
TWINKLE is a hypothetical integer factorization device circa 1999 by Adi Shamir - Zenst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWINKLE
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Zenst
Posting this as was wondering if anybody had built such a device yet, given
now 17 years ago and the costs of building such a device would now be much
cheaper and hence would be surprised if somebody not built one. If not then
certainly something for my project list for winter as was looking at optical
computing and was pondering howto produce large primes with the use of optics
and came across this article about TWINKLE.

~~~
Analemma_
If it were feasible to build such a device and break RSA with it, I assume the
NSA would be doing it. Snowden's leaks implied that, while the NSA has a huge
toolchest of various taps and side-channel attacks for attacking
cryptosystems, they still lack the ability to break RSA directly (given a
proper key length).

~~~
Zenst
Indeed and for me I often feel a 511bit key better than a 512bit key or a
1023bit key better than a 1024 bit key down to the aspect of rainbow tables
alone. Though I'm sure somebody with superior knowledge of crypto systems
could prove me wrong, I've not had that pleasure yet and I love being wrong -
it is when I learn the most.

~~~
CJefferson
A 511bit key is just a 512bit key with the last bit zero.

