DRM Tinkering with Intel's PXA270?

[Eugen Leitl]

Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/07/1137224
Posted by: Cliff, on 2005-01-07 20:10:00

   from the don't-refuse-me dept.
   putko asks: "Intel has a new line of chips with DRM built in. This
   appears to be the [1]very first DRM-enabled chip to hit the streets.
   This microprocessor is unlike others available, because the user
   doesn't have complete control over the thing, and [2]your computer can
   (theoretically) betray you. For a while now, there have been computers
   (IBM ThinkPad) that won't boot unless you give the password, but you
   could always rip out the hard drive and read it, right? With this
   chip, the keys and RAM are on the chip, and the flash is encrypted, so
   this really looks locked up tight. Has anyone worked with this chip,
   and is possible to build your own device that uses the Intel Trusted
   Wireless Platform to protect your secrets (like your software,
   perhaps)?"

   [3]Click Here

   "I'm reminded of this due to Slashdot's recent story on the [4]iPAQ,
   which uses the chip (and has some neat security features too).
   Somewhat surprisingly, nobody brought up the Doomsday scenarios,
   there. It should also be mentioned that there are companies [5]selling
   incredibly tiny boards for it. Maybe you can run Linux on them?
   Wouldn't it suck if the chip had the capabilities and you couldn't use
   them in your own projects -- e.g. if that was just reserved to big
   companies like Microsoft? On the other hand, if you can use the
   features, you might see some neat applications. Assuming you can
   program the DRM stuff, how do you avoid locking yourself out of the
   chip while developing? What extra pitfalls may developers run into
   using it?"

References

   1. http://www.intel.com/design/pca/prodbref/253820.htm
   2. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html
   3.
http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=5717&alloc_id=12468&site_id=1&request_id=7795214&o
p=click&page=%2farticle%2epl
   4. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/05/2043247&tid=100
   5.
http://www.strategic-test.com/pxa270_pxa255_sbc/triton-270_pxa270-cpu_sbc.htm
l

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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