Reg missing rc4-ia64.pl in openssl 1.1.1

[Jakob Bohm]

On 30/05/2019 02:10, Michael Wojcik wrote:
>> From: openssl-users [mailto:openssl-users-bounces at openssl.org] On Behalf Of J. J. Farrell
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019 15:02
>> On 29/05/2019 18:39, ramakrushna mishra wrote:
>>> In Openssl 1.1.1,  the file "rc4-ia64.pl" is missing. This cause degradation of
>>> performance on AIX. ...
>> The AIX port to Itanium was never released as a product, and was abandoned
>> altogether in 2002; I'm surprised that a degradation of performance on it
>> matters to anyone.
> What, no love for unobtainable archaic platforms?
Note that while the OP may actually be running AIX (old beta or special
contract), IA64 had publicly released OS versions of Linux, HP-UX, Windows
(NT 5.01 to NT 6.01) and possibly others. Linux IA64 may or may not be in
some supported distributions (in addition to site OS builds), don't know
the status of HP-UX IA64, Windows NT 6.01 (== Server 2008R2) is still
publicly supported by Microsoft with options to buy private support years
on top.

> Personally, I'm bemoaning the lack of a rc4-romp.pl for AIX 2 on my RT PC. And the shocking lack of assembly modules for the PDP-11.
>
> In all seriousness: It's pretty cool that OpenSSL still includes assembly modules for what are now rather niche architectures such as MIPS and PA-RISC. And in case all this is too convoluted for the OP, rc4-ia64.pl doesn't apply to extant AIX systems, which are all some variant of POWER, not IA64.
MIPS is still a common platform in Linux-based routers, which generally
use OpenSSL as their main cryptographic library for everything from WiFi
security to OpenVPN and browser configuration.  As these are often speed
constrained chips, assembler optimizations are important.  While ARM was
making inroads in this market, RiscV or an Asian design are more likely
successor for low cost low power router hardware.
> (OK, somewhere someone probably has one of the other AIX variants running - AIX/390 might be the last non-POWER AIX to die, if I had to bet. But probably not AIX IA64.)


Enjoy

Jakob
-- 
Jakob Bohm, CIO, Partner, WiseMo A/S.  https://www.wisemo.com
Transformervej 29, 2860 Søborg, Denmark.  Direct +45 31 13 16 10
This public discussion message is non-binding and may contain errors.
WiseMo - Remote Service Management for PCs, Phones and Embedded