You will need at least a CPACF to initialise ICSF. Lennie -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Tony Harminc Sent: 24 January 2024 18:55 To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Encryption and decryption - processor or TCPIP
On Wed, 24 Jan 2024 at 12:38, Phil Smith III <li...@akphs.com> wrote: > Peter wrote: > >Still I am trying to understand encryption and decryption load goes > >to general CP Incase if you don't have CPACF or ICSF ? > > Even with CPACF and ICSF, some/most of the encryption load is on the CPU. > They aren't magic. CPACF is faster, but it's still fundamentally > executing Z instructions in the millicode. > Really? Surely there is on-chip crypto hardware that the millicode invokes to do much of the work? I can't imagine it's just like the millicode implementation of the sort instructions or something. But I think the OP deserves a simple answer: YES. If there's no crypto hardware then ICSF will do it all using ordinary zArch instructions. Probably there are a few things it can't do, like true random number generation, but generally you don't need any crypto hardware at all. In the early days there was (is?) even an ability to plug your own crypto provider software into the back end of ICSF, with interface documentation "by request only". Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
