Speaking of which, does anyone know who makes "the DES chip" (is there more than one?)? I'd like to find a data sheet for it.
There's no such thing as "the DES chip". "Since publishing the Data Encryption Standard, NBS has validated 45 (as of May 7, 1991) hardware and firmware implementations. Approximately three implementations are validated each year. The list of companies with validated chips is quite varied. It contains very small companies as well as many of the large U.S. electronics corporations. The implementations range from firmware programmable read-only memories (PROMs), which implement only the basic DES algorithm, to electronic chips that provide several different modes of operation running at speeds up to 45 million bits per second." ... "Hardware implementations of DES are widely available in the United States at prices under $100; DES encryption boards that can encrypt stored and transmitted data in a personal computer are available for under $1000; and stand-alone encryption units may be purchased for under $3000." (This is from "The Data Encryption Standard, Past and Future" by Miles Smid and Dennis Branstad, first appeared in Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 76, no. 5, May 1988) I'm sure that since this was written the number of implementations has increased, the prices decreased, and the speeds increased. -- Yanek Martinson yanek@novavax.nova.edu