[Cryptech Tech] First blinkenlight with avalanche based entropy source

[Joachim Strömbergson]

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Aloha!

I've now created a first test implementation of an entropy collector
based on the avalanche noise source FredrikT has designed and manufactured.

Short functional description:
The test implementation samples then noise input and detect flanks. The
design contains a free running counter (clocked at 50 MHz). When a
positive flank is detected the LSB of the counter is added as LSB in a
32-bit entropy shift register.

In order to observe the entropy collected the low 8 bits in the entropy
register is sampled at a given rate (currently several times per second)
and the lowest 8 bits are used to drive LEDs on the FPGA board.


I have not yet added any ports for reading out the entropy via serial
interface nor any counters for flanks etc (to allow us to analyze the
design). I'm not doing any decorrelation etc either. This is simply the
first, simplest implementation that tries to use the noise source.

But it blinks very nice! And it looks random. ;-)

I have committed the RTL source code as well as project files as needed
to implement the design on the TerasIC DE0_Nano board.

The source viewer on the wiki has not updated yet, but the code is in
test/external_avalanche_entropy.

- -- 
Med vänlig hälsning, Yours

Joachim Strömbergson - Alltid i harmonisk svängning.
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 Joachim Strömbergson          Secworks AB          joachim at secworks.se
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