Table 1 shows estimates of the critical characteristics of the 14nm Knights Landing, compared to known details of the 22nm Knights Corner, Haswell, and Ivy Bridge-EP. The estimate of Knights Landing differ from the rumored specifications primarily in the capacity of the shared L2 cache, which is estimated to be 512KB, rather than 1MB. It is possible, although extremely unlikely that the shared L2 cache is 256KB. The analysis also incorporate several other critical factors which were not mentioned in any rumors, specifically cache read bandwidth and the large shared L3 cache. The L3 cache is estimated as eight times the size of the L2 caches or 144MB in the unlikely scenario that the L2 cache is 256KB, then the L3 cache is likely to be proportionately smaller.
Category Archives: Technical
Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer
Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract. Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue that the relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year, securities filings show.
via Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer | Reuters.
RSA, now a subsidiary of computer storage giant EMC Corp, urged customers to stop using the NSA formula after the Snowden disclosures revealed its weakness.
An interesting link came up in the Slashdot comment section. From: [Cfrg] Requesting removal of CFRG co-chair
I’d like to request the removal of Kevin Igoe from CFRG co-chair.
The Crypto Forum Research Group is chartered to provide crypto advice to IETF Working Groups. As CFRG co-chair for the last 2 years, Kevin has shaped CFRG discussion and provided CFRG opinion to WGs.
Kevin’s handling of the “Dragonfly” protocol raises doubts that he is performing these duties competently. Additionally, Kevin’s employment with the National Security Agency raises conflict-of-interest concerns.
LOL. No one trusts the NSA anymore.
Massive surge in Litecoin mining leads to graphics card shortage
Litecoin confirms transactions faster (every 2.5 minutes, rather than every 10 minutes for Bitcoin) and it contains more coins — 84 million coins will be found in total under the LTC protocol, as opposed to 21 million for BTC. Bitcoin and Litecoin prices tend to move together; Bitcoins stratospheric leap over the past month (it’s down from a high of $1200 but trading at $873 as of this writing) has created an odd situation where it’s easier to mine Litecoin and then convert LTC to BTC then it is to just mine BTC to start with.
via Massive surge in Litecoin mining leads to graphics card shortage | ExtremeTech.
Microsoft Warns Customers Away From RC4, SHA-1
RC4 is among the older stream cipher suites in use today, and there have been a number of practical attacks against it, including plaintext-recovery attacks. The improvements in computing power have made many of these attacks more feasible for attackers, and so Microsoft is telling developers to drop RC4 from their applications.
via Microsoft Warns Customers Away From RC4, SHA-1 | Threatpost | The First Stop For Security News.
The software company also is recommending that certificate authorities and others stop using the SHA-1 algorithm.
Facebook ‘stalker’ tool uses Graph Search for powerful data mining
So Lee wrote “FBStalker,” a Python script he and Werrett debuted Thursday at the Hack in the Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur. In its current form, FBStalker runs in the Chrome browser on OS X, entering queries into Facebook’s Graph Search and pulling data. They used FBStalker in the attack against the man in Hong Kong.
Even if a person’s profile is locked down to strangers, their friends’ open profiles can be examined, giving an indication, for example, who the person may be close with. FBStalker uses Graph Search to find photos in which two people are tagged in, comments on profiles and more.
Barbarians at the Gateways
The goal of this article is to introduce the problems on both sides of the wire. Today a big Wall Street trader is more likely to have a Ph.D from Caltech or MIT than an MBA from Harvard or Yale. The reality is that automated trading is the new marketplace, accounting for an estimated 77 percent of the volume of transactions in the U.K. market and 73 percent in the U.S. market. As a community, it’s starting to push the limits of physics. Today it is possible to buy a custom ASIC application- specific integrated circuit to parse market data and send executions in 740 nanoseconds or 0.00074 milliseconds.4 Human reaction time to a visual stimulus is around 190 million nanoseconds.
via Barbarians at the Gateways – ACM Queue.
By 2005, most shops were also modifying kernels and/or running realtime kernels. I left HFT in late 2005 and returned in 2009, only to discover that the world was approaching absurdity: by 2009 we were required to operate well below the one-millisecond barrier, and were looking at tick-to-trade requirements of 250 microseconds. Tick to trade is the time it takes to:
1. Receive a packet at the network interface.
2. Process the packet and run through the business logic of trading.
3. Send a trade packet back out on the network interface.
To do this, we used realtime kernels with bypass drivers (either InfiniBand or via Solarflare’s
Drones and aerial mapping
From Professional aerial mapping
Collects aerial photography of 1-10sqkm in a single flight at down to 5cm precision.
The eBee has a flight time of up to 45 minutes allowing to cover areas of up to 10sqkm in a single flight. With its 16MP camera it can shoot aerial imagery at down to 3cm/pixel resolution. The images can then be used to create maps and elevation models with a precision of 5cm.
Disclaimer: The above does seem like a sponsored ad but this site does not advertise for anyone. I am interested in drone technology and creative applications for them and found this interesting. Click here for more references to drones on this site.
Thieves allegedly install keyloggers to capture credit cards at Nordstrom
The keyloggers the thieves used imitate the look and design of PS/2 keyboard connectors, priced around $30-40. They are connected in series with a keyboard cord, between the computer and the keyboard, to intercept data transmitted between the two.
via Thieves allegedly install keyloggers to capture credit cards at Nordstrom | Ars Technica.
Researchers can slip an undetectable trojan into Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs
The attack against the Ivy Bridge processors sabotages random number generator (RNG) instructions Intel engineers added to the processor. The exploit works by severely reducing the amount of entropy the RNG normally uses, from 128 bits to 32 bits. The hack is similar to stacking a deck of cards during a game of Bridge. Keys generated with an altered chip would be so predictable an adversary could guess them with little time or effort required. The severely weakened RNG isn’t detected by any of the “Built-In Self-Tests” required for the P800-90 and FIPS 140-2 compliance certifications mandated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
via Researchers can slip an undetectable trojan into Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs | Ars Technica.
After patent loss, Apple tweaks FaceTime—and logs 500,000 complaints
Before the VirnetX case, nearly all FaceTime calls were done through a system of direct communication. Essentially, Apple would verify that both parties had valid FaceTime accounts and then allow their two devices to speak directly to each other over the Internet, without any intermediary or “relay” servers. However, a small number of calls—5 to 10 percent, according to an Apple engineer who testified at trial—were routed through “relay servers.”
Both sides in the litigation admit that if Apple routes its FaceTime calls through relay servers, it will avoid infringing the VirnetX patents. Once Apple was found to be infringing—and realized it could end up paying an ongoing royalty for using FaceTime—the company redesigned the system so that all FaceTime calls would rely on relay servers. Lease believes the switch happened in April.
via Report: After patent loss, Apple tweaks FaceTime—and logs 500,000 complaints | Ars Technica.