Dell to Add Security Chip to PCs

[Tyler Durden]

ANyone familiar with computer architectures and chips able to answer this 
question:

That "chip"...is it likely to be an ASIC or is there already such a thing as 
a security network processor? (ie, a cheaper network processor that only 
handles security apps, etc...)

Or could it be an FPGA?

-TD

>From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
>To: cryptography at metzdowd.com, cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: Dell to Add Security Chip to PCs
>Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 15:59:59 -0500
>
><http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110727370814142368,00.html>
>
>The Wall Street Journal
>
>       February 1, 2005 11:04 a.m. EST
>
>Dell to Add Security Chip to PCs
>
>By GARY MCWILLIAMS
>Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>February 1, 2005 11:04 a.m.
>
>
>HOUSTON -- Dell Inc. today is expected to add its support to an industry
>effort to beef up desktop and notebook PC security by installing a
>dedicated chip that adds security and privacy-specific features, according
>to people familiar with its plans.
>
>Dell will disclose plans to add the security features known as the Trusted
>Computing Module on all its personal computers. Its support comes in the
>wake of similar endorsements by PC industry giants Advanced Micro Devices
>Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and International Business Machines
>Corp. The technology has been promoted by an industry organization called
>the Trusted Computing Group.
>
>The company is also expected to unveil new network PCs.
>
>
>--
>-----------------
>R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
>The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
>44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
>"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
>[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
>experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'