Latest on Palladium FAQ

TCPA stands for the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, an initiative led by Intel. Their stated goal is `a new computing platform for the next century that will provide for improved trust in the PC platform.' Palladium is software that Microsoft says it plans to incorporate in future versions of Windows; it will build on the TCPA hardware, and will add some extra features.

It provides a computing platform on which you can't tamper with the applications, and where these applications can communicate securely with the vendor. The obvious application is digital rights management (DRM): Disney will be able to sell you DVDs that will decrypt and run on a Palladium platform, but which you won't be able to copy. The music industry will be able to sell you music downloads that you won't be able to swap. They will be able to sell you CDs that you'll only be able to play three times, or only on your birthday. All sorts of new marketing possibilities will open up.

TCPA / Palladium will also make it much harder for you to run unlicensed software. Pirate software can be detected and deleted remotely. It will also make it easier for people to rent software rather than buying it; and if you stop paying the rent, then not only does the software stop working but so may the files it created. For years, Bill Gates has dreamed of finding a way to make the Chinese pay for software: Palladium could be the answer to his prayer.

There are many other possibilities. Governments will be able to arrange things so that all Word documents created on civil servants' PCs are `born classified' and can't be leaked electronically to journalists. Auction sites might insist that you use trusted proxy software for bidding, so that you can't bid tactically at the auction. Cheating at computer games could be made more difficult.

There is a downside too. There will be remote censorship: the mechanisms designed to delete pirated music under remote control may be used to delete documents that a court (or a software company) has decided are offensive - this could be anything from pornography to writings that criticise political leaders. Software companies can also make it harder for you to switch to their competitors' products; for example, Word could encrypt all your documents using keys that only Microsoft products have access to; this would mean that you could only read them using Microsoft products, not with any competing word processor.

"Bill Gates has dreamed of finding a way to make the Chinese pay for software: Palladium could be the answer to his prayer"

The Chinese may have ideas of their own... like the new Chinese CPU called the 'Dragon Chip' I don't think we will see a Dragon with DRM inside.

It will be strange indeed if we have to use a CPU built by communists just so we can stay away from big brother.

If DRM is added to all US CPUs and if it is mandated by law that it be always locked on then I predict we will end up running Linux on a Dragon chip ... the Dragon will probably be made at a Taiwan Fab.

See this story on at the Peoples Daily
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200209/27/eng20020927_104011.shtml

"The semi-conductor market in China's mainland will see an annual growth rate of 35 percent and a requirement of 17 billion chips before 2005. By the year of 2010, China is going to be the second large semi-conductor market of the world."
...according to a study this reporter was able to pull out of his a$$ after a night of hard drinking.

"Undergoing many a strict examination and test by the Computer Institution of the CAS and other authoritative organizations in China,"

...that is, after having its effectivity and functionality tested by the people that designed it and others whose livelihood depends on this thing being sold, we can say in all objectivity that it is flawless. What, would someone being coerced into working by an authoritarian government lie? C'mon! Get real...only you capitalist running dogs do that.

" the Dragon Chip is proved to be very sound in performance, steady and reliable in operation and utterly sufficient to meet the working requirement of the server and website."

Utterly sufficient. That's exciting stuff...if even in the press release bare adequacy is the best promise they can make, they must have some real stunners on their hands.

"Nevertheless, people are worried about it, thinking that though the "Dragon Chip" is designed on our own it will fall into the trap of foreign intellectual property rights provided it is compatible with that of the others. Dr Sun of the VIA Tech., the only chip-maker in the world able to match with the Intel was ever worried, since the old-brand manufacturers of the Intel CPU entered early into the market, applied and acquired many patent rights it was very difficult for the newcomers to make a detour away from these patents. Moreover, the Intel's monopoly of the market has made it to turn out an actual standard-maker in the market."

Translation from ingrish: It will be interesting to see how the foreign market reacts to having their technology ripped off, lumped together, and sold at a much lower price. Yeah, those naughty patent-holders...how dare they think of something first and then expect payment if someone else wishes to use their idea! The proletariat prevails!

"Therefore, it will not fall into the intellectual property right trap. "

Translation: We will continue to pour money into Democratic coffers to ensure that our blatant theft goes unpunished. Thank you, American sheeple, for your cooperation and submissiveness in this matter. Mind if we grab a few nuke blueprints as well?

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