Interesting reading about the (hypothetical) TWIRL Hardware Factoring Device:
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~tromer/twirl/
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/%7Etromer/papers/twirl.pdf
Quote:
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TWIRL (The Weizmann Institute Relation Locator) is an electronic device for factoring of large integers. It implements the sieving step of the Number Field Sieve integer factorization algorithm, which is in practice the most expensive step in factorization. TWIRL more efficient than previous designs by several orders of magnitude, due to high algorithmic parallelization combined with adaptation to technological hardware constraints. Although fairly detailed, the design remains hypothetical since the device has not been actually built. However, projected cost estimates suggest that if TWIRL is built using current VLSI technology, it will be possible to factor 1024-bit integers, and hence to break 1024-bit RSA keys, in 1 year at the cost of a few dozen million US dollars (or significantly less, if several integers are to be factored simultaneously).
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Other links for reference:
http://www.crypto-world.com/FactorWorld.html