[Cryptography] Speculation re Intel HW cockup; reqs. OS rewrites & slow execution

Dave Horsfall dave at horsfall.org
Fri Jan 5 18:27:26 EST 2018


On Fri, 5 Jan 2018, Jerry Leichter wrote:

> [...] and a completely separate ARM chip running various support 
> functions, including all kinds of security related functions.  No user 
> code gets in there, ever.  Obviously, this will have its own problems 
> and vulnerabilities - but it may be a path to the future. (Then again, 
> it may point to the deep past:  As I discuss this, the image that comes 
> back to me is of the CDC "super-computers" of the 1960's and 1970's: 
> User code in the "CPU"; OS/control code in completely separate "PPU"'s. 
> Forward into the past?)

Minor clarification: the OS (KRONOS, NOS, etc) did indeed run in the main 
CPU; the PPUs did the I/O, with one PPU reserved for MTR (the overall 
monitor) and another for DSD (Dynamic System Display) which drove the 
funky console[*]; they were PPU0 and PPU1, but I don't remember which was 
which (I sorta recall that MTR loaded DSD).

[*] Ah yes, the console...  Two big round screens (so a common game run in 
one of the PPUs was "EYE"), and a keyboard with the "0" key on the left 
:-(  The usual display configuration was one screen showing the RJE queues 
and the other showing a sort of dynamic "ps".

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."


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