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Re: Gateway and Wave - I am purchasing a Gateway M460ES, and just completed the following exchange with Customer Support.
My E-mail:
To: Customer Service
Thanks for this confirmation.
One thing that is unclear to me is the software that is required to use the TPM 1.2 device that is on-board this PC. Can you please clarify this item for me.
Thank you.
Gateway Response:
Hello,
Thank you for using Gateway's Online E-mail Support. Regarding your concern, yes, your system has a TPM device that is on-board your system.
The Wave TPM software is provided by the website below so you will need to refer to them for more information:
http://www.wave.com/solutions/getting_started2.html#gettingstarted
For more information on how to use it and how it works, please contact Answers by Gateway.
cliff
Barge, Reach - M350 spec sheet from NEC-France shows TPM as optional. Easy Crypto DeLuxe is also provided, but is independent (IMO) of the TPM.
http://www.nec-online.fr/LocalFiles/Product_Spec_Sheet/Mobiles/FR/M350.pdf
cliff
Asustek grabs Sony notebook order
http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050811_111512.html
Asustek Computer recently beat out Quanta Computer and Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) to grab an order from Sony for a high-end notebook, with volume shipments slated for the second quarter of 2006, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) reported today. Monthly shipments of the order are estimated to reach 10,000-20,000 units, according to the paper.
... so, is Asustek next?
cliff
RWK - yes.
Although, wouldn't it be an interesting twist if Wave Software was the ubiquitous standard against which TPM 1.1 had to be compliant?
cliff
zen88 - that would be nice, and that would merit a Ka-Boom PR.
Unfortunately, I do not see Wave software listed in the Software section of the specifications.
Someone else might be able to comment on whether the Intel agreement has any bearing on whether there's a Wave CD in the box.
cliff
Foam - Trusted Platform Module (TPM) TCG Ver 1.1b Compliant with Wave Software
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/b2b/data/repository/original/vol0/48/VGN-BX540B_CTO_spec_5e86acb1b1b77...
Nice.
cliff
dig space, I think your mountain/molehill comment is bang-on. I would tend to lean towards the molehill in the absence of details like:
1. How much of the $185M is for TPMs?
2. What generation is the TPM? I reported that the STM device for the non-PC market was based on 1.1 ( http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=7166947 ). It could be that this is similar, given the nature of the XBox board architecture (northbridge, southbridge, PCI Xpress and all that other stuff).
3. What is the TPM application, how much software is associated, and is it TCG-compliant?
4. Does this sale portend the same decision from Playstation? Or does it increase the probability that Playstation would go with an alternate supplier? Proprietary being what it is, I suggest the latter.
Time will tell if a network of hard-core interactive gamers has more revenue and strategic impact on client security than the direction backed by the NSA for DoD PC security.
cliff
Introducing Radeon® XPRESS 200 for Intel® Processors
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzQ1
http://www.ati.com/products/radeonxpress200Intel/specs.html
- includes "TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 1.1 and 1.2 support" (but only if equipped with BCM5752 / BCM5752M).
- there are 2 MB's already available from Asus, but using the Marvell GE controller.
cliff
1stnflight - well-done and thank you, I'll be interested in your follow-up. FWIW, I could not identify a difference between the ES and GS models.
cliff
cosign - and more consolidation...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050818/secure_computing_corp_merger.html?.v=3
Network security software maker Secure Computing Corp. said Thursday it has agreed to acquire rival CyberGuard Corp. in a cash and stock deal worth $295 million, the latest deal in the consolidating security software market.
cliff
waverider - yep.
It bears repeating:
"Analyst firm IDC predicts that TPM adoption for both business and consumer PC hardware will ramp up to near ubiquity by 2010. TPM technology is also being developed for other platforms, including servers and wireless devices, and, if successful on desktops, might find wide adoption on these platforms as well."
cliff
Analysis: TPM Hardware Offers Easier Security
I haven't seen this posted ...
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1847664,00.asp
"Analyst firm IDC predicts that TPM adoption for both business and consumer PC hardware will ramp up to near ubiquity by 2010. TPM technology is also being developed for other platforms, including servers and wireless devices, and, if successful on desktops, might find wide adoption on these platforms as well.
