Data Encryption IP Cores
CAST's Encryption Team
We support our encryption technology with a team of experts who are accessible by our customers during your early design phases as well as after the sale. Our primary encryption developer, Alma Technologies, S.A., has been a close CAST partner for many years, and shares our total dedication to CAST customer success.
We have many customers who combine our encryption IP together with other CAST cores for solutions such as video compression and secure communications. The CAST support team always treats success with your entire system design as our number one support mission
About Export Licensing
Strong encryption technology is governed internationally by export regulations. Immediate export of CAST AES, SHA, and MD5 cores is generally permitted to the countries listed for uses not related to weapons of mass destruction. Please contact CAST (email, or phone +1 201-391-8300) to discuss delivery to other destinations; approval is subject to the applicable export licenses being granted.
- Argentina
- Australia
- Canada
- European Union Member States
- Japan
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Russia
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United States
AES Encryption and CAST’s AES IP Cores
Governments, companies, and even individuals worldwide rely on encryption to protect confidential data for transmission, processing, and storage.
The ideal encryption algorithm would provide unbreakable security with no significant impact on the normal flow of data. For twenty years the Data Encryption Standard (DES) was the state of the art, but it became unsafe once it was determined how to identify its secret key and decipher the encrypted data. A variant, Triple DES, is more secure, but requires three times the processing time to encrypt or decrypt data.
In September 1997, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a request for a new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to replace DES. Several algorithms were proposed and considered, and in October 2000 the Rijndael block cipher algorithm was chosen as the new AES. Today AES is the encryption standard used around the world.
This paper gives an introduction to the AES algorithm, explaining its encryption and decryption processes and describing its various options. The paper then discusses how AES is implemented in CAST’s IP cores. These register transfer level (RTL) cores can be used to physically implement the AES algorithm for fast hardware encryption and decryption in ASIC or FPGA technologies.
Additional Resources
Links
FIPS 197, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): download PDF
AES test suite: The Advanced Encryption Standard Algorithm Validation Suite (AESAVS): download PDF
Overview of the AES block cipher modes of operation
CAST's experience with encryption IP cores for security applications spans several years and close to a hundred customers. Especially in the areas of Internet Protocol Security, secure data storage, and secure data exchange, CAST provides the security solution to fit your application at affordable prices.
We offer state-of-the-art cores for the current encryption standard — AES — and for other popular techniques and methods including DES, Triple DES, MD5, and SHA.
Available Products
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Cores
- AES-P Programmable Encrypt/Decrypt AES IP Core
- AES-C Optimized Encrypt/Decrypt AES IP Core
- AES-GCM GCM-AES Authenticated Encrypt/Decrypt Core
Data Encryption Standard (DES) Cores
Message Digest 5 (MD5) Core
- MD5 RFC1321-Compliant One-Way Hash Function IP Core
Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) Cores
- SHA-1 FIPS 180-1 Compliant Secure Hash Message Digest Processing IP Core
- SHA-256 256-bit FIPS 180-1 Compliant Secure Hash Message Digest Processing IP Core
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