Overview

AST, also known as the analog sensor top, is the OpenTitan analog and security companion. Within AST are various analog functions (such as clocks, regulators, random number generators) needed to make the device function, as well as physical security sensors necessary to protect the device from physical attacks or manipulation.

At a high level, AST communicates with a number of OpenTitan comportable modules. See diagram below.

In the following sections, each family of connection is briefly described and explained. Note, the analog connections to AST are not shown in the diagram, but will be explained as well.

Interface Signals Table

Table notes

Signal naming conventions used in this document

It complies with OpenTitan names and suffixes with some augmentations.

Clock signals start with clk_*
Inputs and outputs are marked with *_i/*_o
Analog signals are marked with *_a
Non-core level signals are marked with *_h
Dual and negative polarity signals are marked with *_p/n

Clock domains column

sys - system clock, mainly used for high performance and security modules. Up to 100MHz
io - peripheral clock source, mainly used for peripherals and I/O related functionality. Up to 96MHz (divided by 4 by the clock manager)
susb - USB module source clock. 48MHz
aon - Always-on domain clock. The only active clock while chip is in deep-sleep power state, 200KHz
async - when listed as async, it means it does not matter what domain drives the signal
Input clocks: Each functional interface has a dedicated clock named after the interface.

Signal Name & Affiliation	I/O	Width	Clock Domain	Description
Power Supplies
VCC	I			VCC is the main power supply. It is driven from an external source and is used to power the internal VCMAIN and VCAON power domains. VCC must always be present when the device is functioning; VCC is also used to power a number of pads that must be always on when the device is functioning.
AVCC	I			Analog blocks power supply. AVCC and AGND are analog supply and ground signals for the AST analog functions. They mainly serve for ADC and USB clock functionality. AVCC is expected to be driven by the same voltage regulator and have similar power availability as VCC. AVCC and AGND have dedicated package balls/pins. In the future, package pins sharing with VCC and GND may be considered based on post-silicon test results.
VCMAIN	O			Main core power, driven by internal capless voltage regulator
VCAON	O			Core voltage power for always-on domain (same voltage range as VCMAIN)
VIOA	I			IO supply, powering a set of pads. Unlike VCC, the IO supplies can be turned off by external components and the device will continue to function, the unpowered pads however, become inoperable.
VIOB	I			Same as VIOA, but for a different set of pads.
GND	I			Ground
AGND	I			Analog ground (see AVCC for further details)
Power Control and Reset
otp_power_seq_i	I	2	async	Contains the power sequencing signals coming from the OTP macro.
otp_power_seq_h_o	O	2	async	Contains the power sequencing signals going to the OTP macro (VCC domain).
flash_power_down_h_o	O	1	async	Connected to flash (VCC domain). Used for flash power management.
flash_power_ready_h_o	O	1	async	Connected to flash (VCC domain). Used for flash power management.
vcmain_pok_o	O	1	async	Main core power-exist indication. Used by the OpenTitan power manager to determine the state of the main digital supply during power up and power down sequencing.
vcaon_pok_o	O	1	async	Always-on power-exist indication. Used by the OpenTitan power manager for power-on reset root.
vioa_pok_o	O	1	async	VIOA power-exist indications. Used as a power-OK status signal.
viob_pok_o	O	1	async	VIOB power-exist indication. Used as a power-OK status signal.
por_ni	I	1	async	Power on reset input signal to AST. See Resets section for further details
main_pd_ni	I	1	aon	Power down enable for main core power 0: main core power is down (deep-sleep state) 1: main core power is up It may take up to 200 uS from this signal transition to power switching completion by AST (not including boot time and so). Note that flash must be prepared for power down before this signal is asserted.
main_iso_en_i	I	1	aon	Isolation enable for main core power (VCMAIN). This signal is fed to AST for any local power clamping needs. This signal is only valid after aon core is available, until then, VCC / AVCC components must take appropriate steps to protect themselves.
Clock Outputs
