DRM, Intel, Sony, virtualization and backdoors
From: Peter Grandi (pg_nh_at_0502.exp.sabi.UK)
Date: 06/11/05
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Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 01:09:13 +0100
Some possibly engaging architectural trends may seem to emerge
from some disparate but aligned trends...
Lets' start with these engaging plans by Sony for PS3, thanks
again to <xenon360>:
xenon360> http://ps3forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=3011
xenon360> Ken Kutaragi Interview by Hiroshige Goto - pt.1 :
xenon360> "We Change Computing by PLAYSTATION 3" [ ... ]
[ ... ]
> G: For an OS to be run on Cell, Linux comes to mind.
> K: Though Linux is also a legacy, it can be a initial
> lead. For Cell, an OS is merely an application (laugh).
> The kernel runs on Cell (Cell OS hypervisor) and it
> takes the style in which multiple OSes as applications
> run on top of that (virtual machine). Linux will be
> put of course. If Linux can be put, Lindows or
> anything can be put.
[ ... ]
> G: Is it that you run an OS to use it as a computer?
> K: What I find strange is that while we've been calling it as
> a computer all the time, in the same business world Nintendo
> affirms it's a toy, it's a toy, to the outside world. So,
> even though we make supercomputer-class things that require
> an export control, the offices regard it as a toy.
> [ ... ]
> This time, we position it as a supercomputer. However, as
> there are people who don't see it as a computer if it's
> not filed as a computer, we make it run an OS. Cell can
> run multiple OSes simultaneously. So, to run an OS as it
> is and to say it's a computer, it needs an HDD.
> So, I think we'll put Linux (on an HDD) from the
> beginning... as a bonus. To file it as a computer.
[ ... ]
This seems to say that while Linux will be bundled with the
optional HDD, it will run as a guest operating system within the
Cell hypervisor, alongside games and DVD players and network
daemons.
Now, to my naive eye this is strikingly similar to Intel's DRM
and AMT hypervisor, both of which I suspect to be just sides of
the same technology:
http://WWW.DigitMag.co.UK/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4915
«While Intel steered clear of mentioning the new DRM
technology at its Australian launch of the new products,
Intel's Australian technical manager Graham Tucker publicly
confirmed Microsoft-flavored DRM technology will be a
feature of Pentium D and 945.
"[The] 945g [chipset] supports DRM, it helps implement
Microsoft's DRM ... but it supports DRM looking forward,"
Tucker said, adding the DRM technology would not be able to
be applied retrospectively to media or files that did not
interoperate with the new technology.
However, Tucker ducked questions regarding technical details
of how embedded DRM would work saying it was not in the
interests of his company to spell out how the technology
in the interests of security.»
«Conversely, Intel is heavily promoting what it calls
"active management technology" (AMT) in the new chips as
a major plus for system administrators and enterprise IT.
Understood to be a sub-operating system residing in the
chip's firmware, AMT will allow administrators to both
monitor or control individual machines independent of an
operating system.
Additionally, AMT also features what Intel calls "IDE
redirection" which will allow administrators to remotely
enable, disable or format or configure individual drives
and reload operating systems and software from remote
locations, again independent of operating systems.
Both AMT and IDE control are enabled by a new network
interface controller.»
Compare with a comment by usual pundit Cringely on the Apple
Intel lovestory, mentioning some interestng speculation:
http://WWW.PBS.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html
«Question 5: Is this all really about Digital Rights Management?
People "in the know" love this idea, that Hollywood moguls
are forcing Apple to switch to Intel because Intel processors
have built-in DRM features that will keep us from pirating
music and movies.
Yes, Intel processors have such features, based primarily on
the idea of a CPU ID that we all hated when it was announced
years ago so Intel just stopped talking about it.
The CPU ID is still in there, of course, and could be used to
tie certain content to the specific chip in your computer.»
In which I detect however what seems to me a grave understatement
of the issue, because if the DRM/AMT above is semi-accurate,
that's is not merely a CPU id.
