Arms race: SiFive, Hex Five build code safe houses for RISC-V chips

If you've been looking at SiFive's RISC-V-based chip technology and thinking, y'know what, it's missing an Arm TrustZone-style element to run sensitive code, well, here's some good news. And if you're just into processor design and checking out alternatives to Arm CPU cores, then this may be some interesting news. SiFive …

[Paul Crawford]

Actually I often think "Is there a CPU without any 'secure enclave' features that would allow me to know my machine has no BIOS or microcode-level root kit?"

[Warm Braw]

If someone said "yes", could you believe the answer?

Not that a "secure enclave" is necessarily something to fear, any more than a DMA controller (which could just as easily be exfiltrating your data) is inherently something to fear - but basically, if someone other than you has control of the hardware design, then what they "allow you to know" is very much at their discretion.