clk_src_sys_o	O	1	sys	100 MHz clock with jitter (main clock domain). Used as the main system clock.
clk_src_sys_val_o	O	1	async	System clock valid. Used as "ack" signals for the power manager (TBD - add a link)
clk_src_sys_en_i	I	1	aon	System clock enable.
clk_src_sys_jen_i	I	1	async	System clock jitter enable
clk_src_aon_o	O	1	aon	200 KHz clock for always-on domain.
clk_src_aon_val_o	O	1	async	aon clock valid
clk_src_usb_o	O	1	susb	48 MHz clock for USB. To comply with USB full speed clock specification, it supports frequency accuracy of +/-2500 ppm when usb_ref_pulse_i is available and +/-2% otherwise. It may take up to 50 ms for this clock to reach the accuracy target from the time ‘usb_ref_pulse_i’ is available. USB clock calibration interface is further detailed here.
clk_src_usb_val_o	O	1	async	USB clock valid
clk_src_usb_en_i	I	1	aon	USB clock enable
usb_ref_pulse_i	I	1	usb	USB reference pulse +/-500ppm. When valid, it is expected to pulse every 1ms.
usb_ref_val_i	I	1	usb	USB reference valid. This bit serves as a valid signal for the usb_ref_pulse_i signal. It is set to 1 after the first valid usb_ref_pulse_i event is detected and remains high as long as usb_ref_pulse_i continues to behave as expected (per usb_ref_pulse description). Once usb_ref_pulse deviates from its expected behavior, usb_ref_val_i immediately negates to 0 and remains 0 until after the next valid usb_ref_val pulse.
clk_src_io_o	O	1	io	96 MHz clock with +/-2% frequency accuracy. Used for peripherals that require a fixed frequency, for example SPI and UART
clk_src_io_val_o	O	1	async	I/O and timer clock valid. Used as "ack" signals for the power manager (TBD - add a link).
clk_src_io_en_i	I	1	aon	I/O and timer clock enable
Clock & Reset Inputs
clk_ast_adc_i	I	1	adc	ADC interface clock input
clk_ast_rng_i	I	1	rng	RNG interface clock input
clk_ast_usb_i	I	1	usb	USB reference interface clock input
clk_ast_es_i	I	1	es	Entropy source interface clock input
clk_ast_alert_i	I	1	alert	Alert interface clock input
clk_ast_tlul_i	I	1	tlul	TLUL bus interface clock input
rst_ast_adc_ni	I	1	adc	ADC interface reset (active low)
rst_ast_rng_ni	I	1	rng	RNG interface reset (active low)
rst_ast_usb_ni	I	1	usb	USB reference interface reset (active low)
rst_ast_es_ni	I	1	es	Entropy source interface reset (active low)
rst_ast_alert_ni	I	1	alert	Alert interface interface reset (active low)
rst_ast_tlul_ni	I	1	tlul	TLUL bus reference interface reset (active low)
Register Access Interface
tlul	I/O	TBD	tlul	TLUL bus interface. Mainly used for configuration, calibration and trimming. At boot time, data is copied from non-volatile storage into AST registers by the SW boot entity. This interface has no further use beyond this point. Runtime interaction with AST is performed by other signals as described in this document.
Analog modules
adc_a0_ai	I	1	async	ADC analog input channels 0 to be measured. Signal type is awire (see ana_pkg.sv)
adc_a1_ai	I	1	async	ADC analog input channels 1 to be measured. Signal type is awire (see ana_pkg.sv)
adc_d_o	O	10	adc	ADC digital data
adc_chnsel_i	I	2	adc	ADC input channel select (one hot). No more than one channel should be selected at a time. Any change in ‘adc_chnsel_i’ value must go through all ‘0’. Changing ‘adc_chnsel_i’ from ‘0’ value to non-’0’ value starts an ADC conversion.
adc_d_val_o	O	1	adc	ADC digital data valid
adc_pd_i	I	1	adc	ADC power down - for saving power during deep-sleep state between measurements. When this signal is high, ADC module is in off state, otherwise, it is in active state. A setup time of TBD must be provided from activating ADC until performing a measurement (by asserting one of adc_cs signals)
entropy_req_o	O	1	es	Request entropy from CSRNG
entropy_ack_i	I	1	es	CSRNG entropy request acknowledge
entropy_i	I	1	es	Random input from chip level.
rng_en_i	I	1	rng	Input from controller to enable RNG
rng_val_o	O	1	rng	RNG bit valid. This is a per-transaction valid. rng_b_o can be sampled whenever this bit is high.
rng_b_o	O	4	rng	RNG digital bit streams. The downstream controller of this signal should sample at the rates of 200 KHz / 100KHz / 50KHz / 25KHz / 12.5KHz (50 KHz is the target, the rest are for fallback and upside).
Countermeasures and Alerts
as_alert_po/no	O	2	alert	Active shield alert
as_alert_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
as_alert_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
cg_alert_po/no	O	2	alert	Clock glitch detector alert
