The balanced SHA-256 from Xiphera is a versatile Intellectual Property (IP) core designed for SHA-256 cryptographic hash function with extended support for HMAC message authentication code and HKDF key derivation function that are based on using SHA-256. SHA-256 is one of the most commonly used hash functions and is used in numerous cryptographic applications. This IP core offers a good balance between performance and resource requirements.
Versatility: The IP core supports the widely used cryptographic hash function SHA-256. It also has native support for commonly used message authentication code (HMAC) based on SHA-256 and key derivation function (HKDF) based on HMAC. This allows using the IP core for multiple cryptographic functions - for example, TLS 1.3 - more easily and efficiently than an IP core that supports only SHA-256.
Constant Latency: The execution time of the IP core is independent of the message and key values (apart from message length), and consequently provides protection against timing-based side-channel attacks.
Performance: SHA-256 IP core provides high performance and reaches hashing speeds of several hundreds of Mbps.
Compact Size: The IP core has compact size (for example, 2916 ALMs and, 2 EBR blocks in Lattice ® CertusPro-NX ® family) permitting integration into resource constrained Lattice ® FPGA designs.