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Re: IPsec hardware accelerators (Rainbow warning)



Another encryption hardware vendor is Hi/fn (www.hifn.com). Forthcoming
chips will include encryption (DES/3DES/RC4) as well as compression and MAC
computation (SHA/MD5). 

For those concerned about the processing requirements of software DES, note
that the use of compression prior to encrypting reduces the workload placed
on the encryptor. I included some experimental results at the Dec IPSEC wg
meeting.

Bob Monsour
rmonsour@earthlink.net


At 10:42 AM 1/22/97 +1000, John Chalk wrote:
>
>> > There is a compnay called Rainbow Technologies.  They lcoated in
>> > Irvine California.  They provide a hardware encrytion solution for
>> > this problem.  Can somehow the hardware solution and software
>> > solution combind together?
>> 
>> Thanks for the pointer.
>> 
>> One "hardware encryption solution" Rainbow provides is the Clipper
>> Chip. (Rainbow bought Mykotronx in 1985.)  The Clipper Chip and its
>> follow-on products are not compatible with the IPSEC protocols,
>> because they use an undocumented encryption algorithm and because
>> they are designed to undermine rather than provide secure operation.
>> 
>> . . . much discussion of Rainbow snipped
>> 
>> If any working group members know of useful hardware crypto
>> accelerators available from non-US companies (for the world market),
>> please let me know.  I'd like to see hardware acceleration
>> supported, but not using US-only and/or likely-subverted products.
>> 
>>  John Gilmore
>> 
>
>Not a working group member, but an interested lurker.
>
>A couple of years ago I worked on a project where we did application 
>level encryption for a networked financial system using 
>public nets, (actually the Aus. stock exchange) and we used a PC 
>hardware card from a firm called Eracom. I don't know what the 
>current range of products is, but last I heard they were doing a lot 
>of stuff for banks with ATM traffic and such. They are located on the 
>Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia and the contact info I have for 
>them is:    Tel: +61 (7) 5593 4911  Fax: +61 (7) 5593 4388
>    Telex: AA43943
>The cards were available for well under $A1K and the technical 
>support was great.
>
>--
>John Chalk, Software Engineer, DSI Pty Ltd
>Tel: +61 (7) 3371 7655  Fax: +61 (7) 3870 5647
>John.Chalk@datacraft.com.au
>
>
>
>