US 6671709

Patent Overview — US6671709B2

Title: Multiplier cell and method of computing

Patent number / application: US6671709B2; application US10/105,543, filed 2002-03-25.

Inventors: Philipp Michael Glaser; Michael J. Torla.

Assignee: Originally Motorola, Inc.; current assignee listed as NXP USA Inc. (The supplied text notes the assignee list "may be inaccurate" and that no legal analysis was performed.)

Key dates: Priority date 1998-12-18; filing date 2002-03-25; publication date 2003-12-30. The record shows a 2004 assignment to Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., later security/release reassignments involving Citibank, N.A., and an "anticipated expiration" on 2018-12-18. Legal status: "Expired - Fee Related."

Purpose: The patent relates to public-key cryptography, specifically a public-key cryptographic integrated circuit that provides cryptographic functions supporting the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) algorithms. Stated applications include internet commerce, paging, cellular phones, smartcards, and smartcard terminals. Data such as personal health records, financial records, fingerprints, and retina eye prints is encrypted using functions including integer modular multiplications, modular polynomial multiplication, addition, subtraction, and exponentiation.

Plain-language scope (as described in the excerpt): The disclosure describes an integrated cryptographic circuit providing a hardware architecture that efficiently computes both RSA and ECC algorithms. Embodiments include an integrated system with an RSA arithmetic processor and a separate ECC arithmetic processor (FIG. 1), and another with a single processor computing algorithms for both RSA and ECC data cryptography (FIG. 2). Modular mathematics of RSA and ECC (Fp) can be computed on one hardware multiplier, while polynomial mathematics of ECC (F2M in polynomial basis) can be computed on a different hardware multiplier; pipelining supports parallel computation. Figures also depict a 1×N multiplier and cells used in its C-register for single-cycle and two-cycle multiplication operations. Classification includes G06F7/728 (Montgomery reduction) and G06F7/725 (finite field arithmetic over elliptic curves).

What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text contains no claims, no detailed description of the multiplier cell or method, no complete figure narratives, and no numerical results. It does not establish validity, enforceability, ownership history beyond the listed reassignments, or any litigation. No prior art was researched here.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US6671709](/patent/US6671709)/en