cg_alert_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
cg_alert_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
gd_alert_po/no	O	2	alert	Voltage glitch detector alert
gd_alert_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
gd_alert_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
ts_alert_hi_po/no	O	2	alert	Temperature sensor alert for high temperature band
ts_alert_hi_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
ts_alert_hi_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
ts_alert_lo_po/no	O	2	alert	Temperature sensor alert for low temperature band
ts_alert_lo_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
ts_alert_lo_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
ls_alert_po/no	O	2	alert	Light sensor alert (TBD)
ls_alert_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
ls_alert_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
ot_alert_po/no	O	TBD	alert	Other alerts (TBD)
ot_alert_ack_i	I	1	alert	single pulse ack, source and destination assumed to be synchronous
ot_alert_trig_i	I	1	alert	Alert force trigger by software - connected to a chip register
Trimming Test and Debug
scan_mode_i	I	1		Scan mode indication signal. Controllable only when DFT features are enabled (Test and RMA states). Otherwise, these signals are grounded to 0.
scan_reset_ni	I	1		Scan reset
clk_ast_ext_i	I	1	async	External clock. While AST generates most of its clocks on-die, it still needs an external clock for clock calibration and first flash/OTP programming. Clock calibration: AST clock sources are inaccurate by default and must be calibrated prior to use. The results of the calibration are stored in OTP and reloaded by software upon system boot. First Flash / OTP programming: AST clock sources are inaccurate by default and may be out of range for initial flash and OTP programming. In this situation, an external clock may be required for initial programming such that a software image can be loaded to calibrate clocks and advance life cycle.
vcc_supp_i	I	1	async	VCC Supply Test. (supply indication for DV purposes). In FPGA Verilog view, the respective POK signal follows this signal. In other Verilog views this signal should be connected to constant ‘1’ and will be disconnected inside the AST.
vcmain_supp_i	I	1	async	VCMAIN Supply Test. (supply indication for DV purposes). In FPGA Verilog view, the respective POK signal follows this signal. In other Verilog views this signal should be connected to constant ‘1’ and will be disconnected inside the AST.
vcaon_supp_i	I	1	async	VCAON Supply Test. (supply indication for DV purposes). In FPGA Verilog view, the respective POK signal follows this signal. In other Verilog views this signal should be connected to constant ‘1’ and will be disconnected inside the AST.
vioa_supp_i	I	1	async	VIOA Supply Test. (supply indication for DV purposes). In FPGA Verilog view, the respective POK signal follows this signal. In other Verilog views this signal should be connected to constant ‘1’ and will be disconnected inside the AST.
viob_supp_i	I	1	async	VIOB Supply Test. (supply indication for DV purposes). In FPGA Verilog view, the respective POK signal follows this signal. In other Verilog views this signal should be connected to constant ‘1’ and will be disconnected inside the AST.
ast2pad_a_io	I/O	TBD	async	Analog debug signals. These signals should be connected directly to chip PADs. They can share PADs with functional signals but when they are used for their analog debug function, the functional I/O must be in tri-state.
padmux2ast_i	I	TBD	async	Digital debug input signals (routed to pin mux). These signals are controllable only when DFT features are enabled (Test and RMA states). Otherwise, these signals are grounded to 0.
ast2padmux_o	O	TBD	async	Digital debug output signals (routed to pin mux). These signals are only outputted when DFT features are enabled (Test and RMA states). Otherwise, these signals are grounded to 0.
usb_io_cal_o	O	32	async	USB I/O calibration and trimming
lc_root_clk_byp_i	I	4	async	External clock mux override for OTP bootstrap purposes. When this bit is set, clk_ast_ext_i serves as the io_clk clock root. Signal type is lc_tx_t (see lc_ctl_pkg.sv) On = 4'b1010; Off = 4'b0101 Note: When ‘On’, clk_src_io_o clock max frequency is limited to 50 MHz
lc_dft_en_i	I	4	async	DFT enable. Signal type is lc_tx_t (see lc_ctl_pkg.sv) On = 4'b1010; Off = 4'b0101