Amazing coincidences?
Now let's imagine: how do you enforce DRM? For example:
* Well, there is a social and overt way: purchase some
congressmen and senators or whatever and make it illegal
to run operating systems written by an unlicensed party.
But this in effect turns Microsoft from an illegal monopoly
into a legally mandated one, hardly in the interests of IBM,
Intel, Sony or Apple, as well as being a bit confrontational.
* The technical and subtle way is to never allow direct access
from any code running on the CPU, including the OS, whichever
it may be, to any peripheral (including perhaps RAM).
Having a two level CPU, in which the real CPU runs a ''trusted
firmware'' or hypervisor which controls a virtualized CPU in
which OSes are run, can help a great deal, especially if, by
coincidence, DRM primitives have been added in the meantime
not just to DVD-ROMs but also to hard disks. It is also easy
to introduce it quietly.
Such an architecture then delivers for free things like Intel's
DRM and AMT or the ability to run simultaneously Linux, a game,
a DVD viewer and network daemons on the PS3.
Is this is the shape of things to come?
In this fine picture of a happy future there is also an added
bonus: the ''all your bases are belong to us'' effect, where
''us'' is whoever has the ''keys'' to the hypervisor, especially
if the hypervisor is remotely accessible as in Intel's AMT (and
most likely also in the case of the Cell hypervisor).
Sure, Intel will give _some_ of the keys to the corporate IT
managers to which AMT is directed, but who knows if they will
give all of them? One can also imagine that friendly government
agencies will be extremely grateful for some access to that
gigantic and tightly controlled backdoor called ''hypervisor''.
After all, such backdoor will allow them to nail all the usual
subhuman unpeople, terrorists, paedophiles, drug gangsters and
(whoever is today's hate figure for the middle classes). :-)
Note: maybe some people at Intel, IBM, Sony, and perhaps also
at those friendly agencies have read that good SF about Pham
Nuwen's training as a software archeologist and discoveries.
Not unlikely, there is even a company trying to realize a
crude version of ''smart dust''.
What else? Well, the Chinese government does not seem stupid, and
if they are not stupid they will probably try to fund their own
CPU companies (as well as OSes and backdoor, sorry, DRM free
media tech). Wait a moment, indeed, that's been happening on an
however small scale, for quite a while, even if obviously not
just for reasons of national security. Probably many comp.arch
regulars have noticed this:
http://WWW.Techimo.com/articles/index.pl?photo=16
«While the name of the project has changed over past couple
of years, the current generation of the Dragon microprocessor
core is known within international markets as "Godson." The
first Godson processor rolled out in the last half of 2002
and generated great amounts of speculation and interest from
all sectors of the semiconductor industry.
The Godson-1 is considered to be China's first internally
engineered design, and is built atop a proprietary core with
support for the popular RISC-based MIPS instruction set.»
http://WWW.EETimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160911551
«BLX IC Design Corp., one of China's best known developers of
homegrown processor technology, has released a 64-bit version
of its CPU that reportedly matches the performance of the
Pentium 3.
The company signed a handful of agreements this week with
local Chinese firms to include the Godson-2 core in products
ranging from routers to a system chip designed to implement
the audio visual codec specification, known as AVS, which is
emerging in China.»
and that some guy has done an ''open source'' implementation on
FPGA of something similar to the MIPS ISA minus the patented
instructions:
http://WWW.Opencores.orgo.UK/projects.cgi/web/mips/
and of course VIA from the province of Taiwan have bought out
years ago the Cyrix and Centaur x86 clone technology. Good
thinking ahead, for many reasons.
Bah! Time will tell. In the meantime I guess we can all feel
properly assured that companies like Intel, IBM, Sony, Apple and
Microsoft and all the friendly agencies are benevolent and care
very much about the best interests and freedoms and privacy of
their subjects. :-)
- Next message: Mud: "Re: Which linux on a beige G3?"
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