Speculation was put to rest this morning about AMD’s plans for licensing 3rd party intellectual property when the company announced it was joining forces with ARM to integrate its TrustZone technology into future APUs.
ARM’s TrustZone technology will be integrated via the inclusion of an ARM Cortex-A5 processor on AMD’s Fusion APUs from 2013 forward.
This will allow AMD to have an x86-based hardware-level security initiative similar to Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology platform.
At AMD’s Financial Analyst Day in February CEO Rory Read and Senior Vice President Lisa Su announced that AMD was planning an “ambidextrous” mobile strategy. They announced, to the curiosity of many, that company would no longer be “religious” about architectures and this flexibility would be the pillar of the company’s strategic advantage.
This included ARM processor would supplement, not supplant the x86 cores on AMD’s Fusion APUs.
Some speculation went as far as to hold that AMD would abandon the x86 architecture entirely, or that there would be a comprehensive strategic deal between the two companies.
“With AMD’s support for, and inclusion in, the expanding TrustZone ecosystem, consumers and businesses can rest assured their data and content are secured by an industry-standard security solution that spans a multitude of devices and operating systems,” said AMD Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Mike Wolfe.
“This example of AMD’s ambidextrous strategy, which leverages our history of x86 and graphics innovation while also embracing other technologies and intellectual property, will help drive a more secure computing experience for our consumer and businesses customers.”
“As technology becomes more important to our everyday lives, security needs to be present in every single device. The challenge that the industry faces is how to make this a reality,” added Ian Drew, executive vice president, strategy, ARM.
“Through this technology partnership with AMD, and the broadening of the ARM TrustZone technology ecosystem, we’re making another important step towards a solution. The aim is to make security accessible and consistent for consumers and business users across all computing devices.”
Further details are expected to be announced in the coming days.
