Scalable and Extensible Architecture for Asymmetrical Cryptographic Acceleration

摘要

Systems and methods for providing asymmetrical cryptographic acceleration are provided. The scalable asymmetric cryptographic accelerator engine uses a layered approach based on the collaboration of firmware and hardware to perform a specific cryptographic operation. Upon receipt of a request for a cryptographic function, the system accesses a sequence of operations required to perform the requested function. A micro code sequence is prepared for each hardware operation and sent to the hardware module. The micro code sequence includes a set of load instructions, a set of data processing instructions, and a set of unload instructions. An instruction may include a register operand having a register type and a register index. Upon receipt of a load instruction, the hardware module updates size information in a content addressable memory for a register included in the instruction. The hardware module continuously monitors the content addressable memory to avoid buffer overflow or underflow conditions.