Single-Cycle Bit Permutations with MOMR Execution

Secure computing paradigms impose new architectural challenges for general-purpose processors. Cryptographic processing is needed for secure communications, storage, and computations. We identify two categories of operations in symmetric-key and public-key cryptographic algorithms that are not common in previous general-purpose workloads: advanced bit operations within a word and multi-word operations. We define MOMR (Multiple Operands Multiple Results) execution or datarich execution as a unified solution to both challenges. It allows arbitrary n-bit permutations to be achieved in one or two cycles, rather than O(n) cycles as in existing RISC processors. It also enables significant acceleration of multiword multiplications needed by public-key ciphers. We propose two implementations of MOMR: one employs only hardware changes while the other uses Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) support. We show that MOMR execution leverages available resources in typical multi-issue processors with minimal additional cost. Multi-issue processors enhanced with MOMR units provide additional speedup over standard multi-issue processors with the same datapath. MOMR is a general architectural solution for word-oriented processor architectures to incorporate datarich operations.