NVIDIA CC

NVIDIA Confidential Computing is a GPU-based confidential computing architecture developed by NVIDIA Corporation that enables encrypted and attested GPU workloads

NVIDIA CC works together with:

• Advanced Micro Devices SEV-SNP

• Intel Corporation TDX

to provide CPU + GPU confidential computing.

NVIDIA Confidential Computing protects

• Prompts

• AI models

• Model weights

• Training data

• Inference pipelines

• GPU memory (HBM)

• PCIe communication paths

Prerequisites

Supported GPU

Confidential Computing requires:

• NVIDIA H100 (Hopper architecture)

• NVIDIA H200

• NVIDIA Blackwell (B200+)

Earlier GPUs (A100, V100) do NOT support full confidential computing mode.

CPU Platform Requirements

You must enable:

• SEV-SNP (AMD platforms) OR

• Intel TDX (Intel platforms)

GPU confidential computing requires a CPU TEE.

Firmware & Software Requirements

You must update:

• Latest system BIOS

• Latest GPU firmware

• Latest BMC firmware

• Latest NVIDIA driver (R535+ typically)

• CUDA version supporting confidential mode

Step-by-Step: Enable Confidential Computing in BIOS

BIOS menus differ by vendor.

Step 1 — Enable CPU Trusted Execution Environment

Depending on your platform

AMD Platform

AMD SEV

Intel Platform

Intel TDX

Step 2 — Enable IOMMU / DMA Protection

Navigate to

Advanced
  → PCIe Configuration

Enable

IOMMU → Enabled
DMA Protection → Enabled
Above 4G Decoding → Enabled

This is mandatory for GPU isolation.

Step 3 — Enable SR-IOV (If Required)

If using GPU virtualization:

SR-IOV → Enabled

Step 4 — Enable Secure Boot (Recommended)

Secure Boot → Enabled

Helps ensure driver integrity.

Enable Confidential Mode on the GPU

After booting Linux:

Step 1 — Install NVIDIA Driver

Verify driver

nvidia-smi

Driver must support confidential computing.

Step 2 — Check Confidential Capability

nvidia-smi -q | grep Confidential

You should see

Confidential Compute Mode: Supported

Step 3 — Enable Confidential Compute Mode

Some platforms require enabling CC mode

nvidia-smi -ccmode=1

Then reboot.

Step 4 — Verify Confidential Mode

nvidia-smi -q | grep "Confidential Compute"

Expected

Confidential Compute Mode: Enabled

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
CC mode not supported	Old driver	Upgrade driver
Cannot enable CC mode	CPU TEE not enabled	Enable SEV-SNP or TDX
GPU disappears after enabling	IOMMU misconfigured	Enable Above 4G decoding
Attestation fails	Firmware outdated	Update GPU firmware