Trusted Platform Module - Definition and Overview

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG), successor to the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA), is an initiative led by AMD, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sony, and Sun Microsystems to implement trusted computing.

TCG's major goal is the development of a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), an additional chip that can be included with computers that permits some trusted computing features.

See also: trusted computing, Fritz-chip.

Related projects

Chipmakers are developing systems that integrate a TPM with a normal chipset. Intel's is called LaGrande Technology (LT). AMD's is called Secure Execution Mode (SEM).

Microsoft's initiative is called NGSCB (formerly Palladium). It is expected to be a part of the next major Microsoft operating system release, codenamed Longhorn.

External links

• TCG official site (http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org)
• TCPA official site (http://www.trustedcomputing.org/)
• Against TCPA.com (http://www.againsttcpa.com/)

• Ross Anderson's TCPA/Palladium FAQ (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html)
• TCPA and Palladium Technical Analysis (http://wintermute.homelinux.org/miscelanea/TCPA%20Security.txt)
• Security in Open versus Closed Systems (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/ftp/users/rja14/.temp/toulouse.pdf) (PDF)
• Trusted Computing Platform Alliance homepage (http://www.trustedcomputing.org/tcpaasp4/index.asp)
• The Register story about Intel's LaGrande chip project (http://theregister.co.uk/content/3/27047.html)
• ExtremeTech article: Microsoft's Palladium: Security for whom? (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,263367,00.asp)
• Digital Rights Management issues in real-time and safety/mission critical systems (http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7225637142.html)
• AEL wiki on Trusted Computing with many links and press articles (http://wiki.ael.be/index.php/TrustedComputing)