Intel chip to include antipiracy features!

Bracing itself for another potential fight with computer privacy advocates, Intel Corp. said yesterday that its next generation of microchips, due next year, would include anti-piracy features that will protect computers against hackers and viruses while giving digital publishers powerful new tools to control the use of their products.

The technology, code-named LaGrande, was designed to protect computers from viruses and bad-natured hackers. But the feature will also give Hollywood, the recording industry, and software makers much stronger controls over the way consumers use their digital music, films, and computer programs.

Publishers, for example, may prevent PCs that run LaGrande and Microsoft Corp.'s software-based Palladium security technology from copying CDs, forwarding certain documents, or running unlicensed software.

Paul Otellini, Intel's president, said the chip maker would include no copyright protections in LaGrande, but he acknowledged that digital publishers could use the technology with software programs such as Palladium to create their own.

Intel intends to include the technology in the Prescott chip design, which will succeed the Pentium 4 as the Santa Clara, Calif., company's flagship PC chip in the second half of 2003.

Until then, consumer advocacy groups say they will lobby to ensure that publishers don't use these so-called secure computing initiatives to spy on PC users.

"These systems are likely to police copyright by watching who consumes what," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. "There are grave consequences for privacy with these systems," he added.

Intel's LaGrande effort is part of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, a coalition of high-tech giants including Intel, IBM Corp., Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard Co.

While Intel is approaching secure computing at the level of the silicon chips and their accompanying components, Microsoft's Palladium initiative is software-based. Microsoft plans to include Palladium in future versions of the Windows operating system.

Privacy groups locked horns with Intel in 1999 over another attempt to solve the same security problems that LaGrande is tackling. Intel assigned a digital identifier, known as a processor serial number, to every new Pentium III chip, but disabled the feature a year later, after privacy groups said the serial number threatened to make anonymous Web surfing and Internet transactions impossible.

Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, said LaGrande appeared to give users more control over the information revealed about themselves than the processor serial numbers. His group is meeting regularly with Microsoft and others to monitor their intentions.

"A lot of what's decided is going to be on the policy side, not the technical side," he said.

Seth Schoen, staff technologist for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Palladium and LaGrande could create a computing environment that is safer for publishers and their content, but less safe for computer users looking to maintain their privacy.

By protecting vaults of data and the pathways that transfer them within the PC, LaGrande will prevent viruses from infecting central parts of the computer, make it harder for hackers to take over computers remotely, and allow for more secure e-commerce transactions, Otellini said in a speech at Intel's twice-yearly developer forum yesterday.

But, he added, the chip maker learned from the processor serial number debacle. In "creating a safer computing environment," he said, Intel is working with privacy groups "to ensure that we do it in ways that are acceptable to the norms of privacy today."

Intel used its developer forum to announce other new technologies and show off designs of the future. Demonstrations included an experimental Pentium 4 chip that designers ratcheted up to 4.7 gigahertz, nearly twice as speedy as the fastest chip on the market, a 2.8 gigahertz chip. They also showed a sneak preview of a chip code-named Madison, which is the next iteration of Intel's Itanium line of server chips.

Finally, Intel said it would move a new technology, currently being used in server chips, into top-of-the-line desktop computers this year. The 3.0 gigahertz Pentium 4, due this quarter, will include a feature known as hyper-threading, which improves performance as much as 30 percent with some software applications by making one processor act like two.

source: iex

Technodrome

 

AMD, AMD!

 

Why? Because the safest computer is one that won´t start? http://www.plauder-smilies.de/burnbg.gif

Regards,

Pieter

 

lol mine starts every time I tell it to ;-)

 

What really bothers me about this - meaning Intel and Microsoft - is that they're assuming the responsibility of enforcing copyright law when that rightfully belongs to the legal system.

 

Well said Checkout !

 

Sombody mentioned Microsoft, Intel and AMD

What about the rest? "Intel's LaGrande effort is part of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, a coalition of high-tech giants including Intel, IBM Corp., Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard Co."

I would not ever use an AMD again. I will not use ASUS mobo's
I WILL use SuperMicro or Intel. I will not buy a DELL because they are way overrated for the money. I just bought a nice shiny new HP laptop
though...

 

Hi Controler,

Off topic here but:
About Asus motherboards: did I miss something?
(Still using Asus P2B.......).

Cheers, Jan.

 

http://www.apple.com/

No Windows DRM spyware or EULA granting M$ admin rights.
No Intel LeGrande DRM spyware.
No AMD Palladium DRM spyware.



Maybe Steve Jobs should consider that as a marketing strategy.

