Patent ID: 7724898

Claim:
A cryptographic apparatus comprising: a key source; and an odd-characteristic finite-field cryptographic unit coupled to the key source, said cryptographic unit comprising a single general purpose binary w-bit register, wherein the odd-characteristic finite-field cryptographic unit is configured to store binary data representing a field element of an odd-characteristic finite field GF(p k ) in said w-bit register where w is greater than or equal to k(m+1) and m is the logarithm to base 2 of p, rounded up to the nearest integer, p being an odd prime number, the field element comprising a plurality of k coefficients in accordance with a polynomial-basis representation, the binary data comprising plural groups of data bits, wherein each group of data bits represents an associated one of the a plurality of k coefficients, and process the stored binary data in the register, wherein the processing operation always operates on all bits of the single hardware register simultaneously and in parallel, in accordance with a cryptographic algorithm such that the plural groups of data bits are processed in parallel.