(M)PSD: PORTUNUS

Progress in the development of cryptographic methods that are resistant to quantum computers is progressing rapidly. The number of cryptographic algorithms has increased steadily in recent years. This increase is due to various events, including in particular the process initiated by NIST to identify post-quantum algorithms. In addition, there is a large number of variants of cryptographic algorithms and cryptographic libraries.

For efficient, practical use, a triad must be harmonized between cryptographers who develop PQC algorithms, experts for platform integration who implement these algorithms on the hardware and software developers who want to use them. The partners at TU Darmstadt and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences are working on this topic in the PORTUNUS project.

In the context of this topic, TU Darmstadt is dedicated to the theoretical question of how emerging PQC algorithms can be accelerated more effectively. Furthermore, the TU Darmstadt is also researching a practical implementation in the form of a hardware-related implementation. This essentially involves the development of Multi-Level Intermediate Representation (MLIR) compiler optimizations for CPU, GPU, ASICs and FPGAs.

On the other Hand, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences is developing a platform for integrating these compiler-optimized algorithms. For this purpose, an API is being developed that enables flexible and user-friendly use of these algorithms under the specified cryptographic requirements.

The specific goal of our project is to create a framework that provides the programmer with access to the underlying algorithms via an intermediate layer. The framework hides the hardware details and allows even inexperienced programmers to use post-quantum cryptography easily and securely. The programmer only specifies what he wants to do, e.g. encrypt data. The selection of the specific algorithm and the security parameters is done automatically in the intermediate layer.