iMac Pro's T2 for encrypting the SSD data

[bxs]

Subject: iMac Pro's T2 for encrypting the SSD data

So the T2 chip does the encryption for the internal SSD's data, and in so doing off-loads this chore from the processor having to do it as done in previous Macs.

Thus, will we see significant improvement in read/write performance for the encrypting/decrypting SSD data compared to the previous means for encrypting the data in previous Macs ? I have to assume it will be besides the security benefits of the T2 being tied to the iMac Pro hardware.

 

[maxq]

From what I've read so far that's true so long as you don't turn on File Vault, as the extra encryption for that isn't done by the T2 chip so there would be a performance cost for using it.

 

[CWallace]

From what I've read so far that's true so long as you don't turn on File Vault, as the extra encryption for that isn't done by the T2 chip so there would be a performance cost for using it.

My interpretation of what Marco Arment was told by an Apple PR person is that the T2 will also handle File Vault encryption/decryption.

 

[curmudgeonette]

So the T2 chip does the encryption for the internal SSD's data, and in so doing off-loads this chore from the processor having to do it as done in previous Macs.

My impression is that the SSD controller has already been doing encryption for a while now. Didn't one of the recent File Vault improvements have Apple claiming that enabling encryption wouldn't slow down data transfer?

 

[maxq]

My interpretation of what Marco Arment was told by an Apple PR person is that the T2 will also handle File Vault encryption/decryption.

Well I'd hope that's right as it would be better to have the option with no extra overhead, but I did see an article that explicitly said the additional file vault encryption was handed off to the CPU, not the T2 chip. I can't remember where that was now or I'd post a link.

Of course, there's always the tiniest chance that something posted on the web by someone I'd never heard of might not have been 100% correct (I think I read somewhere that this happens on rare occasions, but then again it was probably on the web where I read that too, the same site where it said that 73.65% of all statistics are made up).


I guess we'll know for sure if someone does some speed testing with file vault off and on to see whether there's any difference.

 

[Phil A.]

Subject: iMac Pro's T2 for encrypting the SSD data

So the T2 chip does the encryption for the internal SSD's data, and in so doing off-loads this chore from the processor having to do it as done in previous Macs.

Thus, will we see significant improvement in read/write performance for the encrypting/decrypting SSD data compared to the previous means for encrypting the data in previous Macs ? I have to assume it will be besides the security benefits of the T2 being tied to the iMac Pro hardware.

I don't think you'll see any significant difference - Intel CPUs have had hardware support for AES for a long time and there's very little performance difference writing to the SSD on current macs with or without encryption