Intel LaGrande Technology Explained

Introduction

LaGrande Technology (LT) is a new security technology that will be available on Intel’s next generation CPUs (Merom, Conroe and Woodcrest) to be released in 2006. In this tutorial we will explain its main features and how they work.

Nowadays all users are vulnerable to several treats that compromise security. We are not talking only about virus and spyware, but also about someone stealing your password or even your identity.

In Figure 1 you can find a summary why this happens.

Figure 1: Vulnerabilities of the PC.

The problem, as you can see in Figure 1, is that any software can have access to:

• Video memory: any software can create “fake” screens or “see” what the user is seeing.
• Input devices: any software can “see” or change what the user is typing.
• Memory: Any software can see what is inside RAM memory, so malicious software can capture or change data inside the system’s RAM memory.
• DMA: Software can access protected memory using the DMA controller.

So what LaGrande Technology does is basically address these issues, by creating a hardware-based protective layer for each one of these weak points present on your computer.