[Cryptography] Nvidia- one Tflop could change the rules quicker than quantum...

[Tom Mitchell]

On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 6:29 AM, Perry E. Metzger <perry at piermont.com>
wrote:

> On Sat, 14 Nov 2015 17:01:27 -0800 Tom Mitchell <mitch at niftyegg.com>
> wrote:
> > Little machines like this from nVidia could change the computational
> > rules for crypto quicker than quantum computing.
>
> That's utterly risible. No number of GPUs are going to factor an
> 10,000 bit number using currently known methods, no matter how many
> planets you turn into GPUs. Quantum computers could, however, conduct
> the factoring quite straightforwardly.
>

True but turn the topic around.

A number of discussions dismiss longer keys or novel methods for encryption
as
computationally too expensive.   Since a number of long integer libraries
are built on
floating point hardware blocks an array of engines in a GPU that is
inexpensive enough to
embed in firewalls could very much improve  the transparency and reduce the
latency of
corporate data links.  This includes links to local and remote storage.

Increasing the key length does also increase the qubit count of quantum
machines perhaps pushing their availability and usefulness back.
Currently doubling the qubit count is expected to be difficult so tools
that generate
stronger encrypted  data streams that require larger qubit counts can change
the rules quicker than quantum hardware can be developed.

Those with interesting data systems that need to be secure for the next
couple
decades will have to get serious and at many levels.

My point is that small embedded teraflop devices are interesting.


-- 
  T o m    M i t c h e l l
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