Hardware architectures for algebra, cryptology, and number theory

Over the past few years, the interaction of research in computer engineering with research in algebra and number theory has intensified. This interaction is especially visible in cryptography and cryptanalysis, but covers also other areas, such as bioinformatics, coding theory, and image processing. This special issue attempts to explore this interaction, by highlighting recent advances in the development of efficient hardware architectures for algebra, cryptology, and number theory. The call for papers for this special issue listed several examples of topics of interest and resulted in a pool of 30 submissions, from which we selected the papers finally comprising this special issue. At the end of a comprehensive review and revision process stood five papers, resulting in an acceptance rate of less than 17%. Independent of the final outcome of the review process, we would like to express our appreciation to all submitting authors for their valuable contributions. For manuscripts that in the end could not be included, we hope that the reviewer feedback was perceived by the authors as constructive and helpful. Numerous external reviewers generously offered their expertise and time, and we greatly appreciate their invaluable help in the evaluation process. Below, we provide a quick bird’s-eye view of the research fields of interest to this issue, and show how the five selected papers fit in this view, and enhance and enrich what was accomplished so far. Modern cryptography is based on the use of two major classes of cryptosystems. Symmetric key ciphers, with a cryptographic key shared between sender and receiver, are used for bulk encryption of data at speeds reach-