The Helion Modular Exponentiation core performs the Z = YE mod M computation which is at the heart of many commonly used Public-Key encryption schemes such as RSA, Diffie-Hellman, ElGamal, and the Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) described in FIPS 186-2. These algorithms provide the strong encryption to facilitate key exchange and certificate-based authentication for communication protocols such as TLS/SSL and IPsec which are widely used for securing transactions over open networks such as the Internet.
Modular Exponentiation is an extremely CPU intensive computation which can present a significant overhead for embedded systems when these Public-Key algorithms are implemented in software. The Helion ModExp core has been designed to be highly efficient in ASIC, and to provide an easy to use and resource efficient means to perform hardware acceleration for applications which require a cryptographic key exchange.
