Paper 2024/744

An NVMe-based Secure Computing Platform with FPGA-based TFHE Accelerator

Abstract

In this study, we introduce a new approach to secure computing by implementing a platform that utilizes a non-volatile memory express (NVMe)-based system with an FPGA-based Torus fully homomorphic encryption (TFHE) accelerator, solid state drive (SSD), and middleware on the host-side. Our platform is the first to offer completely secure computing capabilities for TFHE by using an FPGA-based accelerator. We defined secure computing instructions to evaluate 14-bit to 14-bit functions using TFHE. Our middleware allows for the communication of ciphertexts, keys, and secure computing programs while invoking secure computing programs through NVMe commands with metadata. Our performance evaluation demonstrates that our secure computing platform outperforms CPU-based and GPU-based platforms by 15 to 120 times and 2.5 to 3 times, respectively, in gate bootstrapping execution time. Additionally, our platform uses 7 to 12 times less electric energy consumption during the gate bootstrapping execution time than CPU-based platforms and 4.95 times less than a GPU-based platform. The performance of a machine learning application running on our platform shows that bootstrapping accounts for more than 80% of ciphertext learning time.