[openssl-users] BN_MUL_MONT for ARM64 v8

[Michael Wojcik]

> From: openssl-users [mailto:openssl-users-bounces at openssl.org] On Behalf Of Mike Mohr
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2017 22:21

> Licensing issues are indeed thorny. Why can't openssl perform a dynamic link? The soversion should handle any ABI issues 
> introduced in later versions of GMP.

Replace "thorny" with "completely unacceptable" for at least some commercial users of  OpenSSL. And dynamic linking does not solve the problem, because customers would still have to get GMP. Some companies refuse to ship GPL code in any form, regardless of whether they've made modifications, and forcing customers to find and install GMP is hardly reasonable.

Providing TLS support in commercial software is already difficult enough. Let's not make it harder in the hypothetical hope of eking out a bit more performance.

Anyone who really wants GMP could implement it as an OpenSSL engine. That is, take the OpenSSL code for the algorithms you're using, copy them into an  engine, and then replace the BN math operations with calls to GMP.

Michael Wojcik 
Distinguished Engineer, Micro Focus