Design and Analysis of Configurable Ring Oscillators for True Random Number Generation Based on Coherent Sampling

Abstract

True Random Number Generators (TRNGs) are indispensable in modern cryptosystems. Unfortunately, to guarantee high entropy of the generated numbers, many TRNG designs require a complex implementation procedure, often involving manual placement and routing. In this work, we introduce, analyse, and compare three dynamic calibration mechanisms for the COherent Sampling ring Oscillator based TRNG: GateVar, WireVar, and LUTVar, enabling easy integration of the entropy source into complex systems. The TRNG setup procedure automatically selects a configuration that guarantees the security requirements. In the experiments, we show that two out of the three proposed mechanisms are capable of assuring correct TRNG operation even when an automatic placement is carried out and when the design is ported to another Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) family. We generated random bits on both a Xilinx Spartan 7 and a Microsemi SmartFusion2 implementation that, without post processing, passed the AIS-31 statistical tests at a throughput of 4.65 Mbit/s and 1.47 Mbit/s, respectively.