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The author seems to worry a lot about ARM performance. If this "proposal" is going to take 2-3 years to be implemented in browsers, then I wouldn't worry too mu
by devx 13y ago
The author seems to worry a lot about ARM performance. If this "proposal" is going to take 2-3 years to be implemented in browsers, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.
The ARMv8 architecture is supposed to come with hardware optimized AES and SHA-1/SHA-2 encryption, and be "up to 10x" faster than on ARMv7. ARMv8 chips should start coming out next year. So if we're planning "for the future" here, then I'd start with ARMv8 in mind, rather than ARMv7 or even ARMv6 (which really should stop being supported already).
If better and more optimal security means that older phones and lower-end ones will experience a setback in performance on some sites for the next few years (until they get upgraded), so be it.
- tptacek 13y agoHow many years until ARMv8 represents the majority of phones? I think writing off ARMv7 is a bad idea.
- ape4 13y agoJust changing the order of the suites could be done quickly. Of course committees won't let that happen.
- mook 13y agoThe author works for Mozilla (he's their security module peer), and is therefore focused on Firefox OS - which aims for low-end smartphones. Hence the reason for focusing on older ARM. Hope that helps.
- devx 13y agoI know that's one of the reasons he's saying it, but that's not really everyone else' concern, too, and as I said security should come first. Firefox OS is coming to ARMv6 phones right now, so at the very least they shouldn't start with that in mind when establishing the minimum of performance for encryption. There's the ARMv7 Cortex A7 chip for low-end now, and ARMv6 chips are terrible for performance anyway. They should not be used as a starting point for very low-end phones anymore.
- stass 13y agoARMv6 is very similar in all regards to ARMv7 and there are very fast implementations available. Are you talking about ARMv5 perhaps, which has a terrible memory model making fast multitasking implementations with memory isolation very hard to implement? ARMv7 just adds some new instructions which are while usefu, does not give the performance benefits.