Lightweight cryptographic engine

An apparatus comprising:

• a lightweight cryptographic engine (LCE) embodied in one or more integrated circuits, wherein the LCE is to implement functional layers to encrypt or decrypt data from other elements in the apparatus, the functional layers in the LCE including at least:
• a crypto primitive layer including one or more cryptographic primitives;
• and
• an interface layer including at least a direct memory access (DMA) engine to provide DMA functionality between the LCE and a memory.

A method comprising:

• interacting with a control and status register (CSR) in an interface layer of a lightweight cryptographic engine (LCE) to request encryption or decryption of data by the LCE, the LCE embodied in one or more integrated circuits;
• reading the CSR;
• generating at least one command based on data read from the CSR;
• performing, using a crypto primitive layer in the LCE, a cryptographic operation based on the command, the crypto primitive layer including one or more cryptographic primitives.

A system comprising:

• a host logic;
• a memory;
• a communication interface;
• and
• a lightweight cryptographic engine (LCE) embodied in one or more integrated circuits, wherein the LCE is to implement functional layers to encrypt or decrypt data from other elements in the system, the functional layers in the LCE including at least:
• a crypto primitive layer including one or more cryptographic primitives;
• and
• an interface layer including at least a direct memory access (DMA) engine to provide DMA functionality between the LCE and the memory.