News from the IT family on October 13th: Technology media Tom's Hardware reported yesterday (October 12th) that Intel Xeon Diamond Rapids will become the last generation of Xeon processors to support SGX; thereafter, the focus of confidential computing will shift to TDX.

IT Note: SGX is fully known as Software Guard Extensions, which literally translates to "Software Protection Extension". It is an Intel's hardware security feature that allows for the establishment of protected isolated areas within applications.

It can isolate specific code and data from the operating system, virtual machine monitoring programs, and other software, and is commonly used to protect keys, user data, or sensitive business logic. The existing SGX platform will continue to receive security updates and support until the early 2030s, giving customers ample time to migrate.

TDX is actually known as Trust Domain Extensions, which literally translates to "Trust Domain Extension." It is an Intel-developed confidential computing technology for virtual machines. The SGX approach typically requires developers to modify or specifically design applications, whereas TDX isolates the entire virtual machine from the underlying host environment and other virtual machines, allowing enterprises to run existing applications on cloud servers without making significant changes to their software.

Intel Corporation stated that TDX boasts higher scalability, is easier to deploy, and meets the operational models required for large-scale applications in confidential computing. Intel plans to expand the capabilities of TDX by adding TDX Connect trusted I/O, post-quantum encryption, and enhanced proof mechanisms. Trusted I/O can protect data transmission between virtual machines and accelerators, as well as peripherals.

In the AI agent scenario, TDX can provide hardware-isolated virtual machine environments for multiple agents on a shared infrastructure. Intel also coordinates with Nvidia to integrate the confidential computing technologies of CPU and GPU, extending the scope of protection to sensitive data and AI models.

Intel TDX has been launched through major cloud service providers including Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Volcano Cloud. At the same time, Red Hat, Canonical, and VMware are also adding TDX support to their software platforms to promote its use in private clouds and enterprise environments.