Hello everyone. Some time (Actually some years) ago there was a discussion about Cryptographic device being devoloped in Estonia. Well now we have some real results to share. I will include a short description with some questions. Hope to hear from you all soon. As a result of scientific research project a team in Tallinn Technical University has developed a cryptographic processor. The first phase of the project has been a success. It ended with a prototype and presentation at NORCHIP'97 conference. Now the team is specifying the tasks for second phase of the project. If you have some time to answer to few questions, we would be extremely pleased. The data could help us to create a real circuit for solving real problems not just one for satisfying academic curiosity :) The circuit is a programmable modular arithmetic calculator and IDEA block cipher. ALU is 96 bits wide and is shared between IDEA and modular calculations. The circuit contains RAM for storing key exchange data, total of 16 registers. Two of them are used for Internal ALU calculations, 2 for storing expanded IDEA keys and one for several small 32 bit variables (cycle counter, upper parts of expanded IDEA keys, raw IDEA keys, & so on). Currently modular calculations length is 768 Bits. We have produced a test circuit and got the following results: Technology: Atmel ES2 1.0um 2 Metal CMOS, standard cell, 50 Kgates Speed: 20 MHz Modular exponent time: 0.1 Sec ( currently 768 Bits ) IDEA speed 20 Mbit/Sec All these results are also at: www.pld.ttu.ee/~prj/norchip.html Now we are designing a new circuit, what should provide some real interest to encrypting devices users. The obvious things to do with the previous circuit are: Add Second ALU, RAM, redesign datapath and use faster technology for Longer modular calculations ( 2*768 bits ) Faster exponent using 2 ALUS in parallel and CRT 100 Mbit/sec IDEA speed In pursuit of perfection we must keep in mind the penalty of silicon area, lower yields, longer devolopment time and thus higher price. Question 1: How much speed would be reasonable enough for both IDEA and modular exponent? Question 2: The second question concerns external interface. What protocol if any should we include into the circuit? The RS232 strikes as a first possible solution for smart card applications. Could there be some other common interfaces that we should consider including into the circuit? Sincerely, Tallinn Technical University, Design and Test laboratory, IDEXP circuit design team.