Montgomery's algorithm is a popular technique to speed up modular multiplications in public-key cryptosystems. This paper tackles the efficient support of modular exponentiation on inexpensive circuitry for embedded security services and proposes a variant of the finely integrated product scanning (FIPS) algorithm that is targeted to digital signal processors. The general approach improves on the basic FIPS formulation by removing potential inefficiencies and boosts the exploitation of computing resources. The reformulation of the basic FIPS structure results in a general approach that balances computational efficiency and flexibility. Experimental results on commercial DSP platforms confirm both the method's validity and its effectiveness.