avalanche_entropy

Entropy provider core for an external avalanche noise based entropy source.

Functional Description

This core samples noise provided on an input pin. The noise is expected to be 'digital' that is fairly rapidly move from voltage levels matching ones and zeros as handled by the digital process used to implement the core.

The noise is sampled with double registers. Then phase detection is applied to find positive flanks. The core contains a free running clock (clocked at the provided core clock frequency). When a positive flank in the noise is detected, the LSB of the clock is sampled and added to a shift registers. When at least 32 bits has been collected, the result is presented as entropy available to any entropy consumer connected to the core.

The core also includes a delta time counter. This counter is used for testing of the core and is available via the API.

The fact that the core uses the flank of the to drive the entropy bit generation, but that the timing between the flanks means that if the noise source have a bias for zero or one state does not affect which entropy bits are generated.

Implementation Status

The core has been tested with several revisions of the Cryptech avalanche noise board. The core has been implemented in Altera Cyclone-IV and Cyclone-V devices as well as in Xilinx Spartan-6 devices. The core clock frequency used has been 25 MHz, 33 MHz and 50 MHz.

The generated entropy has been extensively tested (using the ent tool as well as other custom tools) and found to be generating entropy with good quality.