From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 06:51:08 +0800
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: IP: NSA RESPONSE TO KEY LENGTH REPORT
In-Reply-To: <199607260642.XAA14728@netcom23.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199607261744.NAA23409@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Mike Duvos writes:
> Matt Blaze <mab@research.att.com> writes:
>  > Finally, the NSA report offers estimates of the time
>  > required to perform exhaustive search using a Cray model T3D
>  > supercomputer.  This is a curious choice, for as our report
>  > notes, general-purpose supercomputers of this type make poor
>  > (and uneconomical) key search engines.
> 
> A tiny nit to pick here.  The Cray T3D and T3E computers are
> massively parallel machines consisting of DEC Alpha chips hooked
> up in a 3D Torus configuration.  They would probably make pretty
> decent key search engines,

Not compared to programmable logic devices, they wouldn't...

And that is, after all, the point...

Perry