A silicon-hardened digital signature engine implementing NIST FIPS 204 across all three security levels. Shared architecture with ML-KEM for optimal area in combined quantum-safe deployments.
Full support for ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, and ML-DSA-87 covering NIST Category 2, 3, and 5 security levels. Runtime-selectable without hardware changes.
Comprehensive countermeasures including masking, operand shuffling, redundant computation checks, and constant-time rejection sampling to resist advanced physical attacks.
Common processing engines with the ML-KEM-768 Accelerator reduce combined silicon area by up to 40% when both key encapsulation and signatures are deployed together.
The ML-DSA Signature Engine is a dedicated hardware accelerator for the NIST FIPS 204 Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm. It provides quantum-safe digital signatures through a purpose-built silicon datapath that handles key generation, signing, and verification entirely in hardware.
The engine shares its core processing components with the ML-KEM-768 Accelerator. In combined deployments where both key encapsulation and digital signatures are required, this shared architecture yields significant area savings without sacrificing performance.
ML-DSA uses a sophisticated signing paradigm that may internally retry to ensure signatures never leak information about the secret key. The hardware engine implements this process with constant-time behavior, executing the same number of cycles regardless of internal retries. Hedged signing combines deterministic and randomized approaches for defense-in-depth.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Algorithm | ML-DSA (FIPS 204) |
| Security Levels | Category 2 / 3 / 5 |
| Variants | ML-DSA-44 / 65 / 87 |
| Public Key | 1,312 – 2,592 bytes |
| Signature Size | 2,420 – 4,627 bytes |
| Interface | Standard bus interface |
| Target Clock | 80 MHz |
| Parameter | ML-DSA-44 | ML-DSA-65 | ML-DSA-87 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIST Security Level | Category 2 | Category 3 | Category 5 |
| Public Key Size | 1,312 bytes | 1,952 bytes | 2,592 bytes |
| Secret Key Size | 2,560 bytes | 4,032 bytes | 4,896 bytes |
| Signature Size | 2,420 bytes | 3,309 bytes | 4,627 bytes |
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Interface | Standard register-mapped bus interface |
| Data Width | 32 bits |
| Target Clock Frequency | 80 MHz |
| Target Throughput | ~15,000 sign/sec (ML-DSA-44) |
| Key Generation Latency | ~0.2 ms @ 80 MHz |
| Signing Latency | ~0.5 ms @ 80 MHz (average) |
| Verification Latency | ~0.2 ms @ 80 MHz |
| Verification | NIST Known Answer Test vectors |
| Configuration | Area Benefit |
|---|---|
| Standalone ML-DSA | Baseline |
| ML-DSA + ML-KEM (shared engines) | ~40% reduction in shared logic |
| ML-DSA + ML-KEM (fully shared) | ~55% reduction in common components |
The ML-DSA Signature Engine replaces classical RSA and ECDSA signatures with quantum-safe alternatives, protecting firmware integrity, certificate hierarchies, and authentication tokens against future quantum attacks. With 15,000+ signatures per second, it meets the throughput demands of high-volume signing operations in cloud, enterprise, and embedded deployments.
Choose the integration level that matches your design requirements.
Complete source with verification suite, driver library, and comprehensive documentation. Includes shared architecture configuration for ML-KEM co-deployment. Maximum flexibility for any target technology.
Optimized for target technology with timing models and physical abstractions. Pre-characterized for 80 MHz operation. Includes shared configuration for combined ML-KEM deployment.
Fully validated physical implementation with complete signoff documentation. Available standalone or as a combined ML-DSA + ML-KEM macro with shared engines for maximum area efficiency.
Security cores for complete quantum-safe deployments.
Contact our team for evaluation access, product documentation, or custom integration support for your quantum-safe signature requirements.