AMD has announced that its Ryzen Pro CPUs for enterprise and corporate desktops will launch on August 29. There will be six models in all - two each under the Ryzen 7 Pro, Ryzen 5 Pro and Ryzen 3 Pro brands. AMD promises a number of features that distinguish Ryzen Pro CPUs from regular commercial Ryzen ones, and also claims to match or exceed Intel's current-generation offerings in many ways.
Ryzen Pro CPUs use the same basic architecture as their Ryzen counterparts[1], but are enhanced for reliability and security. Each CPU has a dedicated hardware co-processor on the same package, which the company says is superior to having a secure module on the motherboard, as it reduces opportunities for malware and attackers to get to the CPU. When powering up a computer, the co-processor holds the CPU cores in a suspended state until it can verify the integrity of the BIOS and other hardware. The normal boot process begins only after the hardware root of trust has authorised it.
Ryzen Pro CPUS also have dedicated logic blocks for encryption and decryption, reducing the workload on the CPU cores. Data can be encrypted using AES as it is sent form the CPU to system memory, and decrypted as it comes in the opposite direction. This happens on-the-fly and is completely transparent to the OS and applications, meaning that even legacy software can be run in a more secure environment.
AMD's[2] OEM partners can design custom systems that take advantage of hardware-based security for specific applications. As an example, future CPUs with integrated graphics will feature DRM support implemented through this secure enclave. AMD says that security is even built into the manufacturing process, with additional checks and tests performed on CPUs...