Elliptic curve scalar multiplier design using FPGAs

Abstract

A compact fast elliptic curve scalar multiplier with variable key size is implemented as a coprocessor with a Xilinx FPGA. This implementation utilizes the internal SRAM/registers of the FPGA and has the whole scalar multiplier implemented within a single FPGA chip. The compact design helps reduce the overhead and limitations associated with data transfer between FPGA and host, and thus leads to high performance. The experimental data from the mappings over small fields shows that the carefully constructed hardware architecture is regular and has high CLB utilization.