[117750] in Cypherpunks
Re: Build a better OTP?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Thu Sep 9 21:20:15 1999
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 03:02:13 +0200 (CEST)
Message-Id: <199909100102.DAA01679@mail.replay.com>
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
>> Why do you say that? It seems like it has a lot in common with
>> the microcode I write for PowerPC devices here at Motorola.
> Because it's too damn big! We're talking something like
> SHA-1 here, at least that's what they use in the library.
Yes, but the required data rate is so slow that it seems as if
even SHA-1 ought to be amenable to serial computation in a
microcoded processor. 100KB of ROM and SRAM just doesn't take up
that much chip space at 0.25um. Admittedly, the DES encryption
I'm currently doing in microcode is more suitable for this
approach, but it still seems as if it would have been feasible.
> We have the ideological allegiance to open source software...
Not one of my arguments.
> the ideological distrust of big business...
Not one of my arguments.
> ... paranoia must be tempered with realism.
My arguments have had nothing to do with perceived security, but
rather the portability of the RNG. Personally, I'm simply bummed
that I'm not going to be able to use this otherwise well-designed
RNG in an embedded crypto application.
Unfortunately, SPS's strategic marketing group has so far shown
no interest in this either. But given the choice between a
Pentium with a non-functional RNG, and a PowerPC with *no* RNG,
I'll pick the Motorola part every time.
