fast elliptical encryption

[Karl L. Barrus]

In the winter NeXTWorld magazine, the article ("Tales from the Crypt")
on page 94 mentions various topics of interest: public key encryption,
export restrictions, the role of the NSA, etc.  (It's just a one page
article and doesn't go into much depth).

Anyway, NeXTStep 3.0 is bundled with fast elliptical encryption for
NeXTMail.  As a result, 3.0 is export restricted.

Does anybody know about the "fast elliptical encryption" public-key
system?  How different is it from good ol' RSA?  Is it related to the
elliptic-curve factoring algorithm (am I remembering this correctly -
I don't know how elliptic curve factoring works, but I remember seeing
a reference to it somewhere)?

Just curious...

/-----------------------------------\
| Karl L. Barrus                    |
| barrus at tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTMail) |
| elee9sf at menudo.uh.edu             |
\-----------------------------------/