On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 10:40 AM, Derek Atkins <derek(_at_)ihtfp(_dot_)com>
wrote:
Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill(_at_)hallambaker(_dot_)com> writes:
Constrained devices still exist. But the constraint on processing speed
is
easing up much more quickly than the constraint on code space and working
memory.
You'd actually be surprised at how untrue this is. There are tons of
devices out there still using 8- and 16-bit processors (or no processors
at all!) What's happening is that these low-end systems are getting
installed into smaller and smaller devices. So yes, if you look at a
particular device (e.g. cell phone) it's getting more powerful every
year. However soon our light bulbs will be "smart".
So let's not assume that these low-end processors are going away, please?
Well the constraint on processing is easing up due to the move from RSA to
ECC. And for the amount of data going though one of these processors, the
choice of AES or DES doesn't make much of a difference. These things don't
have to communicate very fast.
The thing that gets really uncomfortable is dealing with the amount of
memory available. Quite a few of the embedded chips have even less RAM than
the Commodore PET I started with when 32KB was the large machine.
Yes, these chips are not going away any time soon. The number of chips
being made with 6502 based cores has increased every year since the 80s.
But the problem with the chips isn't just that they are slow.
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