So that's the good news. The bad news, of course, is that we have to get from today to five years from now. But since TPM can be expected to ramp up starting fairly soon, perhaps the road ahead will be less bumpy—and more secure—than the one we've traveled so far."
cliff
Ramsey2 - that's how I see it as well. The re-sellers and enterprise network management firms will drive the enterprise upgrades once the deployment of 1.2's makes the proposition viable.
Mind you, if Pickle's projections are fulfilled, then the upgrades are gravy to the 1.2 meat and potatoes.
cliff
VH - there are some intriguing SKS comments in the CC transcript (thank you!!) concerning Enterprise upgrades. The intent is expanded on, but my idea of a very good time is ETS being introduced as part of an Atmel 1.2 deployment, and then extended to include multi-millions of previously-deployed Atmel 1.1 clients.
We think that showing the chip volume, there's about a quarter lag before, I think, we see the OEM volume that comes out next, and that really should set the stage then for the longer term with Enterprise upgrades and other services that we can provide to those platforms. I think that the upgrades are still a very minimal component of our business and we expect it to grow significantly in time but it really requires awareness of the overall platform to grow first.
cliff
go-kitesurf - thanks for that snippet. Might they have offered any info on ordering?
cliff
Re: exercise of warrants, can anyone confirm how this would be reflected in the trading volume? Since they came from the shelf offering, I believe that the 2M shares would be additive to the volumes reported by Nasdaq.
Thanks,
cliff
Fascinating Business Week read on the subject of identity, surveillance, and much more. I pasted only a minor reference to ATM's, but you can see that we've only begun to scratch the surface.
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_32/b3946001_mz001.htm
Fujitsu Ltd. has just installed palm scanners that read vein patterns at Mitsubishi bank ATMs.
cliff
Doma, agreed - that is a very probable scenario. Also, no question that the business at-hand is the enterprise / institutional PC market.
cliff
awk, interesting that the Atmel IC that targets the non-PC market is based on the 1.1 TPM, even though it was announced after the development of the 1.2 TPM.
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/view_detail.asp?ref=&FileName=embedded10_18.html&SEC_NAME...
SAN JOSE, CA, OCTOBER 18, 2004… Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) today announced the AT97SC3201S Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a single-chip hardware security subsystem designed specifically for embedded systems, such as voting machines, gaming systems, PDAs, set top boxes, POS terminals, ATMs, portable mass storage devices, and industrial controls. Based on Trusted Computing Group industry standards, the new device offers embedded systems ultra-security that, until now, has only been available for personal computers.
SMBus Interface – Atmel's embedded TPM is the only TPM on the market to offer a system management bus (SMBus) interface. Most embedded systems use the SMBus, while all competing TPMs use the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus used with Intel- and AMD-based PCs. As a result, embedded systems were simply unable to take advantage of TPM hardware-based security without difficult and time consuming bus translation or had to rely on less secure software-based security solutions. Atmel's AT97SC3201S embedded TPM provides off-the-shelf hardware-based security.
Also, the Diebold ATM initiative involves STM ... all to say that the non-PC market is developing and broadening apace.
cliff
helpfulbacteria, no disputing the words, but COMPLETELY may be overkill ... this agreement could blossom in many directions IMO. Why might there be more to it than the words suggest?
Well, for one thing, I noted that the headline specifies that the agreement is for " ... Trusted Computing Group v1.2- specified TPM ICs."
HOWEVER, the 1st paragraph of the text of the PR describes the licensing agreement as covering the "Atmel AT97SC32xx family of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) ICs." and this terminology is repeated the 2nd paragraph. Notwithstanding the headline reference, nowhere in the body of the PR does it say that the licensing agreement covers only 1.2-compliant TPM's.
For the record, the Atmel AT97SC32xx family of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) IC's is comprised of the AT97SC3201 1.1 generation TPM, and the AT97SC3203 1.2 generation TPM.
