SHA-256 assembly language optimization

[Paul Sheer]

Hello,

I'd like to ask about improving SHA-256 performance:

I see on this page,

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/sha-256-implementations-paper.pdf

Intel gives a reference implementation of SHA-256 for its own processors.

How is OpenSSL's implementation related to that implementation?
Is there much opportunity for improvement?

I assume the person who wrote the current OpenSSL assembly probably
looked into every avenue for improvement of performance, but just in
case, I feel I should ask.  Can it get much faster?

Thanks

Paul