Re: [Syllable-kernel] Syllable security and "trusted computing"

[Mark W. <mar...@cl...>]

> Aside from that, rings 1 and 2 don't really exist anymore, because
> they're not there in amd64.  This means that, for all intents and
> purposes, you cannot depend on them.  Within 2 years, x86 as such won't
> exist anymore, and all processors sold will be amd64.

Just as a point of interest, IA64 has 4 rings (not that I think a Syllable 
port to Itanium would be very sensible ;-))

Of course non-Intel architectures have a range of different numbers and kinds 
of protection rings, so it's worth bearing in mind portability whilst 
architecting a system to use the rings.  Even on x86, a port to something 
like Xen (or L4) would restrict the rings available for use.

Cheers,
Mark