Zodiac: System architecture implementation for a high-performance Network Security Processor

The last few years have seen many significant progresses in the field of application-specific processors. One exemplar is Network Security Processors (NSPs) that perform various cryptographic operations specified by network security protocols and help to offload the computation intensive burdens from Network Processors (NPs). This paper proposes a high-performance NSP intended for both IPSec and SSL protocols acceleration. With a programmable descriptor-based instruction set architecture, the novel design of system architecture leads to a Gbps rate NSP named Zodiac, which is programmable with domain specific instructions for Gbps throughput IPSec and SSL applications. Synthesized with a 0.18 μm CMOS technology, the peak throughput of IPSec ESP tunnel mode can reach up to 1.651 Gbps and over 1000 full SSL handshakes per second are attainable.