“Intel is warning that security support in Windows 2000
is liable to seriously slow servers and networks.
Handling security computations on the workstation is not likely
to be a problem, but servers are liable to be involved in many
processes and bottlenecks can be created. Authentication in
particular can involve many requests to servers, resulting in
overloading. Intel’s concern is that if the security offered by
Windows 2000 is used to the full, significant performance
degradation will result.”
“Intel’s comments do have to be taken in the context of their
new product announcements, though. This week their new offerings
are in the security area, including a chipset with encryption
capabilities. Using special purpose chips to handle the complex key
handling algorithms makes sense and is always likely to outperform
software solutions. Compaq and IBM have committed to making use of
the new chipset in their computers.”