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Yeah, but, considering the sheer complexity of modern CPUs and SoCs, this is still the case even if you have the silicon in front of you. That ship sailed some time ago.

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It depends on what you want to do. If all you're trying to do is produce an Ed25519 signature you could use something like the Tillitis TKey. It's a product developed by one of my companies. As I've mentioned elsewhere in this thread it is open source hardware in the sense that the schematic, PCB design _and_ hardware design (FPGA configuration) are all open source. Not only that, the FPGA only has about 5000 logic cells. This makes it feasible for an individual to audit the software and the hardware it is running on to a much greater extent than any other system available for purchase. At least I'm not aware of a more open and auditable system than ours.

How is that relevant to Private Cloud Compute, though?

You're right that it isn't. I assumed that your "..sheer complexity of modern CPUs.." statement was in response to "Without open silicon, there's no way to detect..". That's what prompted my response.

I realise now that you were probably responding to "This _does_ increase the trust that the VMs are safe from other attackers".

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