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Low-overhead TRNG based on MUX for cryptographic protection using multiphase sampling

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Abstract

True random number generator (TRNG) is built on hardware-based non-deterministic noise for generating keys, initialization vectors, and random numbers, and it plays an important role in various applications that require encryption protection. In this paper, a true random number generator based on MUX unit multiphase sampling is proposed by investigating the frequency jitter mechanism. The scheme is based on the “soft macro” design of the MUX unit, which replaces the traditional look-up table entropy scheme. It completes high-precision jitter sampling on the basis of ensuring the fairness of the TRNG entropy source and can be well transplanted to a series of FPGAs. The proposed TRNG is verified on three FPGAs of Xilinx Virtex-6, Artix-7, and Virtex-7. The experimental results show that the generated random sequences are of good quality, passing the NIST SP800-22 tests with higher p-value and NIST SP 800-90B tests with higher minimum entropy, while achieving 100 Mbps throughput. It is worth mentioning that the resource overhead consumed by the proposed TRNG is small and unitary, only consuming 4 MUX units, 5 DFFs, and 1 LUT unit, which has a good application prospect.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work is supported by the Major National Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project under Grant No. 62027815; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61674048; and the Science and Technology on Electronic Test and Measurement Laboratory of China under Grant No. 61420010202717.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Integrated Circuits, Anhui University, Hefei, 230000, China

    Liang Yao

  2. School of Microelectronics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Huaguo Liang & Yingchun Lu

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  1. Liang Yao
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  2. Huaguo Liang
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  3. Yingchun Lu
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Contributions

L.Y. and H.L. helped in conceptualization; L.Y. helped in methodology; H.L. and L.Y. helped in validation; L.Y. helped in writing—original draft preparation; Y.L. helped in writing—review and editing; H.L. worked in supervision; and H.L. worked in project administration.

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Correspondence to Yingchun Lu.

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Yao, L., Liang, H. & Lu, Y. Low-overhead TRNG based on MUX for cryptographic protection using multiphase sampling. J Supercomput 79, 17170–17186 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-023-05349-2

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