---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 13:22:42 +0000 From: Alan C. Ramsbottom <acr@als.co.uk> To: ntsecurity@iss.net Cc: stoutb@pios.com Subject: Re: [NTSEC] 64-bit En/Decryption speed
Consensus is that Alpha CPUs can run crypto operations 10x faster than Intel-based systems, but to say it's based on the 64-bit-ness of the CPU alone is false.
Is everyone aware of the RSA DES challenge? In essence the task is to brute-force DES. You can find more information at: http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/des.html DESCHALL is one of real-world programs written to take up the challenge and reports the figures: DEC AlphaStation 600 5/333 ... 2.944M keys per second Dual Pentium 200 MHz ......... 2.003M keys per second SGI Onyx2 (194 MHz R10000) ... 1.943M keys per second HAL 385 (161 MHz Sparc64-II) . 1.660M keys per second UMAX S900 250MHz 604e ........ 1.368M keys per second AlphaStation 255/233 ......... 1.297M keys per second PowerMac 8500 200MHz 604e .... 1.095M keys per second PowerBook 3400 240MHz 603e ... 1.065M keys per second Sun Ultra2 Dual CPU .......... 1.060M keys per second PowerMac 8500 180MHz 604e ..... 990K keys per second PentiumPro 166MHz ............. 901K keys per second HP 9000/780C 180Mhz ........... 870K keys per second PentiumPro 180MHz ............. 850K keys per second [snip] I do not know how well this program is optimised for specific platforms, if at all. However I can confirm that other programs written for the challenge give similar results on Intel Platforms. Regards, --Alan-- acr@als.co.uk