AMD Opteron to support Palladium

Jim Norton writes "This article is just a reminder that AMD is just as guilty as Intel in supporting TCPA / Palladium. AMD has announced that Opteron will be compatible with the Palladium Initiative and that AMD is part of the 'Trusted Computing Alliance'."

Comments

Mostly a political gesture

[fault0]

It's not that companies like AMD and Intel particularly like this effort. As hardware/chip/part manufacturers, it's just more work for them. They support the inititive because they need to stay on Microsoft's good side in the up coming x86-64/itanium battle.

Addendum

[Ridge]

Note that apparently the Opteron (Autobots, transform!), will support untrusted/unlicensed content as well. [neowin.net].

Story is Incorrect (perhaps)

[whovian]

AMDZone says differently:

Update: AMD has contacted The Inquirer and indeed Opteron will not support Palladium. Apparently that was some creative writing on the part of the outfit that posted the story.

Re:Story is Incorrect (perhaps)

[whovian]

AMDmb adds further:

AMD's Opteron won't reject unlicensed content - Ron Goldin - Fri, Sep 20, 2002 - 10:46 AM
Palladium... just that word sends shivers down my spine.. but it seems AMD is trying to smooth things over a bit and take away the shakes.
In fact, according to an AMD UK representative, AMD's Opteron products will run any kind of content in the future -- contrart to the report in The Age, on which our original report was based.
Part of the content in The Age failed to distinguish between comments Moorhead made and conjecture, AMD said. [emphasis added]
Source: The Inquirer - More Information

Re:Opt out

[Verteiron]

That won't happen directly, it's too obvious. What could happen is this:

Law 1) Make it illegal to disable DRM unless the companies say you can (this is already in place).

Law 2) Make DRM mandatory in all hardware devices (currently being pushed hard by the ??AA).

Law 3) Require DRM hardware to ONLY run DRM-compliant software (not too hard to imagine).

Boom. That's the end of legal free (and Free) software in the USA. It would also be the end of programming as a hobby; programming would require expensive signatures in order to be allowed to run.

So...

[labratuk]

Is this something from which we cannot Opt-er-out?

I'll get my coat.

Re:Well I guess we can't win

[Sivar]

With any Palladium system, you will be able to disable Palladium in BIOS, so it _doesn't matter_ if a system supports it or not. If you turn it off, you will be unable to use Palladium protected media, just like pre-Palladium systems.
If you turn it on, you will at least have the option--an option I plan not to exercize.

Not all documents are locked documents

[yerricde]

Hollywood and the music industry are lobbying hard to make DRM mandatory in all new devices

Once the TCPA system becomes more widespread, Hollywood will have less room to bitch because there will be a Secure Memory Space(tm)(patent) in the most popular consumer operating system, and Hollywood studios will be able to provide Video On Demand services within that space.

and existing laws here and in the US make it a crime to switch it off.

Not exactly. The Palladium and TCPA systems simply provide a way to lock down data such that only specific applications running on one machine can use it. In order for Palladium or TCPA to actually restrict anything, the content provider must make the choice to lock down the data (conforming Compact Discs are not considered locked down). This doesn't give the RIAA labels an absolute oligopoly, as it's still possible for artists to Not Lock Down(tm) their .ogg files.

The public TCPA information stresses that only TCPA apps will use the TCPA memory space. Microsoft's Palladium materials make the same claim. And you'll apparently be able to turn off the systems in the BIOS setup, which will have only one effect: apps that use those systems will throw up an alert box to the effect "The locked document 'Love Me Now.wma' could not be opened because Palladium was not found." They do NOT force all documents to be locked documents.

Re:If you RTFA...

[Beliskner]

Every now and again something happens that makes us citizens have to start everything again from scratch. I say FSF buys the Altera FPGA kit, and we design our own processor (I hope to God that Intel doesn't keep the OP-codes secret that relate to Palladium).

We can program the FPGA with Intel instruction set compatibility, where Palladium instructions would be ignored, or design an add-on chip (like the old Pentium Turbo snap-on chips) which would detect the Palladium opcodes on the FSB and skirt around them. Whoa, am I violating the DMCA by suggesting this?

Government + Corporations versus Consumers, Saddam is just a distraction

You're kidding, right?

