Intel Macs can be much slower computing SHA-256 hashes

Intel Macs can be much slower computing SHA-256 hashes

macOS uses SHA-256 hashes extensively, and computing them is a common and demanding task. For example, code that targets macOS 10.12 or later uses SHA-256 hashing on its single code directory as the CDHash for its code signature. They are also favourites for data integrity checks in utilities like Dintch, although sometimes other methods such as MD5 may be used for speed. Although rarely included in performance benchmarks, time required to compu…