Itanium Rising: Breaking Through Moore's Second Law of Computing Power

The Need for Security Without Slowdowns

The primary idea to remember while surfing online in this day and age is that the World Wide Web is much like the Wild Wild West—a complete free for all. When you're on the Internet and clicking on Web pages and HTML pages, you're basically out in the open and vulnerable. People can use “sniffing” software to track where you visit and gather potentially sensitive information about you. Because of this, it's increasingly important to protect personal as well as financial information while on the Internet.

Therefore, the two most important aspects of information transfer over an open network are security and speed. On its face, these two needs may actually seem immutable, for encryption and decryption take ...