Trusted Computing

[TonyMcFadden]

catching up on messages.

This may be an old topic, but I've just read the thread today (the latest 70 posts, anyway)

'trusted computing' as a specicialist tool I've seen for many years also. The company I worked for sold software that would only run on a machine that had a hardware key installed. Typically it was a a 'dongle' affixed to the parallel port of the computer.

That was not ubiquity and was a pain in the ass.

I don't think TPM alone will make trusted computing, but it is a first and necessary step.

IBM has publically stated that half of their machines, by the end of the year, will ship with TPM.

HP/Compaq, Acer, and Fujitsu are also selling boxes with TPM.

NSM, Infineon, Atmel and ST Micro are manufacturing TPM.

Intel now is shipping at least 4 (and I think Doma found a couple of others) with TPM as an option.

It's NOT ubiquitous yet, but I do see it going the way of the USB port. All machines will have them. Whether they are used or not is up to the customer.