On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 4:22 AM, Mirimir <mirimir@riseup.net> wrote:
then it is not possible to build a trusted CPU.
You watch while... I collect wood and ore and smelt into axe, you trust axe. I split tree and assemble hut, you trust hut. I put wheel in water and make mill, you trust flour. I give you magical computer before I make abacus, you throw in river and order me make abacus first. Eventually trusted CPU is made.
Woah! How many years to build the tool chain to a trusted CPU?
As before, the knowledge already exists, so physical replication from the ground up should be very fast. TCSEC is not unknown, but designing and embedding it into every process is rather new (both as mindset and applied) so it will take some time and must be done beforehand.
Also, how many people? And how to trust them? One bad apple, you know.
Again... draw interested people from multiple philosophical sectors, use multiple man rule, consensus rule. You don't have to trust them outside the fab, only observe them inside. The more principled zealots like Stallman and Juan involved the more likely somone will flag upon trust violation. The human problem is hard. But at the end of the day, if the outcome of the project (trusted chips) is important, the right people will come together to do it and the level of trust achieved will be orders of magnitude higher than what exists today.