Master Thesis at IBM Tivoli in Delft / Afstuderen bij IBM Tivoli in Delft?

OpenSSL has been ported to zSeries (i.e. IBM mainframe) hardware, running on zLinux and on z/OS.
On zLinux, the performance of some OpenSSL functions has been significantly enhanced by employing certain zArchitecture instructions.
So far, only a few functions and instructions have been considered.

In this project, you will explore ways in which zArchitecture instructions can be employed to increase OpenSSL performance on zSeries hardware.
Instructions include - but are not limited to - AES, SHA, and 64-bit integer arithmetic.

At least 4 different hardware levels will be involved. Availability of instructions depends on the level. For instance, on one level SHA-128 instructions may exist while on the next level, SHA-256 instructions are available. The code that you will write is expected to run on all hardware levels, using some way of distinguishing between levels.
The code will be open source, as it will be added to the open source OpenSSL if it is of sufficient quality.

You will design a performance model and you will validate it using performance measurements on zLinux and on z/OS.

The project will be in cooperation with the IBM Tivoli Delft Development Lab, the exclusive research and development lab of IBM in the Netherlands.
The lab hosts an international group of developers, most of which received an academic degree. They participate in the advancement of security solutions for mainframes and other computer architectures.

The lab will provide the coding and testing facilities you need. At the lab you will be supervised by Luc Rutten.

Supervision and contact at RU Nijmegen: Marko van Eekelen (marko@cs.ru.nl)