We determine machine capabilities by performing an os/platform *query* first, like getauxv(). If the *query* fails, we move onto a cpu *probe*. The cpu *probe* tries to exeute an instruction and then catches a SIGILL on Linux or the exception EXCEPTION_ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION on Windows. Some OSes fail to hangle a SIGILL gracefully, like Apple OSes. Apple machines corrupt memory and variables around the probe.
This is the forward direction on encryption only. Crypto++ uses the "Equivalent Inverse Cipher" (FIPS-197, Section 5.3.5, p.23), and it is not compatible with IBM hardware. The library library will need to re-work the decryption key scheduling routines. (We may be able to work around it another way, but I have not investigated it).
Jeffrey Walton