50.4.4.1 Description

GCM comprises the AES engine in CTR mode along with a universal hash function (GHASH engine) that is defined over a binary Galois field to produce a message authentication tag (the AES CTR engine and the GHASH engine are depicted in the following figure.

The GHASH engine processes data packets after the AES operation. GCM assures the confidentiality of data through the AES Counter mode of operation for encryption. Authenticity of the confidential data is assured through the GHASH engine. GCM can also provide assurance of data that is not encrypted. Refer to NIST Special Publication 800-38D for more complete information.

GCM can be used with or without the DMA host. Messages may be processed as a single complete packet of data or they may be broken into multiple packets of data over time.

GCM processing is computed on 128-bit input data fields. There is no support for unaligned data. The AES key length can be whatever length is supported by the AES module.

The recommended programming procedure when using DMA is described in the section GCM Processing.