Interfaces Description Note

The information below augments the Interface Signals Table. For further details, see the corresponding signals description in the table.

Power Connectivity

Note: Power signals may not appear in the verilog files, however, they are described for completeness.

External Supplies

AST has four external power supplies VCC, AVCC, VIOA and VIOB. VCC is the main supply, AVCC is an analog VCC supply. VIOA and VIOB are two additional I/O supplies.

Core Supplies

The core supplies are generated from the VCC supply. These are two core supply domains: VCMAIN and VCAON. VCAON, as its name implies, is the always on core supply used to power components that stay active during device low power states. VCMAIN on the other hand, powers most chip logic such as RISC-V processor, crypto modules and almost all memories and peripherals. The VCMAIN supply can be turned off when requested, VCAON on the other hand, is active whenever VCC is active. AST core logic is powered by VCAON.

Power Control and Reset

Core Power Control and Indication

VCMAIN is the only supply that can be directly influenced by OpenTitan. The power manager can request VCMAIN to shutdown through main_pd_n. The state of VCMAIN is reflected by the vcmain_pok_o signal.

IO Power Indication

IO power state is reflected to OpenTitan by vioa_pok_o and viob_pok_o signals

Main (VCC) Power Detection and Flash Protection

On VCC power-down detection, ‘flash_power_ready_h_o’, ‘vcaon_pok_o’ and ‘vcmain_pok_o’ are immediately negated. This means that negation of the VCC supply always triggers the flash brown-out (BOR) protection circuitry.

When entering deep-sleep mode, ‘flash_power_down_h_o’ is asserted before negating VCMAIN until VCMAIN is back up.

Resets

The AST supports the generation of the root reset for the reset manager. It is driven by ‘vcaon_pok_o’ which is generated inside AST. The ‘vcaon_pok_o’ is activated when the following conditions are met: VCC is detected, internal voltage regulator is active and ‘por_ni’ reset input is inactive. ‘por_ni’ is driven by an external chip reset pin. The following table and diagrams describe the AST sub-modules resets.

Components	Reset by	Comments
Regulators, ‘power-OK’ logic and always-on clock	self-restart / tlul-reset**	tlul-reset is driven by ‘rst_ast_tlul_ni’ signal. ‘tlul-reset**’ means that in this case, it does not cause a full restart, but calibration and trimming values are lost. The affected module is designed to withstand such loss of calibration without causing harmful transition effects. However, from that point, the module is in its default uncalibrated configuration until re-calibrated by the boot code (as in regular boot). When uncalibrated, the always-on clock frequency is 200 kHz ~+/-30% (TBD)
Calibration trimming and other registers	tlul-reset
System/USB/IO clock generators	vcmain_pok_o / tlul-reset**	vcmain_pok_o is also fed by vcaon_pok_o and por_ni. After reset, clocks are not calibrated and have no jitter until configured by the booter. Until that point, their clock frequency range is -10% ~ -60% (TBD) of the target frequency.
Other interface functions	Input reset / tlul-reset**	Per the corresponding interface clock domain reset input.

Clock Outputs

AST generates four clocks: System clock, IO clock, USB clock and Always-on clock. Most clocks have ‘enable’ inputs and a corresponding ‘valid’ output. When the enable is de-asserted, the corresponding clock stops and valid is dropped to 0. When the enable is asserted, the clocks begin outputting in a “glitchless” manner and the valid is raised to 1. Unless noted otherwise, clocks duty cycle is 50% +/-5%.

The OpenTitan power and clock managers are responsible for manipulating the enables and observing the valids to know when clocks can be safely released to the system.

USB Clock Calibration

The USB clock requires an accuracy that cannot be achieved by the AST clocks natively. As a result, information from USB frames are used to calibrate the clock.

Clock & Reset Inputs

The root clocks and resets are generated inside AST. However, the clocks go through gating and optional division in the OpenTitan top level and propagate back into AST as feedback clocks, each with associated synchronized reset to ensure it can synchronize with the various comportable modules. The input resets are used for the different AST interface functions. For further details about AST resets, see Resets section.

