[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >my understanding from a person active in the NEA working group (IETF) is that >TPMs these days "come along for free" because they're included on-die in at >least one of said chips.
Check again. A few months ago I was chatting with someone who works for a large US computer hardware distributor and he located one single motherboard (an Intel one, based on an old, possibly discontinued chipset) in their entire inventory that contained a TPM (they also had all the ex-IBM/Lenovo laptops, and a handful of HP laptops, that were reported as having TPMs). He also said that there were a handful of others (e.g. a few Dell laptops, which they don't carry) with TPMs. I've seen all sorts of *claims* of TPM support, but try going out and buying a PC with one (aside from IBM/Lenovo and the handful of others) - you have to look really, *really* hard to find anything, and if you do decide you specifically want a TPM-enabled MB or laptop you're severely restricting your options (unless it's a Lenovo). Unless something truly miraculous happens, TPMs are destined to end their lives as optional theft-discouragement gadgets for laptops (assuming they're running Windows XP, or possibly Vista if you can find the drivers). They've certainly failed to make any impression on the desktop market. Peter. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]