[randombit]

He is referring to password hashing where brute forcing is an issue. For a cryptographic hash function, the goal is to be as fast as possible while retaining security. There is currently an intensive competition between the SHA-3 teams to produce the fastest implementations. Check out http://bench.cr.yp.to/results-sha3.html for more performance data on a range of machines.

It's not always the case that a hash that is faster in software is easier or cheaper to implement in hardware. For instance Skein is very fast on x86-64 but apparently is less competitive in low power hardware implementations.