This paper presents a high level language implementation of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and discusses a design that employs a bit-sliced architecture. The HLL implementation was performed on Borland's® Delphi4™, language and proved to be highly valuable for obtaining the intermediate results that were required for debugging. The key objectives of this work were to make DES available for system applications written in the Delphi4 TM language and also to discuss the design of a bit-sliced DES architecture suitable for applications requiring low silicon area.