True randomness ensures secure cryptography

Today’s short-range wireless applications transmit an exponentially increasing amount of data and voice. For many of these applications, it is crucial to have a reliable security against eavesdropping or data manipulation. But the reliability of such a cryptographic module depends on its ability to generate random bits that are unpredictable even to the strongest adversary.

Dialog’s short-range wireless ICs are used in devices ranging from DECT phones and wireless headsets to game controllers. To help expand their offering, Dialog designed an IC, for which they chose to integrate the Barco Silex DRGB solution. Barco Silex’ offer is an off-the-shelf solution with easy interfaces, which has been silicon-proven in various solutions.

“To meet this need (for unpredictable random bit generation), we designed a true random number generator, as an IP block for ASIC and FPGA solutions,” said Sébastien Rabou, Crypto IP Product Manager, Barco Silex. “Our BA431 block is a purely digital solution. This solution combined with our DRBG has been validated with the NIST800-22 test suite on silicon and is FIPS-140-2 certified, and is considered as an extra quality insurance to our customers”.