Furthermore, per http://www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/view_detail.asp?FileName=ATMLNTRU.html the Atmel / NTRU TSS licensing agreement covers both 1.1 and 1.2 devices.
So, I believe we have a case here where there may be more than meets the constraining eye. And I am especially interested in how this might play out with mixed 1.1 and 1.2 enterprise deployments.
cliff
barge, the Sentivision SV-510 is another Atmel TPM-equipped STB, courtesy of Tony's matrices.
This could get interesting!
http://www.sentivision.com/products/stb/stb-en.html
cliff
barge, case-in-popint: this set-top find from khillo features an Atmel TPM. We know that as of today, Wave is in the box.
http://www.almipa.com/products/adv-500/
Security Subsystem
The security subsystem provides hardware support for the DRM Plugin. Only this unique combination of hardware and software can provide a good media security.
The hardware part of the DRM subsystem is composed of two chips: the TPM (Trusted Processing Module) from Atmel and an FPGA-based decryption accelerator. The TPM allows for verification of hardware and software authenticity, while the accelerator provides the necessary power for strong encryption.
Since the accelerator is FPGA-based, it is possible to change the encryption algorithm by reprogramming the FPGA.
cliff
go-kitesurf - while the Atmel licensing agreement is 1.2-specific, there will be 1.1 deployments out there that will be interested in having one TPM-management solution compatible with both 1.2 and 1.1. Support costs escalate with different providers and versions. Look ahead ... there will be a tipping point, and either millions of existing deployed 1.1-enabled PC's will come into Wave's scope, or there will be an acceleration of the deployment of 1.2.
cliff
awk, finally! I've been watching for this for a couple of months, and have been in dialogue with Gateway Sales this week.
Scooped again!
cliff
kantbleveit, you know it seems the more we talk about it,
it only makes it worse to live without it.
Wavoid words to live and die by ...
cliff
khillo - terrific find! I think it's very revealing that this device is for IP-TV, and includes the codec for Microsoft TV.
http://www.almipa.com/products/adv-500/
Video-On-Demand and IP-TV Set-Top Box supports high-performance video compression formats including H.264/AVC Main Profile and Windows Media® series 9 ...
cliff
Bullish technicals:
http://quotes.barchart.com/texpert.asp?sym=biph
cliff
OT - eamonnshute, Maureen would not be amused.
End of in-joke. The day is slow ...
cliff
barge, re: STM - thanks for the link.
I think that the solution for IPTV and Pay TV goes beyond the TPM, but there will still be a critical need for authentication that TPM's can fulfill. I have a contact with Cloakware (new to me), who are working on software security stuff for the set-top boxes being developed for IPTV at one of the service providers working with Microsoft, will try to get more insights.
I hoped that the IPTV solution would be already beyond this, but it appears not yet. And Microsoft is hard to budge at the earliest stages of development.
cliff
Gateway M250 - has anyone been able to determine that this notebook is available with the BCM 5752 / TPM 1.2? The Gateway Support page indicates it's in the pipeline, but ordering options do not.
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/M250/2900782nv.shtml
In the market for a notebook ...
cliff
barge, do you have a link for this?
Thanks,
cliff
barge, IMO every soup-to-nuts poly-interoperable trusted computing solution provider will be able to connect to and manage the STM-enabled PC's.
Here is a complete list of those solution providers:
1. Wave Systems
Cheers,
cliff
Doma, I thought the same since you unearthed the TPM 1.2 reference on the support page.
Same goes for their M250 notebook version.
cliff
Weby, it will be interesting to see details on the Blade PC's, Thin Clients and Server-based Computing referenced in Slide 13, and how they align with TCG standards. This represents a traditional and tested alternative to Wave's business model ... "trust in the core", one might say.
Before anyone jumps on this to discredit the TCG strategy, these alternatives have assuredly been imputed in the IDC and TCG forecasts for TPM deployment.
