APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CALCULATING A SHA-2 HASH FUNCTION IN A GENERAL PURPOSE PROCESSOR

摘要

The invention relates to a general purpose processor comprising an execution unit (2) adapted for performing a processor instruction, whereby the execution unit (2) comprises an integrated circuit and the integrated circuit is solely designed for calculating a SHA-2 sigma function (1). As such calculation of the SHA-2 sigma function (1) can be performed by the integrated circuit with a single instruction, the method according to the invention allows for a less costly calculation of the SHA-2 sigma function (1) respectively of the SHA-2 function than prior art.