Intel GPU SGX - store your data on a video card. With warranty

Intel Xe graphics card with SGX GPU support

From the very moment of the announcement that Intel will develop its discrete video card, all progressive humanity is waiting for plans to begin to transform into something tangible. Technical details are still little known, but today we can communicate something concrete and, moreover, important. It became known that the future Intel video card will support technology similar to that of Intel SGX for super reliable storage of critical content - it is called GPU SGX.

We recalled the Intel Software Guard Extensions technology quite recently in connection with the release of the Intel SGX Card . Intel SGX Extensions is a set of CPU instructions that allow applications to create enclaves, protected areas in the address space of the application, ensuring confidentiality and integrity even with the presence of malicious programs with privileged rights.

But you need to protect not only the executable code, but also user data. Day and night, legions of intruders dream about how to steal your photos, and then erase or encrypt them. How not to remain without the most important memories? This is where Intel SGX can come to the rescue, in its version of the SGX GPU. In this case, it works as follows.
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A key role in this technology, as the name suggests, is played by the graphics processor. “What does this have to do with a video card if we are talking about data storage?” - you will probably ask. The fact is that with all due respect to the Intel SGX, processors supporting this technology are several times less than non-supporting processors. Therefore, it was decided to transfer the execution of SGX-dependent code to the GPU, by analogy with how it was done in the already mentioned Intel SGX Card. The video card has one more advantage: its constructive allows you to place on it a sufficiently large amount of flash memory, which can be used as a local secure storage.

The principle of the SGX GPU is as follows. Photos of the beloved dog, as well as other critical data are placed on the local storage of the video card using special software from Intel. Intel SGX security works at the file system driver level. Further, the same special software synchronizes the contents of the repository with the cloud service in one of the selected user mode. Unlike other cloud services, the Intel client cannot be compromised because it places sensitive areas of code in SGX enclosures. In this way, your data will receive several levels of protection against abduction and destruction.

And what will happen if the Intel software for some reason stops working, and the data will be literally locked in its storage? Intel expects to share its technology with third companies based on strict certification and control. So there will be an alternative. Well, the system itself will appear on the market not earlier than the appearance of video cards directly - the terms are still foggy. But we will wait.

Just in case, we note especially that this is an April Fools' post.