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BitDefender testing of encryption software on Intel Core i5 processors

Testing program demonstrates how BitDefender software can take advantage of the most advanced Intel hardware and create a better computing experience for users.

BitDefender engineers have completed an exhaustive test program designed to measure software performance on Intel's latest notebook platform based on Intel Core i5 mobile processor. BitDefender software was optimised to maximise performance on the Intel latest processors. By taking advantage of a specialised set of instructions available with the Intel's latest notebook platform based on Intel Core i5 mobile processor, BitDefender’s File Vault demonstrated more than double throughput performance for tasks involving file encryption on a local drive.

BitDefender’s File Vault allows users to create encrypted, password-protected logical drives (or vaults) on their computer to securely store confidential and sensitive documents. These types of processes move massive amounts of data through users’ systems and can be time consuming and resource intensive. Benchmarking tests which BitDefender conducted jointly with Intel software application engineers measured performance of File Vault’s copy and encryption operations in read and write modes.

The tests showed impressive performance gains through the use of Intel's new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) Instructions (AES-NI). The AES-NI standard includes a specialised set of instructions for cryptography. BitDefender developers added a custom set of software code optimised for AES-NI instructions to the tested revision of File Vault module. On the test systems equipped with Intel SATA solid-state drives the benchmarks demonstrated significant increase in throughput from 44 Mb/s to 103 Mb/s - a 134% speed-up for both reading and writing operations.

Having proven how it can improve performance through using Intel's new Advanced AES-NI Instructions, BitDefender will integrate the optimised instructions in the future updates of their software products to enable its customers can take advantage of the performance increase.

"As a result of testing, we are moving forward with releasing software updates so that all our customers can take full advantage of the newest hardware from Intel,” said Alexandru Balan, BitDefender product manager for Technology and Innovation. “In particular, the benefits to the speed of encryption will add convenience and ease of use for all the users of BitDefender File Vault employing the latest technologies from Intel."

“We are excited to see how software companies like BitDefender working together with Intel application engineers can take advantage of the new AES-NI instructions implemented in Intel's latest notebook platform based on Intel Core i5 mobile processor to the direct benefit of end users,” said Wolfgang Petersen, EMEA director of Intel Software & Services Group.

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