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One thing that is new with the 1,333MHz FSB Core 2 Duo processors is Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). This was formerly codenamed LaGrande Technology and is part of Intel’s Trusted Computing Initiative, which the company says is mainly focused around business users and the vPro platform.

With this in mind, Intel has opted not to include TXT in its flagship Core 2 Extreme QX6850 as the Extreme series are designed for gamers and enthusiasts, while the mid-range processors are designed for all end users. This is surprising and seems to highlight the fact that this is an optional feature that’s more business orientated than enthusiast orientated.

Intel describes the technology as “a concept of hardening the platform from software based attacks based on the expected behaviour of the platform and transactions.” Essentially, the computer will consistently behave in certain ways that are enforced by both hardware and software.

TXT is essentially a set of hardware extensions that work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip and goes beyond the Non-execution bit that has been a feature on recent processors from both AMD and Intel. The TPM is disabled in the BIOS by default, as determined by the open specifications that are freely downloadable.

However, when it’s enabled, it allows your machine to generate secure keys while also having access to non-volatile memory that cannot be accessed by anyone that isn’t authenticated to access it. Normally you’d think “that’s hackable” right? Well, not only does the TMP use a 2,048-bit encryption, the key is also not available to the owner of the machine as it never leaves the chip.

Trusted Computing has a much wider scope than just Intel’s products though, as AMD, HP, IBM, Infineon, Lenovo, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are also “promoters” of the Trusted Computing Group. There are many more companies that contribute to the initiative too, but rather than list them, it’s probably easier for us to just link to the comprehensive list of members.

The initiative has had its fair share of criticism and most of that is because of Microsoft’s vision for the technology, which was to essentially lock down the system in such a manner that nothing would be able to escape the Trusted Platform Module (or Secure Crypto Processor, as Microsoft coined it). Trusted Execution Technology and thus the Trusted Platform Module are both related to Microsoft’s Palladium technology, because they would be something that Microsoft’s controversial vision could use do add another layer of DRM.

Hopefully, given the fact that the Core 2 Extreme QX6850 doesn’t have Trusted Execution Technology enabled, TXT isn’t a technology that is going to be “abused”. Indeed, during my discussions with Intel on the technology, the company was pretty adamant that TXT is a business-focused feature.

For the most part I think that is where TXT could actually be of benefit as it’s essentially an extension of the Trusted Platform Module. I’ve got an IBM ThinkPad X60s notebook with a Trusted Platform Module inside and I find it incredibly useful – I’ve set aside a secure partition on my hard drive where I store sensitive data like invoices, budgets and digital copies of things like my mobile phone bill for example. No one can access this partition unless they are logged in as me, and if the hard disk were taken out and placed into another machine, the partition could still not be accessed, as it would look for the presence of the TPM chip.

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