The Trusted Computing Group is a group formed in 2003 as the successor to the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance which was previously formed in 1999 to implement

Trusted Computing Trusted Computing (TC) is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning that is distinct from the field of confidential computing. With Trust ...

concepts across personal computers. Members include

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

. The core idea of trusted computing is to give hardware manufacturers control over what software does and does not run on a system by refusing to run unsigned software.

History

On October 11, 1999, the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (abbreviated as TCPA), a consortium of various technology companies including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft, was formed in an effort to promote trust and security in the personal computing platform. In November 1999, the TCPA announced that over 70 leading hardware and software companies joined the alliance in the first month. On January 30, 2001, version 1.0 of the Trusted Computing Platform Specifications was released IBM was the first original equipment manufacturer to incorporate hardware features based on the specifications with the introduction of its ThinkPad T30 mobile computer in 2002. In 2003, the TCPA was succeeded by the Trusted Computing Group, with an increased emphasis on mobile devices. Membership fees vary by level. Promoters pay annual membership fees of $30,000, contributors pay $15,000, and depending upon company size, adopters pay annual membership fees of either $2,500 or $7,500.

Overview

TCG's most successful effort was the development of a

Trusted Platform Module A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a secure cryptoprocessor that implements the ISO/IEC 11889 standard. Common uses are verifying that the boot process starts from a trusted combination of hardware and software and storing disk encryption keys. ...

(TPM), a

semiconductor intellectual property core A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

that conforms to the specification to enable

trusted computing Trusted Computing (TC) is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning that is distinct from the field of confidential computing. With Trust ...

features in computers and mobile devices. Related efforts involved Trusted Network Connect, to bring trusted computing to network connections, and Storage Core Architecture / Security Subsystem Class, to bring trusted computing to disk drives and other storage devices. These efforts have not achieved the same level of widespread adoption as the trusted platform module.

Criticism

The group historically faced opposition from the

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

community on the grounds that the technology had a negative impact on the users' privacy and can create customer lock-in, especially if it is used to create DRM applications. It received criticism from the

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...

communities, as well as the software development community in general.

ISO standardization

In 2009, ISO/IEC release trusted platform module standards * ISO/IEC 11889-1:2009 Information technology—Trusted Platform Module—Part 1: Overview * ISO/IEC 11889-2:2009 Information technology—Trusted Platform Module—Part 2: Design principles * ISO/IEC 11889-3:2009 Information technology—Trusted Platform Module—Part 3: Structures * ISO/IEC 11889-4:2009 Information technology—Trusted Platform Module—Part 4: Commands

References

External links

* {{Authority control Computer security organizations Trade associations based in the United States Companies based in Beaverton, Oregon Computer companies established in 2003 American companies established in 2003 2003 establishments in Oregon Computer companies of the United States Computer hardware companies Software companies of the United States