For Hashing, The Fastest of the Fastest? … Meet t1ha

Summary

The undefined website discusses the t1ha hashing method, which is significantly faster than traditional cryptographic hashing methods like SHA-1, making it highly efficient for non-cryptographic applications.

Abstract

The undefined website introduces t1ha, a non-cryptographic hashing method that outperforms traditional cryptographic hashes such as MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 in speed, while still maintaining a high level of efficiency. t1ha is highlighted for its exceptional performance, achieving a processing rate nearly 100 times faster than SHA-1, as demonstrated in a comparative test. The article mentions smhasher results, which showcase t1ha alongside other fast non-cryptographic methods like MeowHash, xxHash, and MetroHash. The t1ha family includes three main versions: t1ha0, t1ha1, and t1ha2, each optimized for different purposes, such as speed on 64-bit CPUs or security and portability. The article also touches on the importance of hash functions being non-reversible and resistant to collisions, criteria that t1ha meets. Links to further information and the source code of t1ha are provided for those interested in exploring or implementing the method.

Opinions

The author implies that traditional cryptographic hashing methods, while secure, are not necessarily the best choice for all hashing needs due to their slower speed.
t1ha is presented as a superior alternative for non-cryptographic applications, emphasizing its speed and efficiency, especially on 64-bit processors.
The article suggests that t1ha0 is the fastest among the t1ha versions but notes that it prioritizes speed over security, with some trade-offs.
t1ha1 is recognized for its security and portability, although it has some limitations, such as reduced performance on big-endian processors and failing some avalanche tests.
t1ha2 is recommended as the best overall version, addressing the security issues of t1ha1 while still maintaining high performance.
The author expresses a preference for 64-bit hash outputs for practical applications like hashtables, balancing performance with an acceptable risk of collisions.

For Hashing, The Fastest of the Fastest? … Meet t1ha

You might know those slow old hashing methods, such as MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256. Well, they were designed to be fast, but also highly secure. But, if we just need a hashing method, such as for a hashtable or Bloom filter, we often don’t need all the security that comes with the main cryptography hashing methods. And so we have the non-cryptography hashing methods, and which are often ultra-fast and highly efficient. To show the difference, in a test, SHA-1 — one of the fastest cryptography hashing methods — managed a processing rate of 364.95 MiB/s, while t1ha was nearly a 100 times faster, at 34,636 MiB/s.

The results from smhasher show that t1ha, MeowHash, xxHash, and MetroHash are three of the fastest non-cryptography methods:

The fast non-cryptography methods often do not try to be compatiable with the slow 32-bit CPUs, and often use AES-based extensions within the processor. This allows them to process data faster and — often — in the hardware of the processor.

The fastest ‘useful’ hash is probably t1h. It was derived from the 1Hippeus project (t1h) was created by Leonid Yuriev. The three main versions are:

t1ha0. This produces a 64-bit hash. It is ultrafast and focused on 64-bit CPUs. At the present time, it beats all the other non-cryptography methods for speed. There are some trade-offs for security, in order to boost the speed of operation. The AES-NI version provides the best results and it uses the embedded AES instructions within the CPU.

t1ha1. This version is designed to be as secure as possible and is also portable on a range of systems — not just for 64-bit CPUs. Unfortunately, Yves Orton discovered this family of hashes failed some of the avalanche tests. The avalanche test involves changing one or more bits in the input, then — on average —it should result in half of the bits changing on the output hash. t1ha1 is mainly focused on little-endian processors— such as for Intel x86/x64 — and will run slower on big-endian processors.

t1ha2. This is the recommended version, and overcomes the problems of t1ha1, but is still faster than other non-cryptography hashing methods. It can also produce a 128-bit hash output (t1ha3). Again it focuses on little-endian processors.

Overall a good hash should be free from being reversible, and where it is not possible to mathematically reverse the hash back to its original input, or where it is not possible to discover parts of the input data. Along with this, it should be difficult to find collisions, and where two different inputs lead to the same output hash. t1ha passes each of these criteria.

In most cases, such as for hashtables, a 64-bit hash output is acceptable, and this is optimized within 64-bit processors. Overall, a 128-bit will be much freer of collisions, but there will be a performance hit.

Anyway, here it is:

and the code is here:

For Hashing, The Fastest of the Fastest? … Meet t1ha

t1ha

A C++ repl by billbuchanan