I am also re-posting for the umpteenth time the ATi RADEON XPRESS 200 Series link that shows TPM 1.2 support, and also a link from ULi showing the same for their M1697 chip-set. Both of these product lines leverage PCI Express architecture for AMD-based boards.
http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.cfm?articleid=597&cid=3
http://www.amdboard.com/uli_m1697.html
What do these puppies really represent, and when will we see products based on these already-available chip-sets??
cliff
nicknamen - is the Infineon back-end security management solution interoperable across different TPM flavours?
cliff
awk, this sounds like a good business to be part of, if these words in VH's link are any indication:
The Rise of TPM
TPM use is already rising. IDC estimates there were about 7 million TPM units on the market last year. That number is expected to jump to 20 million this year and to more than 200 million in the next four years. That's important to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) , which has built its Longhorn security structure on TPM.
The fingerprint reader ties the user to the machine. Then the TPM ties the machine and the user to the network. A trusted network server can authenticate the fingerprint, the machine, and then ensure the machine is compliant with security policies, like virus patches and firewall updates, before allowing the user access to the network.
"This goes way beyond the individual platform level and into entire network infrastructure," Kay said. "This is a huge development that's coming slowly, but adoption is roaring along as we go."
cliff
Doma, another instructive number that helps to establish a floor was in rooster1's post this morning:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6739595
Seagate estimates that about 10 percent of the Momentus 5400 series could be shipped with the security technology. If the feature catches on, the company will extend the option to a broader range of disks, he said.
cliff
helpfulbacteria, inconclusive ... based on this passage, it's possible that the content is pre-purchased rather than purchased at the time of consumption:
"Users are able to select from hundreds of full length movie titles from as low as $0.99. The movies are in DVD quality and use the Microsoft Windows Media Player format. Once a viewer orders a title it can be watched at any time within a thirty (30) day time window."
awk, MS has its share of dilemmas!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/01/ms_iptv_strategy_in_tatters/
MS's IPTV strategy in tatters
By Faultline
Published Wednesday 1st June 2005 12:30 GMT
Beneath the covers, Microsoft’s TV strategy appears to be in tatters. Fastweb can manage it in Italy, Homechoice can manage it in the UK, Maligne and Free have managed it in France, Telefonica in Spain and Bell Canada have also launched IPTV services, while Telenor has managed it across the face of Scandinavia and Ella communications and about 10 other smaller operators in Norway and even Telecom Iceland have all managed to launch IPTV services with open standard components.
But Swisscom, the one company that Microsoft managed to convince to go with its proprietary vision, is delayed. The reason, market insiders tell us, is that the software is deliberately proprietary, does not use a standard Java browser, handshakes with billing and admin servers using proprietary .NET extensions and technology wise looks nothing like any other IPTV installation.
Instead it is overly complicated and impenetrable to the competition, an attempt to engineer an interface shut-out in the TV markets. It also costs something like 6 times the price of other services and necessitates the use of Windows 2003 VoD servers, something they are singularly not good at. The whole affair may be a nightmare to manage support for, driving operating costs higher.
This delay message cannot remain unheard in the US, where Verizon and SBC have both publicly committed to using Microsoft IPTV and where Bellsouth has been rumored for the past nine months to be on the verge of choosing Microsoft as well, to create a clean sweep of the major US Telcos.
But while the Swisscom announcement is clearly public, the ominous silence at Bellsouth speaks volumes and rumors have begun to emerge that Bellsouth is almost ready to declare a completely open standard approach to its triple play TV strategy, dumping Microsoft entirely.
These rumors have it that Bellsouth has asked alternative vendors to re-pitch because the Microsoft based equipment trials have been so disappointing.
If it is brave enough to break with the consensus, Bellsouth may cause a stampede out of the delayed and frustrating technology, breaking the Microsoft stranglehold. If Bellsouth dumps it, the chances are that all the US telcos will, and all bets for Microsoft will be off in the Telco TV network arena.
Bellsouth has been testing a new TV service using the Microsoft IPTV set top software through to this Summer, which is a hybrid offering Video on Demand and DirecTV satellite TV, and it is well past the date that we would have expected an endorsement of the Microsoft software.
Going back two years and the software giant had nothing but failures in the TV technology area, until a re-launch in June 2003 of Microsoft’s TV Foundation Edition set top software, that it planned to pitch to the US cable market, much to the chagrin of set top makers like Motorola and Scientific Atlanta.
