[libero81]

Intel backs off LaGrande
by Geoff Gasior - 01:33 pm, September 18, 2003



The tinfoil hat crowd should no doubt be pleased to learn that Intel has backed off with some of its plans for "LaGrande" on-chip security technology. LaGrande will now be targeted at business rather than consumer markets, which makes sense. The technology won't be available on all of Intel's chips, either. Where LaGrande technology is available, users will always have the option to disable it.
"In our naivete as technologists, we blundered into this policy area and were pretty soundly criticized for it," says Mike Ferron-Jones, manager of advanced technology marketing in Intel's desktop platforms group. "We have learned a lot from that experience and as a result, we are being tremendously proactive... in developing policies around LaGrande technology deployment."
It's nice to see a big company like Intel admit when it's screwed up. Are you listening, NVIDIA?
Regardless of where it gets used, Intel has confirmed that LaGrande will not contain back doors. Apparently, Intel was in talks with law enforcement to provide back door access, but ultimately decided that was going a little too far.