Palladium Debuts

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Palladium makes debut


By James Riley

October 30, 2003


MICROSOFT has given developers the first look at its long-awaited Palladium
security and authentication architecture with the launch of its first SDK
(software developers kit) at a conference in Los Angeles.

Palladium was the project name given to a fundamental redesign of PC
hardware and software architectures to improve inherent security problems.

The project was subsequently renamed NGSCB (Next Generation Secure Computing
Base) and is being pursued by an affiliation of PC industry vested interests
under an organisation called the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA).

The release of the NGSCB SDK at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Forum
represents the first time the development community has been given an
insight into the design requirements of the system.

Broadly, NGSCB is a security system based on a hybrid of new hardware and
software technologies. Its impact on the PC industry will be fundamental -
requiring PC hardware vendors to make fundamental changes to motherboard
designs, and for the deployment of entirely new operating systems.

Because the NGSCB standard won't run older applications - or at least older
applications won't be able to take advantage of its security features - the
IT industry's largest players have lined up to make sure they are ready with
their own value-added products well ahead of time.

No surprise then that the TCPA is chaired by founding members IBM,
Microsoft, HP, Intel and AMD. Perhaps a hundred other primarily software
houses belong to the group, seeking to ensure their own vested interests are
looked after as the standard is designed.

For Microsoft, NGSCB is a key technology underpinning the next generation of
Windows, currently known under its project name of Longhorn.

For Intel, NGSCB will lead to entirely changed hardware architectures. PCs
will ship with a chip set of two microprocessors, with the secure
applications being processed on an entirely separate chip, and with
authentication mechanisms hard-wired into the system.

And the application developers to whom the SDK was released yesterday will
be completely re-writing their code, because the new security standard is to
become a subset feature of Microsoft's Longhorn platform.

NGSCB is not an evolutionary change in IT security, according to Microsoft's
Security Business Unit senior director, Jon Perera, but a fundamental
platform change, requiring a complete rethink in processes and design for
both developers and users.

Although design work of the NGSCB security standard is expected to be
completed well before the launch of Microsoft’s next-generation Windows
operating system, it won't find it's way into the companies product line
until Longhorn launches.

Mr Perera stresses the SDK launched at the Professional Developers
Conference is a first look at NGSCB, and that there will be changes added as
more work is completed.

Microsoft's independent software vendor (ISV) community has been anxiously
awaiting the release of the SDK, because the effort to re-architect
applications to run to NGCSB and Longhorn specifications will not be easy or
fast. 

Naturally, Microsoft wants software developers to have early access to the
code so that when Longhorn makes it to commercial launch - scheduled for
2006 - there will be a slew of applications available to run on the platform
from day one.

"This is really a major milestone," Mr Perera said. "It's not just another
revision around secure computing, but rather it's now turning what was a
vision two years ago into a reality."

"There is a huge demand for (the SDK), because Microsoft has been talking
about Paladium for quite a while. And ISVs really need to know that what was
pie in the sky is (now becoming) reality," he said.

Mr Perera said although Microsoft's NGSCB develop program was being
conducted within its Security Business Unit - as opposed to the platform
group developing Longhorn.

But its release by the company would be "in lock-step" with Longhorn through
the Beta 1, Beta 2 and release schedules.

He said the NGSCB hardware chip sets would start to appear in business PCs
in 18 months to two years.

But the process of transforming the global PC user base to the new security
standard was one that would take 10 years or more.

"I think of it in the same way that the 64-bit processor (was introduced),"
Mr Perera said.

"When it first shipped, there weren't a lot of applications that took
advantage of 64-bit computing... you had databases (and infrastructure
software), but you don't have Outlook for 64-bit, for example. And it's not
like there's home movie editing software out there that is made for 64-bit -
but there will be," he said.

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