On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 11:23:16PM +0100, markus reichelt wrote: > > there is aonether option that is well doable with todays > > technology. On a multi-CPU machine run a dedicated > > noninterruptible kernel thread on one of the cores which keeps > > essential parts of the key in CPU registers at all times. > > How do you prevent the OS from using this CPU? If it's a dualcore > system, ok, but what about quadcore+ systems? I agree it's possible > (and takes the idea of using "cache" for key storage to an extreme > level). not sure if it can be done fully portably by the means of todays OS but CPUs can be left unused by OS. > Has it been achieved to access CPU#1 regs from a thread running on > CPU#2, f.e., a) without significant speed penalties and b) at all? the idea was to have that thread do all encryption tasks as well, so no need to access registers across CPUs Richard
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