Virus-Busting Chips! Why Intel Paid Billions for McAfee.

The news of Intel’s very expensive McAfee purchase raises one obvious question: why is security software worth over $7 billion to a chip maker? Intel has been short on specifics, but it’s becoming clear that virus-killing silicon is coming.

Computer security with hardware roots isn’t new for Intel, but it’s stuck in last-gen tech that can’t stop your system from getting smoked. Feature sets that can help filter out malicious network traffic or let CPUs screen for certain worms have been safeguarding computers you’ve already thrown away by now. But they’re limited. Right now, most of the anti-malware grunt work is being handled by software. Letting applications do the heavy lifting is a resource-heavy affair, which makes chipmakers like Intel nervous when they look forward and see the future of computing floating in the cloud.

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If this is the source behind the purchase of McAfee then Intel should be applauded for making such a proactive move to combat threats before they become critical. It does, however, raise the serious concern that in a few years we could be looking at viruses that literally smoke your computer for accidentally viewing the wrong site with a pop-up.