Not to be confused with the AMDXDNA accelerator driver that was mainlined just with the Linux 6.14 kernel, AMD Linux engineers are now working on “AMDPK” as a new accelerator driver for their upcoming PKI Accelerator engines.
The AMD PKI accelerator is a new piece of IP debuting in their Versal NET SoC. Linux 6.15 merged initial support for the AMD Versal NET SoC for AMD’s new Network Adaptive Compute Accelerator Platform for high performance computing, networking, and AI acceleration. Now building off that initial support in Linux 6.15 is this AMDPK driver for enabling the PKI Accelerator.
The AMD PKI accelerator is designed for high performance public key asymmetric crypto operations. The tentative documentation on the newly-proposed driver explains the AMD PKI accelerator as:
“AMD PKI accelerator is a device on AMD versal-net to execute public key asymmetric crypto operations like ECDSA, ECDH, RSA etc. with high performance. The driver provides accel interface to applications for configuring the device and performing the required operations. AMD PKI device comprises of multiple Barco Silex ba414 PKI engines bundled together, and providing a queue based interface to interact with these devices on AMD versal-net.”
Somewhat interestingly this new “AMDPK” driver is being developed as a DRM accelerator driver within the new “accel” area of the kernel as opposed to going in as a crypto subsystem driver.
Last month AMD engineers originally posted packets for a Silex MultiPK device driver as a char/misc driver. Those patches under a Request For Comments (RFC) flag are now what have evolved into the AMDPK driver and this branding as an AMD PKI accelerator. Those RFC patches a few weeks ago were the first time I saw any mentions of Silex MultiPK and there continue to be no other Google hits around Silex MultiPK. Silex Technology has offered a range of IP core for public-key cryptography offerings for a number of years so it’s quite possible this new AMD PKI Accelerator is derived from Silex IP and would make sense given the prior driver name.
Those wanting to learn more about the forthcoming AMD PKI Accelerator to be found in at least their Versal NET SoCs can see the AMDPK driver patch series that is now under review.
