Hardware accelerators to perform RSA operations

Using software for Rivest-Shamir-Adelman (RSA) operations (which are commonly used in public key cryptography) limits the number of operations that can be performed to the tens-per second-range. Hardware acceleration allows a system to perform up to several thousand RSA operations per second.

The z/TPF system supports the following hardware accelerators (also known as adjunct processors):
  • Crypto Express2 card running in accelerator mode (CEX2A)
  • Crypto Express3 card running in accelerator mode (CEX3A)
  • Crypto Express4S card running in accelerator mode (CEX4A)
  • Crypto Express5S card running in accelerator mode (CEX5A)
  • Crypto Express6S card running in accelerator mode (CEX6A)
  • Crypto Express7S card running in accelerator mode (CEX7A)
  • Crypto Express8S card running in accelerator mode (CEX8A)
Note: Contact IBM Software Support to determine the type of cryptographic cards that are supported by your processor and the version of z/VM® required to run the z/TPF system as a z/VM guest using specific cryptographic cards.