Remember the Processor Serial Number? We do - this was Intel's attempt to embed a unique ID in every CPU. Switched on at the launch of the Pentium III in February 1999, the PSN was a public relations disaster, prompting torrents of abuse from mostly sensible people, who feared the implications of PSN for consumer privacy. Worse, it didn't even work properly. It was very easy to crack. Intel withdrew the scheme in April 2000, humbled temporarily. The PSN was to be used to identify users in ecommerce and Web sites or chat rooms. In other words, it was a proto Digital Rights Management (DRM) hardware tool.

So what's this got to do with Palladium. Well...