Hardware security in PCs to accompany new Windows

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 12:57:14PM -0400, Colin Smillie wrote:
> My understanding of the Longhorn security hardware is that it will
> include a TPM ( Trusted Platform Module ).  IBM ships TPMs from Atmel
> in many of their Thinkpads today.  The TPM can store public/private
> key pairs uses to validate the software being booted, loaded or
> installed.   MS has used similar approaches on their mobile platforms
> ( Smartphone etc.. ) but generally suffered from alot of
> implementation problems.  If implemented right is pretty hard to get
> un-signed software to work at all.  I think it will be interesting to
> see how MS handles the key distribution for Longhorn.  This could be
> the weak-link in their TPC architecture.

The key validation stuff is also optional for runing longhorn according
to what I have read, so PC makers don't have to include it.  I wonder if
MS has some kind of carrot to offer them for including it, and to
consumers for putting up with it.  After all you would think leaving a
feature out of the system is cheaper than including it and people tend
to buy what is cheapest.

Besides the worst that can happen is that microsoft kills the wintel
industry and we all move over to powerpc.  After all the game consoles
have all headed that way, why shouldn't Linux users?  IBM seems to like
the idea.

Lennart Sorensen
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