ARM Protects AMD's Online Semiconductor Solutions
AMD will integrate a new security solution into its future
products to meet the increasing need to provide consumers and businesses with
secure access to their content and worry-free online transactions.
Through the strategic technology partnership, AMD will integrate
the ARM TrustZone technology into future Accelerated Processing Units (APUs)
via a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design methodology.
This industry-first collaboration will help accelerate broader
ecosystem support by aligning x86 hardware with one of the world's most
broadly-adopted mobile security ecosystems. By adopting the industry-standard approach to security that
TrustZone technology embodies, AMD and ARM aim to provide a consistent approach
to security spanning billions of Internet-connected mobile devices, tablets,
PCs and servers - whether they are powered by ARM processor-based solutions or
AMD x86 APUs.
AMD plans to provide development platforms that have TrustZone
security features on select APUs in 2013, expanding further across its product
portfolio in 2014. In a presentation this week at the AMD Fusion Developer
Summit 2012 (AFDS), AMD Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Mike Wolfe described AMD's vision to advance computing security by enhancing
AMD's existing security technologies.
This is expected to include developing a platform security processor using an ARM Cortex-A5 CPU that features TrustZone technology, to monitor and help protect against malicious access to sensitive data and operations at the hardware level.
"With AMD's support for, and inclusion in, the expanding TrustZone ecosystem, consumers and businesses can rest assured their data and content are secured by an industry-standard security solution that spans a multitude of devices and operating systems," said Wolfe. "This example of AMD's ambidextrous strategy, which leverages our history of x86 and graphics innovation while also embracing other technologies and intellectual property, will help drive a more secure computing experience for our consumer and business customers."
"As technology becomes more important to our everyday lives, security needs to be present in every single device. The challenge that the industry faces is how to make this a reality," added Ian Drew, executive vice president, strategy, ARM. "Through this technology partnership with AMD, and the broadening of the ARM TrustZone technology ecosystem, we're making another important step towards a solution. The aim is to make security accessible and consistent for consumers and business users across all computing devices."
AMD says that in recognition of the first time hardware will be aligned to an industry-standard security solution between multiple processor architectures, the technology partnership has garnered wide support from industry leaders and influencers.
"At Alipay, we strive to provide safe and reliable online payment services to hundreds of millions of registered users for the tens of millions of transactions they make every day," noted Stephen Zhu, senior director, Alipay. "By incorporating security at the hardware level, AMD and ARM are providing an added level of protection and taking us one step closer to achieving this goal."
"Hardly a week goes by without the emergence of another scary
story regarding stolen identities or some other computer-related security
breach - such as last week's hack of social career networking website LinkedIn
that resulted in millions of stolen passwords," observed Nathan Brookwood,
Research Fellow at Insight 64.
"The bad guys have figured out that it's easier to steal money from a bank's computers than from the bank itself. AMD's move to integrate ARM's TrustZone technology into future APUs will allow systems containing those APUs to attain the same level of hardware-enforced security as today's most advanced devices, and will allow the users of those systems to sleep more soundly at night.
ARM's TrustZone technology, a system-wide approach to security, is a key component of the ARM architecture and is integrated into the ARM Cortex-A processor series. The aim of the TrustZone ecosystem is to drive industry alignment and scalability. AMD says this will enable billions of TrustZone technology-based devices to meet the system security needs of consumers, service providers, enterprises and device manufacturers.
