Date: 07/01/2012

Crypto-graphic engine SharkSSL from Real Time for the LPC1000 MCU from NXP

Real Time Logic has extended its cryptographic engine SharkSSL to the LPC1000, an NXP ARM Cortex-M-based microcontroller. LPC1000 is used to design M2M embedded systems connecting sensor, industrial, and infrastructure networks.

Security becomes critical when the M2M is used in utility grids, transportation systems, industrial networks, and military and aerospace applications. Real Time explains such networks involve constant communication as sensor or device nodes receive instructions from back-end systems or send data back.

SharkSSL delivers embedded security and embedded encryption tailored for devices. Implementing SSL 3.0, TSL 1.0, and TLS 1.1 as well as encryption algorithms AES, DES, 3DES, ARC4, SHA1, MD5, RSA, and DH, the SharkSSL crypto software library can be optimized for processors with hardware encryption engines, partial support, or with no hardware encryption support, such as the ARM Cortex-M. SharkSSL’s 20-kB footprint not only weighs in 50 times smaller than OpenSSL, but also represents the smallest SSL/TLS stack available for embedded security, as claimed by Real Time.

“The speed and compact size of SharkSSL delivers the high-performance needed for our customers’ demanding real-time applications,” confirmed Gene Carter, International Product Manager, Business Line Microcontrollers, NXP Semiconductors. “We are pleased to work with Real Time Logic and know that our close working relationship assures early SSL and encryption support as new devices become available.”

“Controllers as power efficient as the LPC1000 demand embedded security engineered to be fast and compact to preserve as much system memory as possible for the application,” noted Wilfred Nilsen, CEO, Real Time Logic. “Compact and highly efficient, SharkSSL quickly secures and encrypts all embedded device communication whether on an industrial or sensor network to ensure that communication is secure, data stays in the right hands and no unauthorized access to the network is gained.”

Real Time further suggests: Designed to secure communication and management of embedded devices and dedicated M2M applications, SharkSSL is transport agnostic. While most SSL stacks are tightly coupled to the TCP transport protocol, SharkSSL can be used with any other transport protocol, whether TCP or a more lightweight—and even proprietary—stack that an embedded system or sensor network may employ, such as Zigbee, or for common applications, such as email or web encryption, file transfer, voice over IP and wireless security authentication.