The Data Encryption Standard algorithm has features which may be used to advantage in parallelizing an implementation. The kernel of the algorithm, a single round, may be decomposed into several parallel computations resulting in a structure with minimal delay. These rounds may also be computed in a pipelined parallel structure for operations modes which do not require cryptext feedback. Finally, system I/O may be performed in parallel with the encryption computation for further gain. Although several of these ideas have been discussed before separately, the composite presentation is novel.