SAN FRANCISCO--A killer application for Intel's upcoming VPro business PCs? Security, the chip giant said Monday.

VPro systems, due to be broadly available in the third quarter, will be able to run security software in an environment isolated from the main operating system, making it tamper proof, Intel and security specialist Symantec said at an event here unveiling the VPro brand.

"It's perfect," Enrique Salem, senior vice president at Symantec, said in an interview. "You can't disable security. Not only can't the end-user disable it, malware can't disable it. Hardware is helping us enforce that nobody can access the bits in this sealed space."

Salem compared running security software in its own space on a PC to installing a dedicated security appliance. It will run on its own operating system with access granted only for updates to the security features. This should foil common attempts by Trojan horses that try to disable security software on PCs, for example.

Cordoning off the security software is possible through Intel Virtualization Technology (VT), new hardware support for virtualization. This allows for the creation of a secure partition on the PC, which can be used to run applications such as a firewall, intrusion prevention, antivirus and other security software, Intel and Symantec said.

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