--- begin forwarded text
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 17:01:05 +0100
From: Somebody
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: IBM to built crypto-on-a-chip into all its PCs
Posted 27/09/99 12:09pm by Tony Smith
IBM to built crypto-on-a-chip into all its PCs
http://www.theregister.co.uk/990927-000012.html
IBM will tomorrow launch an all-in-one encryption chip designed to
protect documents stored on desktop PCs and servers.
The chip, as yet unnamed, will be initially installed in IBM's 300PL
PC, but will soon be built into the company's full line of desktop
systems. Actually, the 300PL may not feature the new chip since it's
based on Intel's i820 chipset and, as Intel revealed today,
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/990927-000011.html>the i820's release
has been delayed indefinitely.
IBM said users will pay no more for a hardware encryption-enabled PC
than they will for a machine without the chip.
In addition to handling key encryption -- the technology most usually
associated with document protection -- the chip will also generate
and verify digital signaturees.
IBM's plan is clearly to make its machines more appealing to the
growing number of computer users buying desktops solely to surf the
Internet at do a little online shopping. The move should also make
its PCs more attractive to companies performing business-to-business
transactions over the Net.
Of course, Big Blue is keen to be seen as acting in everyone's
interest here, which is why the company's general manager for desktop
systems, Anne Gardner, told Reuters: "We want this to become an
industry standard. We want this on as many desktops as possible."
However, IBM clearly wants to retain a lead, which no doubt explains
Gardner's reluctance to discuss any plans the company may have to
licence the technology to motherboard vendors. All she would say on
the subject was a vague "you may see something along those lines in
the future".
Probably IBM will first want to see how attractive the technology is
to punters. At least the approach of using an ancillary encryption
chip should keep IBM safe from the nightmare Intel faced when it
attempted to railroad CPU ID numbers on users.
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
