trustedcomputingwiki

Summary: A place to discuss what Trusted Computing really means, and how it will affect end users.
Discussion: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2403

I have no idea what Trusted Computing is. I've heard people say that it'll be the end of spam and viruses. I've hears others say that it will limit freedom to run programs you want to and use any files you want with your computer (I hope not). My new laptop comes with a Trusted Computing chip that just does some encryption things in hardware. What is TC actually? -- DalanGalma

I have some concerns about it after reading RMS's article about it and other articles by long time computer scholars on the internet.
I feel safer on non-windows systems now, honestly because I no longer have to fear trusted computing and ram addresses that are totally shut off from programs, even in kernel mode. If MS is to make people trust them, they should allow people to view the addresses for the nexus and be transparent about it.
Perhaps they could let DOS debug view the nexus in real time or make another tool.
I don't think an OS author should ever hide what's happening from somebody on their own machine. That's like a doctor giving you an operation but not telling you exactly what he did. I am totally against that. Computers are our tools and they should never become rentals. Nobody puts rental software on my calculator, so it should be so on my computer as well. At the very least, at least the operating system should not lock you out like xbox live. I won't use such a system and RMS is right.

I was reading this summary document
this morning. It gives a good overview of what NGSCB is and how it will work alongside the exising Windows infrastructure.

I expect there will be a lot more detailed info coming out of WinHec this week.

Trusted Computing is one of those over-arching buzzwords that defines a whole set of related technologies. Kinda like .NET :-) Here's the results of a quick Google search:
* WikiPedia definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_computing
* Top Microsoft hit: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/ngscb/default.mspx
* Counter-argument: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
-- JonathanHardwick

What about PC's that do not have the Trusted Computing chips in them? Are all Pentium 4's / AMD Athlons capable of this. If your PC does not have the required chip(s) does that mean it won't be trusted? -- sbc

Yes, it must have a TPM either on the motherboard or as part of the processor. This enables a seperate mode of operation and memory protection. It also provides hardware acceleration for cryptographic functions and contains a couple of secret keys that can uniquely identify that paticular machine. You would also need a special encrypted keyboard.

You can continue to use a non-trusted machine for as long as you want but you might be denied access to certain applications and rich media services.
Intel and Co are still working on the hardware for this (LaGrande), so it looks like it will not be a requirement for Longhorn.

New PowerPoint presentations on NGSCB from WinHec 2004
* NGSCB Architechture Update_WINHEC2004.ppt
* Secure Input Path_WINHEC2004.ppt
* Trusted Platform Module_WINHEC2004.ppt

I wonder if trusted computing may actually put people off? You are potentially tying yourself both to a software manufacturer (i.e. Microsoft) and a hardware vendor (i.e. Intel). Would it be easy for other systems (i.e. Linux, MacOS) to take advantage of the same technology?

Personally I think Pentium 4's are more than adeqaute and I can't see how a dual processor system (apparently average spec for Longhorn) is going to improve things like Word Processing (which is still perfectly fine on Pentium II, III machines). I also see there being an issue with discarding old hardware (it should be recycled rather than placed on landfills). I can see Microsoft having a much smaller share in the future (at least in terms of desktops and web/email servers). -- sbc