Hugo Landau has written a blog post about why Intel will never let hardware owners control the Management Engine. The Intel Managment Engine (ME) is a secondary microprocessor ensconced in recent Intel x86 chips, running an Intel-signed, proprietary, binary blob which provides remote access over the network as well as direct access to memory and peripherals. Because of the code signing restrictions enforced by the hardware, it cannot be modified or replaced by the user.
Intel/AMD will never allow machine owners to control the code executing on the ME/PSP because they have decided to build a business on preventing you from doing so. In particular, it's likely that they're actually contractually obligated not to let you control these processors.
The reason is that Intel literally decided to collude with Hollywood to integrate DRM into their CPUs; they conspired with media companies to lock you out of certain parts of your machine. After all, this is the company that created HDCP.
This DRM functionality is implemented on the ME/PSP. Its ability to implement DRM depends on you not having control over it, and not having control over the code that runs on it. Allowing you to control the code running on the ME would directly compromise an initiative which Intel has been advancing for over a decade.
(Score: 5, Informative) by requerdanos on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:56AM (1 child)
This was a FUD piece written by ARM (the R in ARM stands for RISC, in case you missed the relevance). It was so egregious that ARM pulled it quickly after the proper trouncing they got in the editorial tech press, which is why the link doesn't work.
Phoronix has a brief write-up [phoronix.com] of ARM's anti-RISC V claims from the hit job before it was taken down.
Anytime someone tells you some variation of "Get the truth" or "Get the facts", they are about to feed you propaganda that is either completely dishonest, or a mixture of truth and lies that's got a spin to favor their preferred position. This was no exception.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:14AM
ARM, aka Acorn RISC Machine, later Advanced RISC Machine.
The RISC-V must be pretty decent if they're feeling threatened.