iMac Pro Features Apple's Custom T2 Chip With Secure Boot Capabilities

[MacRumors]

Apple today confirmed the iMac Pro is equipped with its custom T2 chip for enhanced security and integration. The chip is second-generation silicon, building upon the T1 chip in the latest MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar that authenticates and secures Touch ID and Apple Pay respectively.

The T2 chip integrates several previously separate components, including the system management controller, image signal processor, audio controller, and SSD controller, for expanded capabilities on the iMac Pro.

For instance, Apple says the T2 chip's image signal processor works with the FaceTime HD camera to enable enhanced tone mapping, improved exposure control, and face detection-based auto exposure and auto white balance.

The T2 chip also has a Secure Enclave coprocessor that makes the iMac Pro even more secure with new encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities.

The data on your SSD is encrypted using dedicated AES hardware with no effect on the SSD's performance, while keeping the Intel Xeon processor free for your compute tasks. And secure boot ensures that the lowest levels of software aren't tampered with and that only operating system software trusted by Apple loads at startup.

Cabel Sasser, co-founder of software company Panic, recently shared a few screenshots of the Startup Security Utility powered by the T2 chip.

(5) Security. This new chip means storage encryption keys pass from the secure enclave to the hardware encryption engine in-chip -- your key never leaves the chip. And, they it allows for hardware verification of OS, kernel, boot loader, firmware, etc. (This can be disabled...) pic.twitter.com/qKJ6bHdtr8 - Cabel Sasser (@cabel) December 12, 2017

The settings reveal that users can enable a firmware password to prevent the iMac Pro from starting up from a different hard disk, CD, or DVD without the password. There are also three secure boot options and options to allow or disallow booting from external media devices such as USB and Thunderbolt drives.

"Full security" ensures that only the latest and most secure software can be run. Apple says this mode requires a network connection at the time of software installation. "Medium security" requires verifiable software to boot, but not the latest software, and "no security" lets the operating system boot freely.

iMac Pro became available to order today with 8- to 18-core configurations ranging in price from $4,999 to $13,199 in the United States. 14-core and 18-core models don't ship for an estimated 6-8 weeks.

Article Link: iMac Pro Features Apple's Custom T2 Chip With Secure Boot Capabilities

 

[BMcCoy]

I wonder if they considered sticking in a FaceID camera?

Presumably they'll show up on all Apple devices over the next couple of years..?

 

[0958400]

Nice idea.

 

[nikosl7]

username: root
pass:<leave empty>

There you go. You are now in.

 

[Glmnet1]

If they put one of these in every 2018 models, by the time the current models are not supported anymore (~2024) I'm pretty sure they could prevent installation of the latest macOS on non-official hardware.

 

[shadowbird423]

Well.

We will see this become the standard in the next 6 years, with the fact that almost no one turned it off as justification. They know they can't get away with making it mandatory quite yet. From a security standpoint, this is great.

From a freedom of choice standpoint... not so much.

 

[Gary1580]

Why in the world would anyone buy one of these?

 

[diegov12]

username: root
pass:<leave empty>

There you go. You are now in.

[doublepost=1513275759][/doublepost]

Well.

We will see this become the standard in the next 6 years, with the fact that almost no one turned it off as justification. They know they can't get away with making it mandatory quite yet. From a security standpoint, this is great.

From a freedom of choice standpoint... not so much.

What?
Why would you need "choice" here.

 

[scrapesleon]

wait so isn't T1 in the new MacBook pro ?

 

[diegov12]

Why in the world would anyone buy one of these?

Why not, a xeon chip lasts a long time.

 

[stabsteer]

Why in the world would anyone buy one of these?

Because its awesome and destroys my current iMac for editing.

 

[diegov12]

username: root
pass:<leave empty>

There you go. You are now in.

But you can't use root in EFI boot…

 

[spoonie1972]

Sounds like a great way to make-this-computer-officially-dead after 7 years. That's a ****-ton of money to lock into a computer that Apple deems "end of life" by way of OS updates.

 

[diegov12]

Sounds like a great way to make-this-computer-officially-dead after 7 years. That's a ****-ton of money to lock into a computer that Apple deems "end of life" by way of OS updates.

Yeah, except apple provides security updates for older versions of macOS…

 

[Zarniwoop]

Sunset for Hackintosh era has started.

 

[guzhogi]

wait so isn't T1 in the new MacBook pro ?

Yes, the MBP has a T1. The iMac Pro has a T2. And the T101 will go back in time to kill Sarah Connor. Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[leman]

Cool stuff! Its a great example of the advantage Apple has because of their hardware and software integration.

Of course, a secure OS running on a secure chip won't help you much if you leave the root account wide open

 

[deanthedev]

Reviewers have benchmarked the SSDs in the new iMac Pro and they are ridiculously fast.

If the T2 chip can perform real-time encryption while maintaining this performance then it’s not some “companion” chip - it would need some serious chops to do this.

 

[xnu]

Dumb questions: Can you boot Windows on this beast and does it have liquid cooling? I have use Windows sometimes

 

[Glmnet1]

Dumb questions: Can you boot Windows on this beast and does it have liquid cooling? I have use Windows sometimes

You should be able to run Windows without any issue.

No liquid cooling, it uses a new cooling design with two fans which is more efficient than the regular iMac.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Why in the world would anyone buy one of these?

You obviously don’t need one and it’s a secret as to why a lot of folks need one, so I can’t tell you.

 

[guzhogi]

I wonder how this would do on something like Folding@Home. Someone would probably need to install Windows on it to take full advantage. However, I'm not going to pay $5000 just to do folding.

 

[djcerla]

*not included in your Hackintosh.

 

[btrach144]

So this is similar to the TPM 2.0 chip that some enterprise PCs use?

 

[guzhogi]

Yes, the MBP has a T1. The iMac Pro has a T2. And the T800 will go back in time to kill Sarah Connor. Sorry, couldn't resist.

I just remembered: Apple also has a patent for Liquid Metal. OMG! Apple's SkyNet!