PARALLELIZABLE CIPHER CONSTRUCTION

A method of providing security in a computer system includes producing an output block of data from an input block of data, which may be performed by one or more logic circuits. The output block of data may be produced by a cipher that includes a plurality of parallel, different mixing functions and a combination function. In this regard, producing the output block of data includes applying the plurality of parallel, different mixing functions to the input block of data to produce a plurality of updated blocks of data, with each mixing function mapping the input block of data to a respective one of the plurality of updated blocks of data. And producing the output block of data includes combining the plurality of updated blocks of data in the combination function to produce the output block of data.