Does anyone know if Embedded SSL or TLS has ever been successfully developed for 8-bit micro's? If so, where can I obtain some details? Thanks. Malan
Thank you Dan I suspect that it is not practically feasible to implement SSL / TLS on 'standard' 8-bit micro's such as 8051 or 8052 since executing the computationally intensive encryption algorithms using 8-bit registers and a primitive mathematical core would make initial handshaking too slow and thus impractical. I'd be glad to hear if anybody disagrees… Malan
I see no reason that a "rabbit" which is 8 bits can do anything in a reasonable time that e.g. a SILabs f120 cannot do in a similar time. Erik
Hi Erik You may have a good point. I'm not familiar with either. I'll have a good look at their register architectures and instruction sets. Thank you Malan
"I see no reason that a "rabbit" which is 8 bits can do anything in a reasonable time that e.g. a SILabs f120 cannot do in a similar time." From the page that Dan cited: "... takes advantage of unique new block arithmetic instructions in those chips that speed up encryption/decryption considerably, making SSL fast and economical for small embedded systems." So maybe it does have something that a "normal" 8051 doesn't - even if it is a fast one!
So maybe it does have something that a "normal" 8051 doesn't - even if it is a fast one! well the f120 has a MAC, that should halp some I am NOT advocating the use of a '51 for heavy arithmetic, just merely stating that it just might be possible. Anyhow WHY use a processor for which it is not available as canned code in lieu of one where it is. Today you can buy an ARM for less than a Rabbit and much less than some '51 derivatives, I would go there. Erik
Interesting and useful debate from both of you. Thank you. I had a quick look at both Rabbit and SiLabs C8051F120. Both have impressive specs including fast 16 x 16 multiply and high clock speeds. Difficult to pick a winner at this stage though… The point is that I think you have both helped me make up my mind that I should rather use one of the more powerful 8051 controllers than attempting SSL / TLS on a clasic 8051 core. Thank you. Malan.
Just spotted this - no idea if it's any use for embedded systems, let alone 8-bit ones... http://www.openssl.org/
I had a look at OpenSSL a while ago. It appears to have been developed for the desktop Internet environment and will probably require some fancy footwork to adapt it for a 'standard' 8-bit embedded platform. Thanks for the pointer & interest Malan