[13392] in Cypherpunks
Re: Patents on RSA will expire soon....
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Norman Hardy)
Tue May 10 02:52:18 1994
Date: Mon, 9 May 1994 23:47:31 -0800
To: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May), dat@ebt.com (David Taffs)
From: norm@netcom.com (Norman Hardy)
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
The algorithm that factored RSA129 takes about exp(sqrt((log n)(log log
n))) steps.
Indeed 10^17 instructions is just about how much work was required to
factor RSA129--.
That formula gives about 10^29 for a 1024 bit number. If computers double
in speed every 18 months then they will be only 32 times as fast when the
patents expire.
