On Thu, Sep 04, 2003 at 08:16:13AM -0700, Dale Harris wrote:
This isn't exactly on topic, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. So with a mobo that would support this BIOS, could we still pop out the Phoenix BIOS and pop in a LinuxBIOS or FreeBIOS? http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1237519,00.asp
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Not a chance in hell I guess. I was lucky to be able to join a talk about the upcoming new and improved secure windows with an extra vertical separation between left and right, where right is the old kernel space, with on top the old user space. Basicly they stop trusting kernel space.
basic services | old user ------------------------------------- NEXUS | old kernel
The nexus would be some micro kernel with supposedly code that is open to peer review (no word about the license).
All circuits on board would be encrypted, all the way to the graphics card (eg. to securely display sensitive information, no word about attacks which use the radiation of the screen as the basis though :)
The BIOS will check the Nexus and its signature and then load it, the nexus then fires the operating system (only windows up till now I guess).
MS was having active connections with mobo manufacturers, but of course they need time for anything like this (imagine the changes required to the hardware ...). My guess is that this is one of the prime reasons for the delay of Longhorn to 2005. It will be presented as the saviour of the content industry. I wouldn't be surprised if lobbying towards people only being allowed to use trusted PCs would start at around the same time. This is all speculation though.
Not sure if the Phoenix DRM BIOS fits into this picture.
v