"The T1 also sends pixels to the Touch Bar though the MacBook’s main processor is what actually renders that content which is then sent over."
I am a bit worried about the author. Is Matthew having a stroke?
Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
81–90 of 142 posts
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#82I think it's a pity that the Touch Bar was not designed with a dedicated area that can only be rendered by the T1 processor directly. If that were the case, then network services could communicate directly with the user via the Touch Bar, authenticating themselves with cryptography that cannot be broken by anything running on the main system processor. This would have provided a truly trusted mechanism for apps to co…
Apple's demo showed payee name being rendered on the right side of the Touch Bar, https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Gallery_Tou...
Ars claims that the rightmost 608 pixels ("Control Strip") of the Touch Bar are reserved for Apple, http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/10/15-hours-with-the-13-ma...
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#83Quick question -- what's so good about ARM specifically? Aren't there other minimal architectures, maybe even one with lower/no licensing costs?
ARM processors are the best at low power and this allows longer battery life [1].
[1] http://www.androidauthority.com/arms-secret-recipe-for-power...
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#84" The T1 also sends pixels to the Touch Bar though the MacBook’s main processor is what actually renders that content which is then sent over. " I am a bit worried about the author. Is Matthew having a stroke?
That's a valid (albeit awkward) sentence.
The T1 also sends pixels to the Touch Bar, although the MacBook's main processor is what actually does the rendering for said pixels (which are sent).
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#85Can we expect Error 53 after you spill something on the keyboard destroying Touch strip = and computer stops booting .. but you have important data on SSD that is now SOLDERED permanently to the motherboard, and Apple doesnt offer data recovery (only logic board swap at a low low price of $2/3 whole computer) so only option is independent repair shop?
>SSD that is now SOLDERED permanently to the motherboard
Citation needed.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point, but then why not implement the delay in immutable (and trivial and cheap) hardware? Is this not both simpler and more secure?
I guess, yeah, you could do it in hardware. But I don't think, then, it ends up being directly connected to the power feed for the camera itself, yeah? You start creating false-status cases. (This is speculation; I am not an electronics wizard.)
Power->delay off circuit->LED. Seems pretty direct to me. The delay off circuit would probably have its own connection to power as well.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#87Not really that surprising. Your average laptop nowadays probably has more ARM cores than x86 cores. They're in all kinds of peripherials like wifi controllers, power supplies, harddisk controllers, GPU job control, heck even AMD's recent APUs come with an integrated Cortex-A5.[1] ARM cores are everywhere, people just don't know about it. [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/6007/amd-2013-apus-to-include-...
Laptops have what is known as an "embedded controller" to handle peripherals like keyboard/touchpad, power management, and fan control. Most of them seem to be low-power 8/16-bit MCUs like 8051 and H8S, but I wouldn't be surprised if newer ones use ARM too. ...and don't forget Intel ME, which is not ARM but another processor in the system.
New ME is apparently a SPARCv8 core. Older ones were ARC.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
The basic idea is that this is an area of the system that even you as the owner cannot inspect, but I'll let others do the bulk of the explaining: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/civilwar.html http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
It's interesting to me that you feel this way. Do you also object to the Secure Enclave architecture on the iPhone?
I object to the iPhone entirely, and to a (only slightly) lesser extent, Android devices. Securing against non-owners attacks is one thing, but securing against the owner is definitely repulsive for me. It is sad that the single adjective "secure" has been confusingly used for both.
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#89Not really that surprising. Your average laptop nowadays probably has more ARM cores than x86 cores. They're in all kinds of peripherials like wifi controllers, power supplies, harddisk controllers, GPU job control, heck even AMD's recent APUs come with an integrated Cortex-A5.[1] ARM cores are everywhere, people just don't know about it. [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/6007/amd-2013-apus-to-include-...
Hell some (all?) Macbooks even have FPGAs
What is the FPGA used for?
Re: Intel driven MacBook Pros have secondary ARM processor for Touch ID and security
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's interesting to me that you feel this way. Do you also object to the Secure Enclave architecture on the iPhone?
I object to the iPhone entirely, and to a (only slightly) lesser extent, Android devices. Securing against non-owners attacks is one thing, but securing against the owner is definitely repulsive for me. It is sad that the single adjective "secure" has been confusingly used for both.
That makes sense, and is a totally coherent point of view. You're more than typically clueful about these subjects, and it's interesting to get the "against" take on the SEP. Like a lot of systems-y security people, I tend to see it as an unalloyed good, and a big part of what makes the iPhone the most secure computing platform in the industry. But nobody can reasonably argue that it's the free-est.