New technology added to business-grade chip to fight against hacks, viruses and other threats to data security.

Chip giant Intel has released details of an upgrade to its vPro business processor technology with new features to aid in data and system security.

The new tech combines Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor and the new Q35 Express chipset with new hardware security additions as well as some fancy new management features.

One of those features is claimed to be waking up and repairing a system with a faulty operating system or hard drive, an option not previously possible on most desktop computers.

The security features in the new vPro technology that used to be codenamed “Weybridge” are aimed at defending the system against software attacks as well as filter and defend against viruses, trojans and other attacks.

The new feature Intel is hyping up is the Trusted Execution Technology or TXT that protects data within virtualised computing environments. The process involves locking down sections of memory for each virtualised system so that no virtual machine can call or access memory used for any other virtual machine, keeping them isolated from each other.

It effectively gives each virtual machine a separate memory partition, preventing software attacks jumping virtual machines.

"Today, the business desktop PC just got more secure," said Robert B. Crooke, vice president and general manager of Intel's Business Client Group. "This generation of Intel vPro processor technology arrives with new security and management capabilities along with support from every leading PC manufacturer and software solution vendor in the world."

The new processor technology also adds extra security at the network end by incorporating a Cisco-certified embedded trust agent. This allows remote management of systems without the need to lower security on 802.1x networks and Cisco-hardware based systems.

Intel has also ramped up its active management technology (AMT) in vPro allowing auditing and repairs to occur on a PC even if the operating system has failed or the system is switched off. The company expects the new version of vPro will result in some of the first systems compatible with Distributed Management Task Force’s DASH 1.0 interoperability.

Intel has forgotten its green credentials in vPro either with claims that the new technology delivers 30% more performance than previous generation vPro processor tech whilst consuming less power.

However, there are some basic limitations to the new TXT feature and they include the need for a computer system with Intel virtualisation technology, a TXT-enabled processor, chipset and BIOS. Authenticated code modules and an Intel TXT-compatible measured launched environment, which could consist of a virtual machine monitor, an operating system or an application.

The TXT feature also requires the PC to have a TPM (trust platform module) v1.2 as well as specific software (not mentioned) for some uses. This appears to make vPro far easier to install as part of a new system rather than upgrading an old one.

Systems using the new vPro technology are already available from Dell in its OptiPlex 755 desktop and Lenovo’s new ThinkCentre M57 desktop PCs.