High-Speed Computation of CRC Codes for FPGAs

Cyclic Redundancy Check, CRC, FPGA, Ethernet, high-speed networks

As the throughput of networks and memory interfaces is on a constant rise, there is a need for ever-faster error-detecting codes. Cyclic redundancy checks (CRC) are a common and widely used to ensure consistency or detect accidental changes of data. We propose a novel FPGA architecture for the computation of the CRC designed for general high-speed data transfers. Its key feature is allowing a processing of multiple independent data packets (transactions) in each clock cycle, what is a necessity for achieving high overall throughput on very wide data buses. Experimental results confirm that the proposed architecture reaches an effective throughput sufficient for utilization in multi-terabit Ethernet networks (over 2 Tbps or over 3000 Mpps) on a single Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGA.