chacha

Verilog 2001 implementation of the ChaCha stream cipher.

Functionality

This core implements ChaCha with support for 128 and 256 bit keys. The number of rounds can be set from two to 32 rounds in steps of two. The default number of rounds is eight.

The core contains an internal 64-bit block counter that is automatically updated for each data block.

Performance

Each quarterround takes one cycle which means that the mininum latency will be 4*rounds. When the core is functionally correct we will add two more version with 2 and 4 parallel quarterrounds respectively. The four quarterounds version will achieve 1 cycle/round.

Implementation

Implementation results using the Altera Quartus 13 design tool.

Cyclone IV GX

6233 LEs
3677 registers
56.1 MHz
11 cycles latency
2.6 Gbps performance.

Cyclone V GX

2631 ALMs for logic
3677 registers
54.3 MHz
11 cycles latency
2.5 Gbps performance.

Status

(2014-09-03) - Added a new port in the core to allow setting of the initial value of the counter. The top level wrapper currently sets this value to a constant zero.

Added the ChaCha core to Cryptech.