Enhancing an Embedded Processor Core with a Cryptographic Unit for Performance and Security

We present a set of low-cost architectural enhancements to accelerate the execution of certain arithmetic operations common in cryptographic applications on an extensible embedded processor core. The proposed enhancements are generic in the sense that they can be beneficially applied in almost any RISC processor. We implemented the enhancements in form of a cryptographic unit (CU) that offers the programmer an extended instruction set. The CU features a 128-bit wide register file and datapath, which enables it to process 128-bit words and perform 128-bit loads/stores. We analyze the speed-up factors for some arithmetic operations and public-key cryptographic algorithms obtained through these enhancements. In addition, we evaluate the hardware overhead (i.e. silicon area) of integrating the CU into an embedded RISC processor. Our experimental results show that the proposed architectural enhancements allow for a significant performance gain for both RSA and ECC at the expense of an acceptable increase in silicon area. We also demonstrate that the proposed enhancements facilitate the protection of cryptographic algorithms against certain types of side-channel attacks and present an AES implementation hardened against cache-based attacks as a case study

Epoch, Epistemology and the Virtual Organization

This paper engages with contemporary discussions of ?the virtual organization?. Starting with some influential accounts that were published in the 1990s, the paper highlights the continued significance of control ration alities in the increasingly dispersed and disaggregated organizations of the advanced industrial societies. The paper also takes issue with the ?epochalist? tendency to equate virtuality with the ?end of organization?, and it puts the case for a more historically situated view of technology in ?post bureaucratic? or ?virtualised? organizational settings

Hardware Security of the Controller Area Network (CAN Bus)

The CAN bus is a multi-master network messaging protocol that is a standard across the vehicular industry to provide intra-vehicular communications. Electronics Control Units within vehicles use this network to exchange critical information to operate the car. With the advent of the internet nearly three decades ago, and an increasingly inter-connected world, it is vital that the security of the CAN bus be addressed and built up to withstand physical and non-physical intrusions with malicious intent. Specifically, this paper looks at the concept of node identifiers and how they allow the strengths of the CAN bus to shine while also increasing the level of security provided at the data-link level

Julia: A Fresh Approach to Numerical Computing

Bridging cultures that have often been distant, Julia combines expertise from the diverse fields of computer science and computational science to create a new approach to numerical computing. Julia is designed to be easy and fast. Julia questions notions generally held as "laws of nature" by practitioners of numerical computing: 1. High-level dynamic programs have to be slow. 2. One must prototype in one language and then rewrite in another language for speed or deployment, and 3. There are parts of a system for the programmer, and other parts best left untouched as they are built by the experts. We introduce the Julia programming language and its design --- a dance between specialization and abstraction. Specialization allows for custom treatment. Multiple dispatch, a technique from computer science, picks the right algorithm for the right circumstance. Abstraction, what good computation is really about, recognizes what remains the same after differences are stripped away. Abstractions in mathematics are captured as code through another technique from computer science, generic programming. Julia shows that one can have machine performance without sacrificing human convenience.Comment: 37 page

From M-form to N-form: The Structure of Multinational Corporations

The purpose of this study is to map, illuminate and explain the recent development of the strategies, structure and control of multinational corporations. The aim is to identify crucial problems in managing and organizing multinational corporations and describe what sort of approaches are used and proposed to solve these problems. This is a literature study where an inventory and critical examination of the recent research on the strategies, structure and control of multinational corporations. The emphasis in the study is on research carried out in the last ten years. It starts out with a summary of the early research on multinational corporations, proceeds to an analysis of the process school, and ends up with a discussion about organizing international operations from a network perspective.MNC; multinational structure; international; strategy; transnational; subsidiary; global