.. _basic-features:

Basic Features
==============


Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library is a collection of high-performance code that
performs cryptography-specific operations. It is distinguished by providing a
low-level, stateless interface.

Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library has the following major distinctive features:

-  Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library provides basic low-level functions for creating
   cryptography applications.
-  Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library functions follow the same interface conventions, including
   uniform naming conventions and similar composition of prototypes for
   primitives that refer to different application domains.
-  Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library functions use an abstraction level which is best suited to
   achieve superior performance figures by the application programs.


To speed up the performance, Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library functions are optimized to use
all benefits of Intel® architecture processors. Besides this, most of
Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library functions do not use complicated data structures, which helps
reduce overall execution overhead.


Cross-platform Cryptographic Support
====================================

Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library is well-suited for cross-platform applications. For example,
functions developed for the IA-32 architecture can be readily ported to
the Intel® 64 architecture-based platform. In addition, each Intel® Cryptography Primitives Library
function has its reference code written in ANSI C, which clearly
presents the algorithm used and provides for compatibility with
different operating systems.

.. admonition:: Product and Performance Information

   Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at https://edc.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/performance/benchmarks/overview/.
   Notice revision #20201201



