Intel, AMD, Microsoft, IBM and HP founded the Trusted Computing Group, which announced its existence yesterday, to take over work started in 1999 by the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance. The TCG hopes the TCPA’s approximately 200 members will now join the TCG.
Together, the member companies will work to develop, define, and promote hardware-enabled trusted computing and security technologies, including related hardware building blocks and software interfaces, across multiple platforms, peripherals and devices, the group said in a statement.
The idea is to have a standard secure hardware chip that carries out cryptographic functions in a computer that can be used by software to carry out security processes in a manner that is trusted. The TCPA published a Trusted Platform Module spec in 2001 that has since been built into devices including IBM’s ThinkPad notebooks.
Mario Juarez, product manager at Microsoft, said the TCG is a logical evolution of the TCPA. It is incorporated, which brings certain benefits, he said. The new group will offer a logo scheme for participating companies to show they leverage the TCG spec, and will conduct marketing initiatives aimed at promoting compliant technology.
Juarez said that version 1.2 of the TPM spec will likely be compatible with what Microsoft is doing with its project codenamed Palladium – now known as the Next Generation Secure Computing Base. Palladium calls for a cryptographic key pair to be generated and stored in a protected hardware subsystem.
For Palladium… a critical part is a small chip that will provide security. We’re optimistic the TPM spec version 1.2 will serve as that chip, Juarez told ComputerWire. He added that the 1.1 spec was created to address challenges of the time, and that it is not in line with what Microsoft has planned for Palladium.
Palladium has come under a great deal of scrutiny from privacy advocates and competition regulators – mainly in Europe – as it requires a system that acts essentially like a unique identifier for each machine in which it runs. Critics say it could compromise individual privacy and could give Microsoft more control over PC software.
Juarez said the incompatibility of TPM 1.1 with Palladium’s goals was not a reason for the formation of the new group. Microsoft said last month that it is planning to release samples of NGSCB in a software development kit to developers in October at its Professional Developers Conference.
Source: Computerwire
