Abstract: A processor architecture and instruction set is provided that is particularly well suited for cryptographic processing. A variety of techniques are employed to minimize the complexity of the design and to minimize the complexity of the interconnections within the device, thereby reducing the surface area required, and associated costs. A variety of techniques are also employed to ease the task of programming the processor for cryptographic processes, and to optimize the efficiency of instructions that are expected to be commonly used in the programming of such processes. In a preferred low-cost embodiment, a single-port random-access memory (RAM) is used for operand storage, few data busses and registers are used in the data-path, and the instruction set is optimized for parallel operations within instructions.