5 ms·

I think I answered my own question, but I'll ask anyway - why does memory intensiveness matter?

• tedunangst 14y ago
  GPUs (and similar hardware) have a very limited amount of memory per core. If computing a hash requires 100MB of memory, then even a 1GB graphics card can only execute 10 cracks in parallel, not hundreds or thousands.
  • xxpor 14y ago
    Or the hundreds of millions.
• dekz 14y ago
  Processors get faster and faster, so we increase the work factor to compensate and keep it a time-hard problem. This has no real restriction on memory though, so the amount of memory only has to grow linear to the amount of time. Making it memory-hard makes it also memory hard.
  • kijin 14y ago
    > Making it memory-hard makes it also memory hard. That's a tautology, unless the hyphen means something different.
• cperciva 14y ago
  For a "worst-case" attacker -- one who can fab his own ASICs -- cost is proportional to the area of silicon used. RAM takes up die area, and it's something commodity systems have plenty of. Basically it's a matter of "what do we have which they would have to pay extra for".