On-line task management for a reconfigurable cryptographic architecture

The increasing amount of programmable logic provided by modern FPGAs makes it possible to execute multiple hardware applications on the same device. This approach is reinforced by dynamic reconfiguration, which allows a single part of the device to be configured with a single hardware module. The proposed solution is a Linux-based operating system to manage on-demand module configuration on an FPGA while providing a set of high-level abstractions to user applications. The proposed approach has been validated in a cryptographic context using the DES and the AES algorithms.