dependencies and generate the simulation scripts using Bender, which will be installed if not already available.

4. Build the RTL files

   make build-hw

5. Clean and compile the workspace

   make clean all 

6. Run the simulation

   make run gui=1

   Launches the ModelSim GUI for simulation.

HWPE interface specifications

See documentation on https://hwpe-doc.readthedocs.io.