At the time Microsoft announced partnerships with the two public Video on Demand servers specialists, Seachange and Concurrent, announcing them as partners in Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, but they both must have felt an icy chill at the Microsoft advances. Clearly Microsoft client server and .NET technology contains extremely secret extensions that have already upset the European Commission anti-trust authorities to the point where it has fined Microsoft.
These are likely to also emerge in Microsoft’s TV technology in order to automatically give Microsoft servers a leg up in the Video on Demand market, allowing them to work better with the tightly entwined set top architecture. That’s certainly the case with the IPTV set tops that Microsoft is trying to develop for Swisscom, though we can’t be sure about the Cable TV variant, which seem to actually work.
Insiders tell us that the code base for the IPTV set top and server services is completely different from the cable TV code base, despite the fact that the two systems do much the same thing, albeit over widely varying networks. Microsoft gets a double whammy if all cable VoD servers turn into Windows 2003 boxes, as well as making a software charge for each cable set top.
Shortly after the new Foundation Edition was launched, Cablevision stepped up and deployed this Microsoft system in Mexico City which is now supposed to have rolled out to around half a million homes with the prospect of that rising to 1.8 million over the next few years. Recently Microsoft managed an upgrade to version 1.7, downloading the software overnight to all of the remote set tops, and installing it, supposedly without a hitch.
The new Microsoft software offered support services to existing VoD platforms, such as two-way interactivity for interactive TV, advertising targeting, better awareness of what’s available on a VoD system through the creation of On-Demand Storefronts, improved backoffice integration, and new applications including games and viewer self provisioning. It had a new Interactive Program Guide and allows users to customize their television viewing.
Hard on the back of that deployment, Cablevision and Comcast both committed to the Microsoft set top architecture in the US, sitting on Motorola set tops, placing orders that were likely to make the Microsoft cable architecture dominant in the US. Comcast alone took out a contract that allowed it to deploy five million set tops.
SBC, Verizon and Bellsouth appear to want their new TV services to be as close to US cable TV services as possible. Ideally they would want customers to not notice the switchover, except for the triple play bundle price being lower.
But if the cost to the Telcos is twofold, in that Microsoft charges more for its software AND it leads to a delay in competing with the cable companies, then they are likely to stick to what they have now.
What Verizon has now is little more than a plan to launch TV services this year, while SBC already has a TV platform with its relationship with 2Wire for a set top that mergers Video on Demand with satellite broadcast delivery, which it gets from EchoStar. It has called this an interim solution while it is waiting for the Microsoft system to work and for the build out of its Project Lightspeed fiber network extensions, which should be ready in 2007.
None of this rings true with reality. Cable operators are deploying VoIP to complete their triple play bundle as of January 2005, in Cablevision’s case six month earlier.
Telcos will be losing two million customer a year collectively if they do nothing to halt the triple play bundle sell of the cable operators, by 2007 they will have lost about six per cent of the US telephony market before they even get competitive. Delays are not an option.
And why would the US Telcos stick with a supplier that is renowned for writing software, but which cannot seem to get a simple internet application stack to work?
Swisscom still insists that it will launch its Bluewin TV in 2006 after technical trials are completed at with employees of Swisscom and Microsoft at the tail end of this year.
The commercial launch had been scheduled for the second half of 2005 but the technology was deemed “not yet suitable for serial delivery”, in particular since the set-top box has no internal hard disk and only one television channel is available. The Microsoft deal was cut as early as November 2003 and a 600 household trial ran at the end of 2004.
Swisscom will start upgrading its infrastructure this summer using VDSL and by 2007 it says that half of Swiss households will have VDSL installed.
Strange that Swisscom is going to stick with the Microsoft approach despite the fact that everywhere else in Europe, IPTV has already been delivered. Perhaps it will also quietly change its mind.
OT OT unixguy, amazing isn't it. The barriers to entry (and exit, for that matter) and the regulatory frameworks are under constant revision. Everthing depends on owning the customer.
cliff