AMD Ryzen 6000 Series Mobile CPUs Feature Microsoft's Pluton Security

Back in 2020 Microsoft announced their "Pluton" security chip that woulld be coming to future AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm processors. The Pluton security processor is designed to improve the system security under Windows and now we find out that AMD's forthcoming Ryzen 6000 "Rembrandt" mobile processors will be the first featuring this security feature that may prove controversial to Linux/open-source fans.

We hadn't heard much of Microsoft's Pluton since 2020 but integration into the silicon obviously takes a while and now we find out AMD is ready to introduce it with their forthcoming Ryzen 6000 series processors. AMD's CES 2022 keynote is later today but the CES website has exposed early that the Ryzen 6000 series mobile processors will indeed have Microsoft Pluton:

This ces.tech page makes note of the new processors featuring Microsoft Pluton.

Back to the Microsoft 2020 announcement of Pluton they talked up cloud security and all the benefits albeit only for Windows PCs with no mention of Linux.

Of Pluton's functionality, that Microsoft post sums it up as, "The Pluton design removes the potential for that communication channel to be attacked by building security directly into the CPU. Windows PCs using the Pluton architecture will first emulate a TPM that works with the existing TPM specifications and APIs, which will allow customers to immediately benefit from enhanced security for Windows features that rely on TPMs like BitLocker and System Guard. Windows devices with Pluton will use the Pluton security processor to protect credentials, user identities, encryption keys, and personal data. None of this information can be removed from Pluton even if an attacker has installed malware or has complete physical possession of the PC."

We also haven't seen any patches (yet?) from Microsoft or AMD looking to enable Pluton security processor functionality under Linux... We'll see what comes of this new security feature and whether it means anything for Linux users -- either for improving system security or causing any obstacles in Linux/BSD open-source usage. Given UEFI SecureBoot issues in the early days and other nightmares for Linux users when Microsoft has pushed new standards and hardware, Linux users may be apprehensive of Pluton but it hopefully won't cause issue with AMD's growing stellar open-source Linux support.

AMD's CES 2022 press conference is coming up in just a few hours so stay tuned for more new hardware details then and what the company has to say about Pluton.