SHA instruction set

A SHA instruction set is a set of extensions to the ARM, RISC-V and x86 instruction set architecture which support hardware acceleration of the Secure Hash Algorithm family.

ARM

SHA-1 and SHA-256 instructions appeared as optional features in the Arm V8.0 architecture introduced in 2011. The instructions are:

SHA-1: SHA1C, SHA1H, SHA1M, SHA1P, SHA1SU0, SHA1SU1
SHA-256: SHA256H, SHA256H2, SHA256SU0, SHA256SU1

SHA-512 and SHA-3 instructions appeared as optional features in the Arm V8.2 architecture. The instructions are:

SHA-512: SHA512H, SHA512H2, SHA512SU0, SHA512SU1
SHA-3: EOR3, RAX1, XAR, BCAX

A scalable vector extension version of the SHA-3 instructions appeared as an optional feature in the Arm V9.0 architecture.

RISC-V

SHA2 instructions are part of the Zknh extension part of the RISC-V Cryptography Extensions Volume I: Scalar & Entropy Source Instructions ratified in November 2021.

x86 architecture processors

The original SSE-based extensions added four instructions supporting SHA-1 and three for SHA-256 and were specified in 2013 by Intel. Instructions for SHA-512 was introduced in Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake in 2024.

SHA-1: SHA1RNDS4, SHA1NEXTE, SHA1MSG1, SHA1MSG2
SHA-256: SHA256RNDS2, SHA256MSG1, SHA256MSG2

The newer SHA-512 instruction set comprises AVX-based versions of the original SHA instruction set marked with a V prefix and these three new AVX-based instructions for SHA-512:VSHA512RNDS2, VSHA512MSG1, VSHA512MSG2

AMD

All recent AMD processors support the original SHA instruction set:

AMD Zen and later processors.

Intel

The following Intel processors support the original SHA instruction set:

Intel Goldmont and later Atom microarchitecture processors.
Intel Cannon Lake, Ice Lake and later processors for laptops.
Intel Rocket Lake and later processors for desktop computers.

The following Intel processors will support the newer SHA-512 instruction set:

Intel Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake processors.