Skein Hash... In Bash 90
First time accepted submitter Matt16060936 writes "...Last night (err.. 3am this morning) I finished an implementation of the Skein 512-512 hash algorithm (version 1.3). I'm a fan of Skein and hope it wins the SHA-3 competition next year. One of the nice things about Skein is how quickly it's been adopted by many platforms and implemented in many languages. To that end, I present Skein 512-512 implemented in Bash."
bash? (Score:0, Informative)
wtf is wrong with you
Re:Optimized for 64-bit processors (Score:4, Informative)
On the slowest 32 bit processor tested (32 bit, ARM v4, 75 Mhz), NIST benchmarked Skein using portable C code at just under 1 megabyte / sec. That is about twice as slow as SHA-2 on the same processor, and certainly slow enough that you might notice in the case you mention. On modern 64 bit processor (Intel Q6600, x86_64, 2.4 Ghz), more like 286 MB / sec for Skein, about twice as fast as SHA-2. See here [nist.gov] (pdf).
The striking difference between 32 bit and 64 bit implementations is much more than I would have guessed, but that may be merely a matter of optimization. For now it looks like a good excuse to use SHA-1 or SHA-2 when doing the sort of thing you describe on slow processors. For something like SSL or IPSEC, you aren't likely to notice the difference, because the bandwidth to a typical mobile device just isn't that high.