Intel EP80579 Benutzerhandbuch

Intel

®

 EP80579 Software for Security Applications on Intel

®

 QuickAssist Technology

PG

August 2009

28

Order Number: 320183-004US

Prime number testing can gain a performance improvement through parallelism of the 

requests sent through the Cryptographic API. For example, if 30 Miller-Rabin rounds 

are required, then issuing two 15 round Miller-Rabin requests would be an optimal 

usage of the Cryptographic API.

Lookaside provides an interface to perform modular exponentiation and modular 

inversion functions. These are grouped together under the “Large Number” Category. 

These can be used as primitives for other cryptographic protocols. Large number 

operations are supported for all sizes up to a maximum of 4096 bits.

• Modular Exponentiation

Modular exponentiation involves taking an integer (the base), raising it to the power of 

another integer (the exponent) and then calculating the remainder left when this 

number is divided by the modulus. We calculate result = base

 mod modulus. 

The RSA and Diffie-Hellman operations both use specialized modular exponentiation 

which are optimized for those particular cases. For all other cases the “Large Number” 

implementation should be used.

• Modular  Inversion

Modular inversion involves taking an integer (typically referred to as pA), inverting it 

(i.e. calculating 1/pA), and then calculating the remainder left when this number is 

divided by the modulus (typically referred to as pB). We calculate result = (1/pA) mod 

pB. This mod inv operation is generic and can be used by any application.

The EP80579 integrated processor provides a Deterministic Random Bit Generator 

(DRBG) capability. Random numbers are used in many aspects of cryptography (for 

example as an initial IV for a cipher in CBC mode) and in the generation of prime 

numbers. Random number generation in combination with Primality testing can be 

used to create key material. 

This feature can generate random bits that conform with the ANSI X9.82 part 1 

specification.