[Cryptech Tech] NaCL in hardware

[Peter Stuge]

Hi,

Pavel Shatov wrote:
> in nowadays FPGAs we have dedicated hardware multipliers, that come
> at no cost. Yes, they are vendor-specific, and I obviously cannot
> decide for the whole team, whether we can use them or not. But my
> personal view is that as long as we clearly document, that in this 
> particular module we are using vendor-specific multiplier, and
> provide generic replacement module for simulation, it's OK.

I don't think it's OK at all to restrict the usefulness of cryptech
modules so severely, making it impossible to use them with any other
hardware than one particular hardware from one particular vendor.

In fact it seems to me to go directly against the reusability goal.


> As I see it, we have slightly different target, at least in the
> nearest future. Please correct me, if I'm wrong.

I disagree about restricting usability but that aside, I agree with
your analysis of applicability of NaCl in hardware for cryptech.


Peter Schwabe wrote:
> I could ask around whether a student would be interested in
> optimizing it for your specific needs (high throughput, exactly
> the FPGA you're using etc.).

This doesn't seem worthwhile, because cryptech wants to develop
highly reusable modules.

Now, of course there is nothing wrong with having *both* a generic
slower module *and* a faster vendor-specific module, but I strongly
disagree with restricting cryptech modules to any single vendor, even
if it's a vendor I happen to like.


//Peter