Microsoft's PUMA to prevent theft of audio data

At the end of April at the WinHEC 2005 developersÂ´ conference Microsoft intends to furnish further details on the copy protection functions of the successor to Windows XP Longhorn, which is planned for 2006. The preliminary WinHEC 2005 Master List of Tracks and Sessions under the heading Media Advances for the Windows PC Architecture lists a number of events dealing with the form of control of use known as Digital Rights Management (DRM). One of these track sessions will, for instance, be concerned with the Protected Media Path (PMP), which is to be established for media data in Longhorn PCs.

A Protected Environment (PE), whilst providing a Protected Video Path (PVP) and Protected User Mode Audio (PUMA), will enforce defined requirements on hardware drivers (for TV or graphics cards, say). These channels are to be proof against data theft by rogue software. PUMA runs in the PE, with the PVP even encrypting data transfer to the graphics card over the PCI Express Port (AES 128). A PCÂ´s outlets - in the case of video signals the outlet of the graphics card - are also integrated into the output protection management concept (OPM).

News source: heise online