Intel's Heracles: A Leap in Fully Homomorphic Encryption Technology

Intel has made significant strides in the field of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) with the introduction of its new chip, Heracles. FHE allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without needing to decrypt it, a process that traditionally has been extremely slow—taking thousands of times longer than working with decrypted data. At the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, Intel showcased Heracles, which can accelerate FHE tasks by up to 5,000 times compared to standard Intel server CPUs.

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Heracles is built using Intel's advanced 3-nanometer FinFET technology and features a larger physical footprint than previous FHE chips, measuring about 20 times the size of its predecessors. The chip is equipped with two 24-gigabyte high-bandwidth memory chips and operates at 1.2 gigahertz. In practical demonstrations, Heracles processed a voter verification query in just 14 microseconds, compared to 15 milliseconds on an Intel Xeon server CPU. This performance translates to a drastic reduction in time required for verifying 100 million ballots—from over 17 days to approximately 23 minutes.

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The architecture of Heracles includes 64 compute cores arranged in an eight-by-eight grid, designed for parallel processing of complex mathematical operations required in FHE. The chip's ability to handle large data volumes is enhanced by linking it to 48 gigabytes of high-bandwidth memory, allowing data to flow at speeds of up to 9.6 terabytes per second.

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The advancements presented by Heracles have garnered attention from industry experts. Kurt Rohloff, CTO of FHE software firm Duality Technology, acknowledged the significance of Intel's work, particularly its scalability. However, he noted that Duality's focus is primarily on software solutions for encrypted queries rather than new hardware. Meanwhile, John Barrus, vice president of Niobium Microsystems, emphasized the potential of FHE chips for encrypted AI applications, indicating that smaller models could effectively utilize accelerated hardware.

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Several startups, including Fabric Cryptography, Cornami, and Optalysys, are also developing FHE accelerators. Optalysys aims to surpass the performance of digital systems by leveraging photonic technology for FHE computations.

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Intel plans to continue refining the Heracles chip and exploring larger FHE problems while enhancing its software capabilities. Sanu Mathew, who leads security circuits research at Intel, described this development as the beginning of a broader journey in FHE technology, likening it to the inception of the microprocessor.

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While Intel's advancements are notable, there is a lack of clarity regarding commercial availability and specific timelines for Heracles. Competitors like Niobium Microsystems have announced plans for their own FHE accelerators but have not provided detailed timelines for market entry.

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• “Heracles is the first hardware that works at scale,” — Sanu Mathew, Intel

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• “we have proven and delivered everything that we promised.” — Ro Cammarota, former Intel project lead

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• “When Intel starts talking about scale, that usually carries quite a bit of weight.” — Kurt Rohloff, Duality Technology

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• “This is like the first microprocessor… the start of a whole journey,” — Sanu Mathew, Intel

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