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Microchips With Multiple "Selves"

Posted by Soulskill on from the sounds-like-a-support-nightmare dept.

Stony Stevenson brings news from Rice University about designing integrated circuits with multiple distinct identities, which could be used in new types of hardware-based DRM, among other things. From the news release: "'With "n-variant" integrated circuits, it is possible to design portable media players that are inherently unique,' said Farinaz Koushanfar, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice and principal investigator on the project. 'New methods of digital rights management can be built upon such devices. For example, media files can be made such that they only run on a certain variant and cannot be played by another.' Koushanfar said content providers could also use n-variant chips to sell metered access to software, music or movies because the chips can be programmed to switch from one variant to another at a particular time or after a file has been accessed a certain number of times."

8 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. *Ahem* by Wandering+Wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is there a good use for this technology?

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    1. Re:*Ahem* by JonTurner · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A good use? Certainly: It illustrates beautifully that a hardware solution won't solve a social problem nor rescue a flawed business model.

  2. That number is... by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    after a file has been accessed a certain number of times

    For me and this technology that number would be 0.

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  3. And who's going to buy it? by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it can play unprotected audio, then all the DRM in the world isn't going to help anything. People will still swap mp3s. If it can't play unprotected audio, no one will ever buy it.

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    1. Re:And who's going to buy it? by TheSeventh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think that these companies will ever really "get" it and stop trying to eliminate the effects of DRM and sharing and look at the cause.

      This type of n-variant system will never work because if I own a copy of a song, I want to play it on my mp3 player, in my car, on my home stereo, or on my computer, depending on where I am and what I'm doing. All of these are legal activities, and I don't need to buy 4 copies of a song.

      So, if I can have 4 copies of a song I bought, then it becomes highly difficult for the record companies to make sure I don't take one of these copies and give it to someone else. This is one of the biggest flaws in their current business model.

      The other thing these people will never understand, is that with digital copies of ANYTHING, modifications can and will be made. A copy of a song that can only play on your mp3 player? Only until someone hacks the copy so it can play everywhere, rendering this "new technology" useless.

      People have and will always share music and movies and software and whatever else they either can't or don't want to pay for. What these companies should do is to make these items Convenient, Low-Cost and Available everywhere. Why steal that song when you can get it for under $1? Why burn a copy of that movie when you can get a high-quality version cheaply? Customers get what they want (high-quality, convenience, low-cost, etc.), and the companies continue to make money.

      Yet, these companies continue to piss more and more people off, and remain clueless. They screwed the customers with $15 CDs that had 1-2 songs anybody actually wanted. Then they resisted making individual songs available because the rest of the crap on a CD would never sell.

      The lesson they should have learned YEARS ago, is that if you piss off your customers, and don't give them what they want at a reasonable price, some of them will find a way around your restrictions, illegally if necessary.

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      Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
    2. Re:And who's going to buy it? by amRadioHed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're locked into iTunes, but not locked into the iTunes store. The iPod's would never have gotten so popular if people weren't able to supply their own mp3s.

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  4. Two things by digitrev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One: is this practical from a manufacturing perspective? If it isn't, this'll never take off the ground.

    Two: how much does this complicate programming? Is it possible to program for all variants at once? Can you make an interpreter to do so? If this makes the life of a programmer too goddamn difficult, it won't get off the ground.

    --
    Cynical Idealist
  5. And if you make your own? by Nerdposeur · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I record music. I wouldn't buy a player that won't let me play my own stuff, or my friend's stuff, just because an authority hasn't signed off on it.

    With home recording becoming cheaper and better all the time, I expect that this will be more of an issue in the future, not less. The era of "top-down" music distribution is ending.