Mac OS X Internals: The Book

[swayze]

Hi Amit,

I was pleased to read your input into TPM, it's quite scandalous that Apple still has neglected to document the presence of these devices in their machines, despite the TCG's own recommendations.
I must stress that a recent firmware update has caused TPMs to become 'invisible'.

When I first purchased my iMac Core Duo, your code for displaying the TPM from the terminal (i.e. ioreg | grep TPM ) gave the expected output. This firmware upgrade has caused the device to go unseen now, and it is still visible to Vista if you wipe the EFI partition only. The upgraded version of Bootcamp requires this EFI revision and Vista also no longer reports the presence of the TPM.

I fear this does not bode well for customer privacy in that the specifications for the chip do allude to privacy concerns. While I understand that you have not had the opportunity to test all Intel Macs, perhaps you might be able to goad Apple into a statement with respect to these devices in their machines. As it is, customers are NOT being informed as to the presence of this device, in yet another breach of the spec.

Perhaps you could shed some more clarity on this issue, or update your page at:

http://www.osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/tpm/

[amit]

I have noted on my TPM page your issue as a potential caveat, but since I haven't seen this first hand, I don't know what might be happening.

Can you mount the EFI partition and see if it contains anything?

Amit

[swayze]

Hi Amit,

Thank you for your reply, I'll have access to that particular unit again this weekend as I'm travelling. Given yesterday's EFI update, the symptoms may have changed yet again... I will submit all of my findings to this forum.
I currently have access to all models of Mac, and will endeavor to provide a thorough documentation of all models.