Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 1 Nov 2002 10:44:20 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 1 Nov 2002 10:44:20 -0500 Received: from LIGHT-BRIGADE.MIT.EDU ([18.244.1.25]:6418 "HELO light-brigade.mit.edu") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Fri, 1 Nov 2002 10:44:17 -0500 Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2002 10:50:45 -0500 From: Gerald Britton To: Linus Torvalds Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: What's left over. Message-ID: <20021101105045.A31662@light-brigade.mit.edu> References: <20021031181252.GB24027@tapu.f00f.org> <20021031194351.GA24676@tapu.f00f.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: ; from torvalds@transmeta.com on Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 03:25:01PM +0000 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1078 Lines: 21 On Fri, Nov 01, 2002 at 03:25:01PM +0000, Linus Torvalds wrote: > The question I have is whether such external hardware is even worth it > any more for any standard crypto work. With a regular PCI bus > fundamentally limiting throughput to something like a maximum of 66MB/s > (copy-in and copy-out, and that's so theoretical that it's not even > funny - I'd be surprised if RL throughput copying back and forth over a > PCI bus is more than 25-30MB/s), I suspect that you can do most crypto > faster on the CPU directly these days. This may be true of a typical workstation or large server, but your router may not have such a modern CPU in it. Crypto accelerators are likely a much bigger win on embedded routers or other small appliances with CPUs such as the AMD Elan or other 486 to Pentium class processors. -- Gerald - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/