 

Looking better all the time Mike.
As for Dell being over rated. I have owned four of them, and am using two of them now. Best cluck for the buck I ever got. I wish they would start making Macs.

 

FanJ

Maybe you have one of the ASUS mobos that doesn't run the heat off the CPU right on top of the RAM?

 

Oops Controler, I wouldn't know, should have a look, I guess

 

Dell's support is slipping badly I hear, but I have to respect them for giving Microsoft the finger on their license deal. M$ forbids them from making computers without an OS on the hard drive, so Dell creates a new line (in name only) to get around that.

 

This article is related and relevant to this thread.

Intel's New Chip for Security Renaissance

Hideous viruses and terrifying hackers will soon be neutralized so that the computing public might finally doze blissfully in a cocoon of safety, Intel announced yesterday at the Developers' Forum. The proposed solution is LaGrande -- which is not, as it sounds, a genteelized pickup truck for suburban use, but a hardware system which will control your computing experience for your own good. It will prevent you from doing silly things by sandboxing numerous risky processes and apparently establishing a secure sanctum sanctorum on one's HDD along lines of the IBM rapid restore gimmick.

Details are sketchy, but LaGrande is, we're assured, "a new level of safer computing," according to Intel COO Paul Otellini, who gave the keynote address and announced the new initiative. It will also be engineered to dovetail with Microsoft's 'Palladium' controlled-computing scheme, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Read More.....

 

I give the whole thing twenty-four hours before inventive minds render it totally impotent. And good job if they do.

 

I agree with Checkout. If it ever comes to light then within a week or two there will be "patches" and "tweaks" and whatnot to disable the whole stupid thing. Waste of money engineering this crap.

I do find myself reallllly curious as to how they think that a processor is going to stop viruses. I mean, even if it COULD somehow stop current viruses, dontcha think the next ones would be written differently??

 

thus giving the writers of malware a clearly defined point of attack.

Regards,

Pieter

 

Not only that, but I am sure within a week or two of release, quick "kits" will begin to be sold that include a chip that (although you have to solder it on yourself) quickly and easily disables all of this protection measures.

DRM should NOT be left in the hands of the hardware makers (as Checkout said). If a particular program wants to include the features, Microsoft can always go about selling a "pre-made" DRM kit for Windows applications (which, of course, would ONLY affect those applications built using it).

What will come next? CD-players that refuse to play CD-Rs? DVD drives that refuse to play legally burned DVDs of home movies?

-Javacool

 

Last night I had a drm...



"Mr Gates? You bought a SpeedStar 2000 XL GT from us a couple of months ago?"

"Yes, what a sports car! 180 mph! Vroom...!"

"Yeah, well, we've discovered a bug in the Engine Management System and you need to bring it in. The engine could seize at high speeds."

"Oh, okay."

"And you'll have to sign the updated warranty agreement."

"Why? There's a fault, so you're obliged to fix it. Why should I sign anything?"

"Well, the fix involves limiting the top speed to 60 mph and adding phone-home capability to the on-board GPS."

"Hell, man! I don't want a sports car that only does 60! And I don't want my GPS to phone home!"

"Can't have one without the other. If you don't sign, your brand new car stays a deathtrap."

"So what's the GPS phoning home for?"

"In case you go out of you home state, Mr Gates. Seems some states want to charge a visiting fee."

"But I could get it all for free in a Ford! Dammit, I'm going to get my lawyers to rip that agreement apart and my lawyers are the best in the world!"

"I know...they're the people who wrote it. You see, the EMS runs under Windows CE."

"Gak!"

Yeah...how would you like them apples, Bill? And why are you and Intel so intent on "protecting" other people's copyrighted material, huh?

Dream on...drm off.

 

[Dreaming on mode]

The brakes wil not be available in normal mode. Try in save mode.... "crash"

Sorry, There was a timeout trying to activate the brakes.
A fatal exception has occured.

Bad BMW detected.
[Retry][Ignore][Cancel]

Illegal license type.
Autodestruct activated.

DOS crashed against a car containing windows. Press any key to fill out your insurance papers and press the horn to mail them.

[Waking up all wet mode]

Regards,

Pieter

 

LOL I love it but umm checkout? was data Pipe DRM ? LOL

 

ROFL!!!!!!

Checkout, can I republish that? That is hilarious. It's also pretty accurate.....

 

It might cost you a Karma Cookie, but sure...

 

That was very good Checkout! With your creativity and writing talents, you could expand that into publishable form! Just remember "Engine Activation"

Good Job!

John
Luv2Bsecure

 

Cool. I'll put that in my next newsletter. You have a site or something you'd like me to link to?
Y'all might get a kick out of this.