[Noose For A Neck]

Palladium means that anyone who wants to be able to view Palladium-protected media will have to have Palladium-compliant hardware. It's a goddamn goldmine for Intel and AMD! Imagine all the people who wouldn't otherwise bother to upgrade buying new chips so they can watch their DVD movies or whatever. That's a large amount of sales.

Re:You're kidding, right?

[Featureless]

A risky business. If customers become unhappy with "trusted computing," perhaps because it's main "feature" is restricing their activities or violating their privacy (and believe me, palladium will do both), they may reject the new hardware.

"Intellectual property politics" may be too complicated and confusing for most people to understand, but when it's sitting on their desktop, they will figure it out quick.

Customers (especially home users) may resist buying the new equipment, which both Intel and AMD are in a poor position to afford. Apple (which has, by the way, put a large amount of effort into promoting open media - rip/mix/burn, ipod, etc) might not play ball with trusted computing, and reap huge rewards in new marketshare. Finally, free operating systems, especially Linux, might be catalyzed by the vast new community of people looking to take advantage of the next generation hardware without the restrictions of "Trusted" Windows (talk about an oxymoron).

Finally, lest we forget, palladium security will be broken, perhaps even before it is released. DRM is only a cage. Things only need to escape once.

Palladium is a giant loser, except possibly for Microsoft, who will use it to invoke the DMCA against open source authors who attempt to interoperate with their "secure" system. Against that, we can only hope the anti-trust judge is up enough on the issues to head off the issue with meaningful requirements (and enforcement) of an interoperability policy.

Re:Well I guess we can't win

[Com2Kid]

If you turn it off, you will be unable to use Palladium protected media,

For some reason I have the strong suspicion that most pirated videos or MP3s will NOT be Palladium protected. . . .

Call it a huntch. :-D

Re:Well I guess we can't win

[Powercntrl]

With any Palladium system, you will be able to disable Palladium in BIOS, so it _doesn't matter_ if a system supports it or not. If you turn it off, you will be unable to use Palladium protected media, just like pre-Palladium systems.

...and with any DIVX enabled player, you could just watch DVDs and never touch a DIVX disc, right? That is of course until DIVX "enhanced" players have a majority share in the market - then DVDs would have disappeared. Likewise, when most PCs support palladium, it will start becoming mandatory. Want to play that new FPS game online? It needs to run in a trusted enviorment to make sure you're not cheating. Want to run the latest version of MS Office because MS changed the document format yet again and you need to open documents from work? MS Office now requires Palladium support enabled to run. If you're presently not using a MS OS, it may be easy to overlook the significance of Palladium. Just remember, if you don't speak out for the Windows users because you're not a Windows user, just wait 'till big brother comes for you because "only hackers/terrorists/child pornographers use non-palladium hardware/software".

Let 'em know ...

[rlp]

Don't like Palladium - write to Intel and AMD and tell them
that you won't buy processors that support Palladium.
Intel backed-off CPU-ID's (for the Pentium III) quickly when
they realized that it would cost them sales. In general,
pissing off your best customers is not a smart long term
business practice.

If you write - remember: be concise and polite:

Intel:

Chairman: Andy S. Grove
CEO: Craig R. Barrett

Corporate Offices:
2200 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, California 95052, USA

AMD:
Chairman: W. J. Sanders III
CEO: Hector de J. Ruiz

Corporate Offices:
One AMD Place
P.O. Box 3453
Sunnyvale CA 94088, USA

Nope

[0x0d0a]

That's complete nonsense.

I disagree. He stated that Palladium can be disabled. It's a technical fact, and it also happens to be correct. Not nonsense.

Like playing Quake 3, or Counter-Strike? Better enjoy them while you can...soon you won't be able to play them without palladium enabled.

a) Learn about Quake. Quake's insane success was mostly because of massive online acceptance which was mostly due to piracy. This increased the value of the game, and sold more copies. id admitted as much. Quake is without a doubt the single *worst* example you could have chosen of a piece of software having incentive to have strong DRM. Almost any other piece of software would be a more valid argument.

b) This is tough for Windows warez-playing gamers. I have a tough time feeling sorry for them. It'll never affect Linux -- to do Palladium, you'd need universal blessed, signed binaries of the kernel. That will happen when hell freezes over, because Linus can't even stand distribution of binary code, much less universalized binary code.