A Very High Speed True Random Number Generator with Entropy Assessment

International audienceThe proposed true random number generator (TRNG) exploits the jitter of events propagating in a self-timed ring (STR) to generate random bit sequences at a very high bit rate. It takes advantage of a special feature of STRs that allows the time elapsed between successive events to be set as short as needed, even in the order of picoseconds. If the time interval between the events is set in concordance with the clock jitter magnitude, a simple entropy extraction scheme can be applied to generate random numbers. The proposed STR-based TRNG (STRNG) follows AIS31 recommendations: by using the proposed stochastic model, designers can compute a lower entropy bound as a function of the STR characteristics (number of stages, oscillation period and jitter magnitude). Using the resulting entropy assessment, they can then set the compression rate in the arithmetic post-processing block to reach the required security level determined by the entropy per output bit. Implementation of the generator in two FPGA families confirmed its feasibility in digital technologies and also confirmed it can provide high quality random bit sequences that pass the statistical tests required by AIS31 at rates as high as 200 Mbit/s

Elasticity and Petri nets

Digital electronic systems typically use synchronous clocks and primarily assume fixed duration of their operations to simplify the design process. Time elastic systems can be constructed either by replacing the clock with communication handshakes (asynchronous version) or by augmenting the clock with a synchronous version of a handshake (synchronous version). Time elastic systems can tolerate static and dynamic changes in delays (asynchronous case) or latencies (synchronous case) of operations that can be used for modularity, ease of reuse and better power-delay trade-off. This paper describes methods for the modeling, performance analysis and optimization of elastic systems using Marked Graphs and their extensions capable of describing behavior with early evaluation. The paper uses synchronous elastic systems (aka latency-tolerant systems) for illustrating the use of Petri nets, however, most of the methods can be applied without changes (except changing the delay model associated with events of the system) to asynchronous elastic systems.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

C-elements for hardened self-timed circuits

ISBN 978-3-642-24153-6International audienceSelf-timed circuits are slope sensitive: when the voltage of one input or internal node changes too slowly, the interconnected logical blocks might loose their local one-to-one synchronization. This phenomenon often leads to unwanted global dead-locks of the entire circuit. The deep-submicronic manufacturing process mismatches might create such situations where one logical block is significantly slower than the others. We applied two known solutions for ensuring the correct C-element behavior whatever the slopes are: the transistors are resized and the supply voltage is reduced in order to guarantee the overall chip correctness taking into account the process variations