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LaGrande, TCPA, and Palladium

Posted by michael on from the ties-that-bind dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Intel's Paul Otellini gave a talk to developers where Intel's project called "LaGrande" was mentioned. This project is aimed to create a "safer computer environment", that would consist of an advanced TCPA implementation. Some of the features it has deal with physically "protected execution, protected memory, and protected storage". When talking on LaGrande, Otellini said "it's a core technology that things like the Microsoft Palladium initiative can take advantage of to build much more stable platforms.""

6 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. The scariest part by darkpenguin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    However the most negative single feature of TCPA and Palladium is the nature of Palladium and the philosophy that has driven Microsoft's development and promotion of Palladium. I think this is probably the scariest part of the whole deal. They recognize what could happen but they press forward regardless.

  2. The sad thing is.... by Ezekiel+Zachariah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most people who hear about these projects don't really understand how little control or privacy these projects will leave us. As far as stable, thats just funny...These projects will not give us more stable software, just buggy software that will let us do less. Next they will be telling us about CPUs and HDs that require MS to work correctly. and I have the first coherent post on this subject :)

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    1. Re:The sad thing is.... by jbolden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I doubt it. In non protected mode you won't be able to decrypt the files. In protected mode the "exploiting program" will be running in a sandbox. One of the fundamentals of capacity systems (which is where the ideas behind palladium came from) "if programs can communicate they can collude".

    2. Re:The sad thing is.... by ealar+dlanvuli · · Score: 5, Insightful

      and what happens when you can no longer turn it off?

      (the first shot is always free...)

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    3. Re:The sad thing is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Microsoft is a monopoly. "Trusted Office" will not run with Palladium disabled. "Trusted Mediaplayer" will not run with Palladium disabled. Same for Trusted Outlook Express, Trusted Internet Explorer, Trusted Windows, Trusted whatever. You may still be able to turn your computer physically on without enabling Palladium, but you will quickly find it is no more than a paperweight unless you enable Palladium.

      As for Linux, I wouldn't count on being able to run it in the future if Palladium continues unchecked. M$ wants a 'trusted path' to the keyboard and to the mouse - and presumably to the network too. Linux may very well lose the ability to access those devices (either through technical or through legal means), making it 100% useless.

      As for the notion that M$ would NOT abuse their monopoly powers, well I wouldn't count on that...

    4. Re:The sad thing is.... by Alsee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why does it need a key? Palladium-locked data isn't going to jump all around the net--it's going to stay right at home, and be accessed only by the program that wrote it.

      It is a cryptographic system, it kas keys. The way access is restricted to approved programs is by signing the programs with a key.

      Palladium-locked data isn't going to jump all around the net

      Yes, a signifigant amount of Palladium data WILL be bouncing around the net. Content delivery, patch delivery, every time you try to view certain kinds of DRM files you'll be bouncing locked data off of an approval server. One of the feature Microsoft is hyping is that you can send locked E-mails to people.

      Microsoft's marketing hype about Palladium is extremely misleading. It does not do the good things they say it does, and it does do the bad things they say it's not intended to do. Palladium is Bad News (unless you happen to want to sell DRM content or you happen to want an ultimate lock-out against competition).

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