17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
paul@poboy.b17c.ingr.com (Paul Robichaux) writes: I don't know how you missed it; it was certainly here. Let me summarize:
- crypto typically uses integers - RSA crypto uses large integers - the Pentium FDIV bug only affects floats
Yes, but Prof. Nicely found the problem because he was using FDIV when doing something or other with large potential primes. For most of our crypto stuff integer is fine, but for some operations on 33- to 50-bit integers it may be faster to use the floating point ops, since IEEE fp is supposed to be exact for integers up to some number of bits in the 50's. Jim Gillogly Sterday, 7 Afteryule S.R. 1995, 18:07