The Evolution of Confidential Computing on x86-64

As cloud computing becomes increasingly widespread, data privacy and confidentiality can no longer rely solely on software level encryption. Hardware based isolation and remote trust mechanisms have become essential. This talk will trace the evolution of confidential computing on the x86-64 platform, with a focus on how these technologies are adopted in cloud environments.

We will start with Intel SGX and explain how enclaves establish fine grained trust boundaries. We will then move to today’s mainstream approach: VM based isolation. By comparing the designs of AMD SEV-SNP and Intel TDX, we will examine their differences in memory page protection, remote attestation, and integration with virtualization stacks. This allows existing applications to gain hardware backed confidentiality with little to no code changes, while establishing a verifiable execution environment on top of cloud infrastructure that is not fully trusted.