Arm co-founder: Sale to Nvidia would be a disaster

Re:Arm co-founder: Sale to Nvidia would be a disaster by feanaro on Sunday August 16, 2020 @04:42AM (#24176247)

> But then you realize, that although you, the user/buyer, can build/run some custom code on there, you'll never be able to tell for sure, if you did not get a version/series with a gimped HWRND, or other (security-reducing) goodies. Targeted attacks will become very easy for anybody, who can pressure companies/engineers into adding something for (a subset of) the customers, or can reroute/intercept device shipments to you.

I fail to see how this is different from today's situation. What's stopping targetted attacks via custom modifications of ARM or x86 chips?

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Re:Arm co-founder: Sale to Nvidia would be a disaster by stragies on Sunday August 16, 2020 @05:29AM (#24176425)

> What's stopping targeted attacks via custom modifications of ARM or x86 chips?

Nothing, if you have power over the manufacturers. (Usually governments)

But now, with RISC-V, anybody with deep enough pockets to spare a few million can create fake silicon, where you'd need an electron microscope to prove, that you got an "enhanced by TAO" chip.

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Re:Arm co-founder: Sale to Nvidia would be a disaster by armitron on Sunday August 16, 2020 @01:53PM (#24179717)

> anybody with deep enough pockets to spare a few million

Which for all intents is ... governments.

So no real difference.

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