This paper analyzes the effects of including a full-width GF(2m) Montgomery multiplier within the datapath of an existing embedded processor, aiming to speed-up elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). This approach tends to exploit the tight coupling between the new and the other processor modules while maintaining both software compatibility and high flexibility to adapt to different ECC parameters and algorithms. In addition, the present work focuses on the effects on performance due to the interaction between the new unit and the other processor parts. We show that the modified ARM processor runs the ECC critical operation (kP) 9-times faster than in pure software and up to 14-times faster using 3 units and optimized instruction scheduling. Moreover, the improved processor achieves the same performance with 1/4 sized caches thanks to more than 93% reduction of memory traffic.

Abstract Motivation: Eu.Gene Analyzer is an easy-to-use, stand-alone application that allows rapid and powerful microarray data analysis in the context of biological pathways. Its intuitive graphical user interface makes it an easy and flexible tool, even for the first-time user. Eu.Gene supports a variety of array platforms, organisms and pathway ontologies, transparently deals with multiple nomenclature systems and seamlessly integrates data from different sources. Two different statistical methods, the Fisher Exact Test and the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA), are implemented to identify biological pathways transcriptionally affected under experimental conditions. A suite of tools is offered to define, visualize and share custom non-redundant pathway sets. In conclusion, Eu.Gene Analyzer is a new software application that takes advantage of information from multiple pathway databases to build a comprehensive interpretation of experimental results in a simple, intuitive environment. Availability: Download of Eu.Gene Analyzer Java version is available free of charge for academic users. Please visit the web page: http://www.ducciocavalieri.org/bio/Eugene.htm Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: http://www.ducciocavalieri.org/bio/Eugene/Suppl_Inf