Home
Jobs
CEA
FPGA Prototyping of Fully Homomorphic Encryption on RISC-V Microprocessors H/F

FPGA Prototyping of Fully Homomorphic Encryption on RISC-V Microprocessors H/F

On site

Grenoble, France

Internship

30-10-2025

Share this job:

Score my CV

Skills

Encryption Research Architecture Mathematics

Job Specifications

Position description Category

Mathematics, information, scientific, software

Contract

Internship

Job title

FPGA Prototyping of Fully Homomorphic Encryption on RISC-V Microprocessors H/F

Subject

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) enables computations directly on encrypted data, allowing processing without revealing its content. This could enable private online searches or confidential AI inference on sensitive data. However, current FHE systems are computationally intensive, requiring powerful and energy-hungry hardware. The internship aims to make FHE more efficient and accessible on low-power platforms like edge servers or mobile devices. The work involves profiling and analyzing FHE libraries (e.g., TFHE) on RISC-V architectures using emulators (e.g., QEMU) to assess performance and resource usage. The optimized design will then be deployed on an FPGA, with possible development of custom accelerators to further enhance FHE performance.

Contract duration (months)

6

Job Description

Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is a technology that allows computations to be performed directly on encrypted data, meaning that we can process information without ever knowing its actual content. For example, it could enable online searches where the server never sees what you are looking for, or AI inference tasks on private data that remain fully confidential. However, current FHE implementations are extremely demanding and typically require powerful CPUs or GPUs with high energy consumption. In this internship, the goal is to explore how to make FHE more accessible and efficient on smaller, low-power systems such as local edge servers or even mobile devices. The primary objective is to profile and analyze new promising FHE libraries (e.g., TFHE) on RISC-V microprocessor architectures using architectural emulators (e.g., QEMU), in order to understand their performance and resource needs. Then, the chosen architecture will be deployed on an FPGA board, adapting the microprocessor architecture to the target application. If time allows, the project may also include designing custom hardware accelerators to further boost FHE performance.

Applicant Profile

This offer is dedicated to master students looking for an ambitious research-oriented internship. Candidates should have a background in electronic or computer engineering, with solid knowledge of computer architectures and digital design. It is desirable to have experience with FPGA development, familiarity with RISC-V microprocessors or architectural simulators. Knowledge on cryptography is a plus.

Position location Site

Grenoble

Job location
France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Isère (38)

Location

Grenoble

Candidate criteria PhD opportunity

Oui

About the Company

The CEA is the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission ("Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives"). It is a public body established in October 1945 by General de Gaulle. A leader in research, development and innovation, the CEA mission statement has two main objectives: To become the leading technological research organization in Europe and to ensure that the nuclear deterrent remains effective in the future. The CEA is active in four main areas: low-carbon energies, defense and secur... Know more