Patent ID: 8850223

Claim:
An apparatus for a blade server, comprising: (a) a controller that enables the operation of an application; (b) a hardware-based accelerator that performs at least one cryptographic operation on a request provided by the application, wherein the accelerator provides the application with a result of a cryptographic operation; (c) a toolkit that enables determining whether to perform off-loading to the hardware-based accelerator of the at least one cryptographic operation based in part on a complexity of the cryptographic operation and providing results for a plurality of such requests provided by the application; (d) an integrated device electronics (IDE) interface that enables the application to communicate over a bus on a chassis, wherein at least a portion of the communication between the application and a resource includes information that is employed in the cryptographic operation; and (e) a card that is configured to operate as a server, wherein the card includes at least the accelerator, the controller, and a hard disk emulator that are in communication with each other over a direct bus on the card separate from the bus on the chassis, wherein the controller includes a master driver that enables communication over the direct bus between the application operating in the controller and the hard disk emulator and a slave driver that enables communication over the direct bus between the application operating in the controller and the accelerator, and wherein the controller is coupled between the direct bus and the IDE interface, wherein integrated operation of the application with the accelerator causes an increase in the performance of at least one cryptographic operation for the application.