So few TPM users

Posted May 8, 2013 10:38 UTC (Wed) by kbengston (guest, #6153)
Parent article: Garrett: A short introduction to TPMs

With such limited uptake of the technology after so many years, I wonder why TPM chips haven't been cost-reduced out of our PCs yet?

So few TPM users

Posted May 8, 2013 10:49 UTC (Wed) by lindi (subscriber, #53135) [Link]

Most consumer gear does not have a TPM. On professional laptops it is widely used for Windows bitlocker disk encryption afaik.

So few TPM users

Posted May 8, 2013 20:59 UTC (Wed) by rahvin (guest, #16953) [Link] (2 responses)

It's widely available in corporate laptops/computers. I believe a significant portion of the Fortune 500 use them for drive encryption of important and sensitive data. I believe it's pretty well required for compliance with HIPPA so most medical institutions are required to use it. The claimed features could be pretty handy, but I think part of what keeps them out of use is the absolutely horrible software. Honestly the manufacturers should open source the specs and interfaces, it would probably result in more sales and use of the technology.

So few TPM users

Posted May 8, 2013 22:16 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

TPM specs are actually open. It's just that using them is not that trivial and easy to get wrong.

I've used them in past (in medical industry) for remote attestation on trusted boots to make sure that servers are physically secure.

So few TPM users

Posted May 8, 2013 22:17 UTC (Wed) by luto (guest, #39314) [Link]

The relevant data is freely available. I've used it, and it's actually not completely awful. What is rather awful is the officially sanctioned API between the various components of the software stack (e.g. TSPI). What's even worse is the undocumented TCP-based protocol that client software uses to talk to the trousers daemon.

The ChromeOS people have a project called "trunks" that's rather special-purpose but avoids relying on trousers.

Shameless plug: My tpmkey project has been languishing. Eventually I'll spruce it up and make it awesome. Anyone want to help?

So few TPM users

Posted May 16, 2013 12:10 UTC (Thu) by phred14 (guest, #60633) [Link]

I've been thinking of building a new computer this fall, and one of the candidate mobos by Asus has a TPM option for about $20. The last several corporate laptops I've had have had TPMs.

I've been interested for some time now about actually using one of these TPMs for my own security purposes. One of these days, maybe...