5
Will my NX- or XD-enabled systems protect me from virus attacks?
XD and NX are promising technologies, but they do not protect against all attacks. You should use XD
and NX with antivirus software, firewall, and other security measures to reduce the propagation of viruses
and limit the amount of damage they can create.
What are the required components for XD/NX to function?
To take advantage of the XD/NX feature, the following components must support XD/NX:
•
Processor
•
System BIOS
•
Operating system
Processor
Intel released XD-capable processors for the desktop market starting with the E0 stepping of the “Prescott”
Pentium 4 processor. Both Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors have XD support. Using Intel’s new pro-
cessor naming scheme, all 6xx, 7xx, and 8xx processors support XD. A majority of 5xx and 3xx proces-
sors also support XD.
AMD has released a line of AMD64 processors (Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Turion 64 Mobile Technology,
Mobile Athlon 64) which support NX.
Transmeta Efficeon processors using Code Morphing Software (CMS) 6.0.4 or later support NX. Both
Intel and AMD have a Windows-compatible method of implementing XD/NX, but their hardware imple-
mentation is different. Transmeta Efficeon processors use a virtual implementation compatible with the
AMD implementation.
