Are Intel's PTT and TPM equivalent

Question

Are Intel PTT (Intel Platform Trust Technology) and TPM chips functionally equivalent?

If I had a board with a Intel processor that supported PTT, would I have the same functions as if I had a hardwired TPM chip, e.g support of Trousers, etc.?

How do you discover if a particular Intel processor supports PTT?

Kenric

Yes they are functionally equivalent as they both implement the same spec. As to how to check if a processor supports PTT, you will need to check the processor spec sheet. If you have the system, you can also log into the BIOS and see if it has the "enable PTT" option. – Apolitical

Answer 1

The Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT) architecture, first introduced in 2013 on 4th generation chips, implements TPM functionality within the CPU. PTT fully supports all Microsoft’s requirements for firmware Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) 2.0 specification.

To your operating system and applications, there should be no discernible difference between using PTT or using a dedicated TPM chip.

You will typically have an option in your firmware configuration utility to enable or disable PTT if your processor supports a fTPM. On Windows, you can check if you are using a TPM or a fTPM (PTT) by running TPM.MSC. On Linux, check under /sys/class/tpm, sys/kernel/security/tpm or your boot log.

Confessor

On Windows 10 after running tpm.msc how do I interpret the results? As an example, on my laptop there seems to be IFX (Infeon) TPM2.0 chip in use by Windows making that not PTT. – Sponge

As suggested by helgeklein.com/blog/…, going into windowsdefender://devicesecurity to open Windows security processor status, there is more information available. – Sponge

@Jari Turkia What if you have both? I have a discrete TPM addon plugged in my motherboard and Intel PTT enabled. When I do so, Windows see the Intel TPM and not my discrete IFX TPM do I need to disable PTT to use my discrete TPM or I can choose it in Windows? – Bohner

@Bohner Your setup is far from being common. I have never even heard of such a dual-TPM setup. There is a chance neither have Microsoft developers. – Sponge

@JariTurkia. It is quite common nowadays. For example, a Lenovo T480 laptop comes with both a fTPM (PTT) and a dTPM. You select which one is in use via firmware configuration (AKA Bios Setup) – Confessor

Answer 2

The easiest way is to check in the BIOS. Usually you have to enable it in the BIOS if you want to use it because the default is disabled on all the systems I've seen.

Plio