CryptoManiac: a fast flexible architecture for secure communication

TLDR: The CryptoManiac processor is introduced, a fast and flexible co-processor for cryptographic workloads that rivals a state-of-the-art dedicated hardware implementation of the 3DES (triple DES) algorithm, while retaining the flexibility to simultaneously support multiple cipher algorithms.

Abstract: The growth of the Internet as a vehicle for secure communication and electronic commerce has brought cryptographic processing performance to the forefront of high throughput system design. This trend will be further underscored with the widespread adoption of secure protocols such as secure IP (IPSEC) and virtual private networks (VPNs).In this paper, we introduce the CryptoManiac processor, a fast and flexible co-processor for cryptographic workloads. Our design is extremely efficient; we present analysis of a 0.25um physical design that runs the standard Rijndael cipher algorithm 2.25 times faster than a 600MHz Alpha 21264 processor. Moreover, our implementation requires 1/100th the area and power in the same technology. We demonstrate that the performance of our design rivals a state-of-the-art dedicated hardware implementation of the 3DES (triple DES) algorithm, while retaining the flexibility to simultaneously support multiple cipher algorithms. Finally, we define a scalable system architecture that combines CryptoManiac processing elements to exploit inter-session and inter-packet parallelism available in many communication protocols. Using I/O traces and detailed timing simulation, we show that chip multiprocessor configurations can effectively service high throughput applications including secure web and disk I/O processing.