Abstract Aiming at the problem that the core chips of domestic relay protection devices currently rely on foreign imports, State Grid Corporation of China has proposed the concept of special chips for relay protection. In this paper, an integrated differential protection technology for a special chip for relay protection is studied. The field-programmable gate array-based hardware platform covers all the differential protection links: local-side current Analog-digital sampling, current fast fourier trans- formation, opposite-side current synchronization interface, and differential protection logic. As long as the special chip for relay protection is equipped with corresponding peripheral devices, the differential protection function can be realized without relying on the application software platform, reducing the difficulty of developing relay protection application programs, and having the advantages of high reliability and easy maintenance.