the company.

Via says that Padlock accelerates AES ciphers by a factor of fifty, SHA secure hashes by a factor of seven, and public key generation by up to two times, providing real-time protection of information with "extremely low processor utilization." Key generation, used for authentication, is also improved by utilizing the dual quantum-based random number generators integrated into the PadLock engine.

Chris Bennetts, of Via's Processor Platform Marketing group, stated, "The VIA PadLock CSP is a practical tool that takes full advantage of the cryptographic strength of our VIA C7 processor family to better protect users from todays security threats. Security is a key issue that must be addressed in order to successfully move x86 further towards convergence, and VIA has taken a proactive approach with the PadLock CSP that programmers can implement quickly and easily."

The Padlock CSP is fully compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and XPe, Windows CE, and the forthcoming Windows Vista, and can be used in any current Via processor-based server, desktop, notebook, or embedded system, according to the company. The software is available for free download, here.

---

Related stories:

• Via rev's security SDK, adds support for C7/C7-M
  
• Whitepaper suggests Windows Mobile security precautions
  
• Primer on elliptical curve cryptography
  
• Free data-scrubber utility works with Windows CE, Windows
  
• Via promises "full support" for Windows CE 5.0
  
• Chip offloads WiFi security, encryption
  
• Security software, hardware vendors eyeing device market
  
• Security concerns slowing mobile device adoption?
  
• Trusted computing toolkit to support Windows CE, Windows Mobile
  
• Using the unmanaged CryptoApi with .NET Compact Framework