This capability is especially vital because many existing NSA cryptography algorithms are nearing the end of their usefulness as computing advances increase the likelihood of their being solved by code breakers. The company invested 10 years of independent research and development effort in programmable cryptography, a problem that NSA had been working on for some time. Harrison explains that this development allowed the establishment of a secure operating system embedded in the chip. This operating system permits isolating multiple programs, or even tasks within programs, to run different algorithms simultaneously without unwanted interaction among them. This capability is key to running multiple levels of security using programmable cryptography.
Peacock describes several key elements that enabled development of the system.
Foremost is the growth in semiconductor technology that permitted placing 8 million transistors on a single chip. While this VLSI chip does not represent the state of the art, it nonetheless is an advance over previous capabilities. Harrison describes this chip as a multiprocessing environment featuring numerous processors oriented toward specific functions. Individual processing resources within the chip address three items, and these engines are independent and can run concurrently. One, the key management cryptographic engine, is responsible for overall control and all key management functions necessary for cryptography.