The topic “New SHA Functions Boost Crypto On 64-bit Chips” was posted on
Slashdot, and is talking about
FIPS 180-4. I haven't been able to retrieve the PDF from CSRC, but the summary caught my attention:
Draft FIPS 180-4 adds a general procedure for creating an initialization hash value and two additional secure hash algorithms: SHA-512/224 and SHA-512/256, and removes a requirement that padding must be done before hash computation begins. SHA-512/224 and SHA-512/256 may be more efficient alternatives to SHA-224 and SHA-256, respectively, on platforms that are optimized for 64-bit operations.
Does anyone know if SHA-512/256 produces the same digests as SHA256? If so, the alleged efficiency might be interesting for CPU-miners on 64-bit platforms.
Anyone?
Cheers,