Note: There are several reason for routing leaf clocks back into AST instead of using the root clocks directly

The leaf clocks may be divided down from the root clock and that frequency is used to drive the interface. For example, clk_src_io_clk_o is 96MHz, but comportable modules use either 48MHz or 24MHz.
The leaf clocks and root clocks have very different clock tree depths and may be difficult for timing closure if they interacted directly.
Decouple AST internal design from OpenTitan top-level interfaces clock and reset selection.

Register Access Interface

AST registers can be accessed via TL-UL interface. These registers are used for test and calibration purposes and are not required for runtime operation. See the Interface Signals Table for more details.

ADC

AST contains an analog to digital converter that can be used to sample various input signals. For OpenTitan this will primarily be used for debug cable detection. To activate the ADC, the corresponding comportable module must first select the channel to sample, and then activate the ADC through `adc_pd_i`. Once activated, the ADC will produce an output synchronous to the adc controller.

ADC Usage Flow

Activate the ADC by negating ‘adc_pd_i’
Wait 30 uS for the ADC to wake up.
Select an analog channel to measure by setting the corresponding bit in ‘adc_chnsel_i’ bus. This triggers a measurement.
Wait unitl ‘adc_d_val’ is set and read the result via ‘adc_d_o’
Clear ‘adc_chnsel_i’ bus to 0. Note that adc_chnsel must be cleared to 0 before a new channel is selected.
Repeat steps 3-5 if more channels or more measurements are required
Deactivate the ADC by setting ‘adc_pd’ to save power.

https://wavedrom.com/editor.html

{signal: [ {node: ‘.a..b……..’, phase:0.2},

{name: ‘adc_pd_i’ , wave: ‘10|..|…..|….|..1’},

{name: ‘clk_ast_adc_i’, wave: ‘p.|..|…..|….|…'},

{name: ‘adc_chnsel_i’ , wave: ‘0.|.3|..04.|….|0..'},

{name: ‘adc_d_val_o’ , wave: ‘0.|..|.1.0.|.1..|.0.'},

{name: ‘adc_d_o’ , wave: ‘x.|..|.3.x.|.4..|.x.’, data: [‘ch0’, ‘ch1’, ‘ch1’]},

],edge: [ ‘a<->b wakeup time’, ] }

Random Number Generator

AST contains a random number generator that outputs random number bitstreams whenever it is enabled. After enabled by the comportable controller through ‘rng_en_i’, the AST begins generating multiple independent four random bit streams. rng_b_o bit streams are valid and can be sampled whenever `rng_val_o` is asserted according to the following diagram.

The expected rng_b_o valid output rate is about 50KHz.

Entropy Consumption

AST consumes entropy for defensive purposes. However, AST does not consume its raw entropy directly. Instead, AST receives entropy from the CSRNG. The details of this interface are still under discussion.

{signal: [

{name: ‘clk_ast_es_i’ , wave: ‘p.|……….'},

{name: ‘entropy_req_o’ , wave: ‘01|.0.1…..0’},

{name: ‘entropy_ack_i’ , wave: ‘0.|10.1.01..0’},

{name: ‘entropy_i’ , wave: ‘xx|2x.22x222x’},

] }

Countermeasures and Alerts

Alert Events

AST’s sensors and detectors, when triggered, output alert events to a sensor controller. The event signals are level until acknowledged by the controller. Further, the events are differentially encoded to ensure they cannot be hard-wired or faulted to either ‘1’ or ‘0’.

Inside the sensor controller, the events are then converted into alerts as part of the wider OpenTitan alert handling system.

Alert Signaling

Outgoing alert events are level. Incoming event ack signals clear the alert event (similar to an interrupt). Outgoing alert events should be OR’d inside the sensor or power manager (depending on what level of deep sleep support is needed) to generate wakeup, that way AST does not need to do any additional handling for wakeups during low power mode.

Countermeasures

Most countermeasure enablement is controlled by Nuvoton via the registers interface. Clock jitter is an exception because there is a reasoning for dynamically turning it on and off (security/performance tradeoff). Unless stated otherwise, countermeasures are active in all modes but deep-sleep.