Stanford CIS

Apple and the TPM

By Stefan Bechtold on

As recent news (Wired and CNet) indicates, Apple is using an Infineon TPM chip in order to bind its forthcoming x86-based version of Mac OS to particular hardware platforms (although the story is disputed, see here). The OSx86Project develops a version of Mac OS that can be run on any arbitrary x86 platform. This is just another example of how companies attempt to tie products and/or services together by technology. Apple is doing a similar thing with its iTunes service and the iPod player. There are many other examples.

Whether that's a valid strategy from an economic and legal point of view is a complex question. It's going to be interesting whether Apple will try to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act against the OSx86Project.

Published in: Blog , tcblog