Patent ID: 7362859

Claim:
A method of enhancing throughput of a multi-stage pipelined encryption/decryption engine for an encryption/decryption process when used with an encryption/decryption mode of operation requiring feedback around the pipelined engine, the method comprising steps of: aggregating together multiple security contexts and establishing an entry in a bank of initial variables for each context, there being at least as many encryption/decryption security context identifiers as a predetermined number of stages in the encryption/decryption process; receiving, for input to the multi-stage pipelined encryption/decryption engine, a source datablock for a given encryption/decryption security context identifier; indexing according to the encryption/decryption security context identifier into the bank of initial variables to retrieve an initial variable for the source datablock, the bank comprising a plurality of initial variables for each encryption/decryption security context identifier; generating an output datablock from the source datablock and its corresponding initial variable; replacing the initial variable in the bank of initial variables with a new seed, as determined by a selected mode of operation, for the security context identifier; and wherein the mode of operation of the encryption/decryption process requires feedback around the encryption/decryption engine; and wherein the pipelined encryption/decryption engine is Cipher Block Chaining Mode with exception of handling of initial variables.