aqCRC is a tool designed to provide simple, portable CRC
implementations in C for a variety of CRC types. You can select from a
list of known CRCs or specify the settings of the CRC to be
implemented.
Select from one of the tab to generate an implementation, calculate a
CRC, or view project information.
Why aqCRC?
There are hundreds of CRCs in use in many different applications, and
several ways to do implementation. Often
there is a need to implement a specific CRC and rather than searching
for that implementation or writing your own, aqCRC can be used. This
site can generate C-code for all CRCs up to 64-bits in length.
For new applications is is often difficult to know which CRC should be
used. What size should it be? There are differences between
polynomials of the same size, so what is the better polynomial? In
the future aqCRC will be able to assist in picking the best CRC for an
application to help people designing new protocols pick a CRC suited
for the application specifics.
The author, Andrew Que, is an embedded programmer and created this
site because of how often the need arose for needed a specific CRC and
no single tool to fulfill this need.
What is a CRC?
Cyclic Redundancy Check or CRC is a very common method used to check
for errors in a data set. It is a small code typically added to the
end of a message or record that can be easily compute from the data
of the message.
There are two common places CRCs are used: data transmission and data
storage. In both cases, the CRC is used to make sure the data wasn't
inadvertently changed by the transport layer or storage medium. This
can happen through interference (such as RF), faulty hardware,
soft errors and the like.
CRCs can be used as a hashing
function although there are faster functions.
While CRCs could detect intentional data corruption they are easily
defeated. This is because CRCs are easy to recalculate and an
attacker could simply change the message and apply a new CRC, or make
a message that results in the same CRC. Thus CRC cannot serve the role
of cryptographic
hashes.
CRCs also do not indicate anything about the error like
Error
Correcting Codes (ECC)—only that there was an error.
For details about how a CRC actually works try the Wikepedia
article.
CRC Selection
CRC Selection Information
A CRC method consists of several parameters, and all are
required to implement the exact method named. It is not enough
just to have the CRC polynomial as there are still several ways
the implementation can use the polynomial.
Polynomial
The generator polynomial is the heart of the CRC. This
polynomial is chosen based on properties suited for the CRC
application. This includes items such as message length,
Hamming distance (number of bit errors the CRC will detect)
and the type of errors considered likely for the
application. CRCs are not cryptographic hashes and can
easily be faked. The errors they are meant to detect are
typically those encountered during data transmission or
degradation of storage medium. CRCs are not correcting code
and can only denote there was an error, but they contain no
information about correcting such errors.
The polynomial is always specified with the most-significant
bit implied. For example, CRC-4/G-704 has the generator
polynomial x3+x+1, but the binary
value is declared 0011 (0x3).
Thus the Bits field is set to 4 and
the Polynomial set to 0x3.
Initial/finial
The initial value is the CRC state before any data is
shifted into the CRC, and the finial value is a value the
CRC is XORed with after all data has been clocked in. They
are usually all zeros or all ones and don’t have to
match one another.
Nonzero values are used because the a stream of all zeros
into the CRC will generate zero regardless of length.
Starting the shift register with a non- zero value ensures a
unique CRC for a stream of zeros. The finial XOR can be used
to undo this initial value. For example, an 8-bit CRC that
has initial value of 0xFF, no data clocked into it, and
XORed by a finial value of 0xFF will be 0x00.
Reflection
Reflection has to do with the direction data is clocked in
and out of the shift register. There is input reflection and
output reflection. When input reflection is false, data is
clocked into the CRC most significant to least significant
bit, and least-significant to most-significant bit when
true. Output reflection reverses the bit order of CRC
output. Usually input and output reflection match one
another, but it is not required. When they do only the way
data is clocked into the CRC needs to be changed. If they do
not, a finial bit reversal may be required.
CRC method
There are two methods of selecting a CRC. The first is by
choosing from a list of common CRCs. The other is by entering
the specifics about the CRC into the fields. Either method
will allow creation of a C implementation of that CRC, and the
CRC to be calculated on a set of data.
CRC Calculation
CRC Calculation Information
The selected CRC can be calculated on a set of data. This data
can be text, or from a file. The calculation is done using
Javascript on the local machine. While not extremely fast, the
it can allow CRC settings to be verified.
Upload file
Input data type
When entering data into the Input data area, there
are three input data modes. The two line endings types are
needed when trying to match the CRC of a text file that is
copied into the input data area. By default, browsers use
Linux/Unix style line feeds which means the CRC from a
Windows/DOS machine will not match.
The other data type allows data to be entered in
hexadecimal. Entry must always be on byte boundaries (8-
bits). White space is ignored. Data may contain the
proceeding "0x".
Output data format
The output is typically display as a hex value, which is
written most-significant byte to least-significant byte (big
endian). However, the bytes can be swapped and display
least-significant byte to most- significant (little endian).
Some protocols (such as ModBus RTU) store the CRC in little
endian format.
CRC Implementation
CRC Implementation
A C-implementation of the CRC is provided for CRCs 64-bits or
less.
Although there are CRCs larger then 64-bits, this site currently
only has implementations for single-word CRCs. Calculations
using large CRCs can still be performed, but no source code
generation. Should this become a popular request I may implement
it.
Table method
Look-up tables greatly improve the speed at which CRCs can be
generated. However, they take up memory which can be an issue
on embedded devices.
The no tables method requires the least amount of memory for
doing CRC calculations, but is the slowest. Data must be
clocked in one bit at a time. Small embedded microprocessors
(such as Arduino's Atmel) need this method. Because of inline
code the no tables method requires no C file.
Static tables are the most common way to implement CRCs and also
the fastest. It requires a pre-computed table compiled into the
source code. This table is always 256 words in side, and the
word size is the nearest word size to the CRC bit size. 8-bit
CRCs have a word size of 1 byte, 16-bits a word size of 2.
However, 24-bit CRCs have a word size of 4 because the closest
integer size is 32-bits. Similarly, a 12-bit CRC has a 16-bit
words size, and a 21-bit CRC a 32-bit word, and 40-bit CRC a 64-
bit word.
Tables cannot be used for CRCs less than 8-bits. This has to do
with how the bits of the CRC are fed back into the CRC. In
theory, smaller tables could be used in combination with manual
bit operations, but in practice it is easier just to manually
clock all the bits without a table.
Dynamic tables do not store the tables in source, but compute
the tables. This allows the table memory to be released back to
the system. Once the tables are generated this method is as
fast as static tables.
Header File
C File
This site is designed and maintained by Andrew Que. The list of CRC type
(names in particular) is derived CRC RevEng.
This site uses the RequireJS
AMD framework and implements both dynamic CRC source code generation
as well as live CRC calculation. The library to do CRC calculations is
functional but isn't recommended for projects outside this
site—there are better libraries for that.
All C code (header and source) are generated dynamically. However,
all the named CRCs have had their C implementation compiled and
checked using a PhantomJS
automated test system. Code is compiled using the GNU C compiler
on a Linux host. C code is strict C99 compliant and should be
very portable. Compilation will function with maximum warning
level:
Leave some feedback if you like and share your experiences with the
site. Your comments are visible to all. This is not a support
form. If you need help, see the contacts page.
The comment system supports some limited
Markdown.
The generated source code from this site has no license (i.e. public
domain) and can be used in whatever manner one chooses. It would
be nice if the link back to this site is maintained in the generated C
files. Although the C code is tested and efforts have been made to
ensure it is functional, the "AS IS" clause of the license text below
applies to the generated code.
The custom Javascript libraries used to build this site are all open
under the MIT
license. The remaining libraries are covered by their respective
licenses.
Copyright 2019 Andrew Que
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.