Self-encrypting drives to speed up PC boot times?

In the last year, drive vendors such as Seagate, Hitachi and Fujitsu announced self-encrypting drives. The general scheme is that you type in a password during the BIOS boot-up phase, and the password is authenticated by the drive. The drive then decrypts disk reads and encrypts disk writes at native speed, all internal to the drive. So to Windows, Linux or other software, the drive appears as a normal unencrypted drive, as all such software is booted after unlocking the drive.

It occurs to me, if self-encryption becomes a common feature in drives, perhaps one of the banes of a quick boot-up (anti-virus checks) could be eliminated during some or all of the boot-up phase? TPMs are also working their way into popularity (IDC figures a 90% attachment rate by 2010), which would offer a more complete chain of trust to complement self-encrypting drives. If it could be trusted that no modifications have occurred to the drive since the last boot, couldn't a lot of scanning be eliminated, with a focus only on newly added content?

If well-coordinated with AV software, I wonder if this will open the door to snappier boot times on Windows platforms?

Disclosure: no positions