Lenovo's, Clain Anderson, says, "TPM-equipped consumer PCs could show up as soon as the end of this year...."
Claim Anderson, Lenovo's program director for wireless security stated the following:
"Regardless of public perceptions, TPM-equipped consumer PCs could show up as soon as the end of this year, Anderson predicted.
"I think [the TPM] will end up just being there—it'll be cheaper to include it than to not. Its [cost is] almost nothing, so … why not?" he said. "All the buzz in Taiwan [where a huge portion of the computer parts industry is located] is, 'You've got to have a TPM.' When I heard that start happening, I knew we'd gone ubiquitous."
TPMs have only been offered in business PC models to date. However, industry observers predict that they will also migrate to consumer PC models in the near future as module prices come down and software takes better advantage of the technology.
ADVERTISEMENT Module costs are indeed coming down, thanks to integration. Although many still come as stand-alone chips, modules are being added to chips used in network interface cards and for other functions, making the modules easier to drop into PCs.
Gateway and HP, for example, use a BroadCom Corp. network card, which incorporates a TPM module following the TCP's TPM 1.2 specification.
Lenovo uses a TPM module that's built into a Super I/O chip from National Semiconductor Inc.
Endpoint's Kay predicts that the majority of TPM modules added to PCs will be integrated into other components. Eventually, he said, Intel will likely add a TPM module directly to one of its chip sets, which are the equivalent of a PC's nervous system.
The biggest barrier to fully adopting the modules for groups such as consumers and small businesses won't be cost, however, but ease of use. The ability to interact with TPMs via software must be improved, observers say.
"There will be a time when not only Gateway, but the industry at large starts to integrate this kind of functionality into a consumer platform," Gateway's Deihl said. "But if you look at the software, we're not there as an industry."
Describing today's software as "cryptic at best," Deihl added that Gateway has been working with third parties to foster easier interfaces. The PC maker plans to bolster its TPM hardware with new software later this year.
But Deihl said he expects that Windows Vista's TPM support will also lend improvements. The forthcoming operating system, due in the third quarter of 2006, will support the use of a TPM chip which supports the TCG's TPM 1.2 specification for functions such as storing encryption keys if one is present in a PC, Microsoft has said.
Windows Vista will also deliver "secure startup" by using a TPM to lock down its hardware and software.
"Having Microsoft do the usual integration of the enabling pieces will help us quite a bit," Deihl said.
Ease of use is also a top priority among numerous other companies that are working on TPM software. Lenovo, in one example, plans to roll out an easier-to-use software suite for its TPM module in August.
The application, Lenovo's Client Security Solution Version 6.0, focuses on making it easier to set up TPM-assisted security, including file encryption, password management and the ability to work with accessories such as Lenovo's fingerprint reader, said Clain Anderson, Lenovo's program director for wireless security.
"Particularly, we're aiming at small business with this—folks that don't have a huge IT staff and can turn this on and get productive immediately," he said.
Popular perception of TPM modules and their potential uses could be another potential hurdle, observers say. Although TPM modules have been associated with DRM or digital rights management, a controversial concept that some people view as companies trying to control how they use certain applications or data on their PCs, Berger said TPMs were was not created to assist DRM.
Instead, TCG envisions TPM's use among consumers as being to assist with passwords, encrypt sensitive personal files and help protect eCommerce transactions.
"We are not and never have been … interested in doing DRM, and we don't have anything that would give people a complete solution to do that," Berger said. While a TPM could technically be used to assist in a given DRM setup, "It's not physically or technologically possible using just a TPM," he said.
Regardless of public perceptions, TPM-equipped consumer PCs could show up as soon as the end of this year, Anderson predicted.
"I think [the TPM] will end up just being there—it'll be cheaper to include it than to not. Its [cost is] almost nothing, so … why not?" he said. "All the buzz in Taiwan [where a huge portion of the computer parts industry is located] is, 'You've got to have a TPM.' When I heard that start happening, I knew we'd gone ubiquitous."
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