Security News > 2022 > January > Want to use Microsoft's Pluton chip? Up to you, say PC makers, it's opt-in for now

"Pluton will be disabled by default on 2022 Lenovo ThinkPad platforms. Specifically the Z13, Z16, T14, T16, T14s, P16s and X13 using AMD 6000-series processors. Customers will have the ability to enable Pluton themselves," a Lenovo spokesperson told The Register.

Pluton is designed for Windows PCs, and support for Linux "Is currently an unsupported scenario," Microsoft spokesperson told The Register.

Microsoft largely collaborates with chip makers to tune processors for Windows, but Pluton marks a milestone in Microsoft's growing efforts to develop custom silicon.

Pluton for PCs evolved through security subsystems in the Xbox and the Azure Sphere IoT platform, which includes an Arm-based microcontroller and Linux OS. Microsoft has said Pluton provides "Chip to cloud" security, with firmware updates coming through Windows Update.

The Xbox roots of Pluton has users worried about it being some kind of DRM system, but Microsoft has said that Pluton is more of a building block to address the long-standing problem of securing PCs from bad actors.

Microsoft has already demonstrated that Pluton could be built into IoT systems based on Linux.

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