loading...
 This Article 
   
 Share 
   
 Bibliographic References 
   
 Add to: 
 
Digg
Furl
Spurl
Blink
Simpy
Google
Del.icio.us
Y!MyWeb
 
 Search 
   
11th IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems (ASYNC'05)
Delay Insensitive Encoding and Power Analysis: A Balancing Act
New York City, New York, USA
March 14-March 16
ISBN: 0-7695-2305-6
Konrad J. Kulikowski, Boston University
Ming Su, Boston University
Alexander Smirnov, Boston University
Alexander Taubin, Boston University
Mark G. Karpovsky, Boston University
Daniel MacDonald, Boston University
Unprotected cryptographic hardware is vulnerable to a side-channel attack known as Differential Power Analysis (DPA). This attack exploits data-dependent power consumption of a computation to determine the secret key. Dual-rail asynchronous circuits have been regarded as a potential countermeasure to this attack. In this paper, we evaluate the security of asynchronous dual-rail circuits against DPA. Our results show that, unless special precautions are taken, asynchronous circuits are not inherently more DPA resistant than their synchronous dual-rail counterparts. We show that the use of NULL-spaced or Return-To-Zero (RTZ) protocols, used to provide delay-insensitive encoding for asynchronous circuits, can make a DPA attack easier. We present an overview of balancing dynamic implementations of dual-rail fine-grained asynchronous gates that offer a solution for the DPA weakness. We demonstrate the use of asynchronous balanced cells that use RTZ which are not only secure against DPA but also deliver high performance with low design effort through automated pipelining.
Citation:
Konrad J. Kulikowski, Ming Su, Alexander Smirnov, Alexander Taubin, Mark G. Karpovsky, Daniel MacDonald, "Delay Insensitive Encoding and Power Analysis: A Balancing Act," async, pp.116-125, 11th IEEE International Symposium on Asynchronous Circuits and Systems (ASYNC'05), 2005
Usage of this product signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Use.