Use graphics cards for computing power

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Use graphics cards for computing power

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Who Knew!
CNN news

The Georgia Tech researchers carried out a "brute force" attack when they determined that passwords should be at least 12 characters long.
To do so, they deployed computer graphics cards, which are cheap and can be programmed to do basic computations very quickly.
The processors in those cards run simultaneously, trying to guess all of the possible password combinations. The more characters in a password, the more guesses are required.



"These things are really inexpensive -- just a few hundred dollars -- and they have a performance that's comparable to supercomputers of only just a few years ago," Boyd said of fast-processing graphics cards.
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace