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Product Candidate
Primary Indication
Collaborator/Licensee
Status
Hh topical small molecule antagonist
Basal cell carcinoma
Genentech
Phase I
Hh systemic small molecule or antibody antagonist
Cancer (1)
Genentech
Late preclinical
Hh small molecule agonist
Nervous system disorders
Wyeth
Mid preclinical
BMP-7 protein
Kidney disease and other disorders
Ortho Biotech Products
Mid preclinical
Hh small molecule agonist
Hair growth
Procter & Gamble
Late preclinical
Hh agonist/gene
Cardiovascular disease
Internal development (2)
Mid preclinical
Discovery research
Spinal muscular atrophy
Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation
Discovery
Discovery research
Undisclosed pathway
Genentech
Discovery
Discovery research
Various signaling pathways
Internal development
Discovery
Research and Development Collaborations Entered Into in 2005
(a) Procter & Gamble September 2005 Collaboration
(i) Collaboration Summary
On September 18, 2005, the Company entered into a collaboration, research and license agreement with the Procter & Gamble Company, or P&G, to evaluate and seek to develop potential treatments for hair growth regulation and skin disorders utilizing the Company’s Hedgehog agonist technology.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Company granted P&G an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license for the development and commercialization of topical dermatological and hair growth products that incorporate the Company’s Hedgehog agonist technology. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, the parties shall jointly undertake a research program with the goal of identifying one or more compounds to be developed and commercialized by P&G. P&G is solely responsible for the cost of worldwide development and commercialization of any product candidates developed pursuant to the research program. At the time that P&G determines to file the first investigational new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a product candidate, the Company shall have the option, at its sole discretion, to co-develop a product candidate through phases I and II of clinical development at a 20% or 50% participation rate. Should the Company elect to exercise its co-development option, the Company will forego development milestones that would otherwise be payable during the period from investigational new drug application filing through the completion of a phase II clinical trial. The Company, however, would receive a higher royalty in the event that it exercises its co-development option and subsequently shares in
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development expense through phase II clinical trials. The amount of the royalty increase is based on the co-development percentage elected by the Company. Under the agreement, P&G paid the Company an up-front license fee of $500,000 and has agreed to fund up to $600,000 for two Curis full-time equivalents providing research and development activities during the initial one-year research term, subject to its termination rights. P&G has an option to extend the initial one-year research term for up to three additional years in one-year increments. P&G has also agreed to make cash payments to the Company that are contingent upon the successful achievement of certain research, development, clinical and drug approval milestones, including $2,800,000 in preclinical milestones. P&G will also pay the Company royalties on net product sales if product candidates derived from the collaboration are successfully developed.
Unless terminated earlier in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the agreement shall continue until six months after the expiration of the last to expire of any patent rights covering a product being sold under the agreement. Early termination rights are as follows:
• During the first twelve months, the agreement may not be terminated by either party, except in the case of breach, as discussed below, or failure of all, or all but one, of the licensed compounds to demonstrate acceptable results in certain tests as specified in the agreement and the research plan. In the event of such failure, P&G may terminate the agreement and the related research obligations (full-time equivalent reimbursement) without cause, with 45 days prior written notice.
• Following the initial twelve-month period, P&G shall have the right to terminate the agreement without cause upon at least six months prior written notice.
• Upon or after the uncured breach of any material provision of the agreement by a party, the other party may terminate the agreement immediately upon written notice to the defaulting party.
If P&G terminates the agreement without cause or the Company terminates the agreement as a result of P&G’s material breach, then, among other things, all licenses granted to P&G shall terminate. The Company shall have the exclusive option to acquire from P&G all data generated by P&G and all regulatory approvals and other regulatory filings and submissions, clinical data, promotional, advertising, marketing and distribution rights or contracts, and other similar information and items related to the compounds developed during the collaboration by P&G, on commercially reasonable terms to be mutually agreed to by the parties. Upon termination of the agreement by P&G as a result of a material breach by the Company, all rights and licenses granted to P&G under the agreement shall terminate.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers its arrangement with P&G to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables. The Company’s deliverables under this collaboration include an exclusive license to evaluate and develop potential treatments for hair growth regulation and skin disorders and certain performance obligations, including research and development services for at least one year and participation on at least one steering committee. The Company applied the provisions of Emerging Issues Task Force Issue No. 00-21, Accounting for Revenue Arrangements with Multiple Deliverables (EITF 00-21) to determine whether the performance obligations under this collaboration can be accounted for separately or as a single unit or multiple units of accounting. The Company determined that these performance obligations represented a single unit of accounting, since the Company believes that the license does not have stand-alone value to P&G without the Company’s research services and steering committee participation during certain phases of the development process and because objective and reliable evidence of the fair value of the Company’s research and steering committee participation could not be determined.
The Company’s ongoing performance obligations under this collaboration consist of participation on a steering committee and the performance of preclinical research services. The Company cannot reasonably
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estimate the total level of effort required over the performance period and, therefore, is recognizing revenue on a straight-line basis over the performance period, which it has estimated to be six years. In developing its estimate of the period to complete its performance obligations, the Company estimates the time required to complete phase II clinical trials of a product candidate under the collaboration to be six years. The performance period was determined based on management’s estimate of its involvement through co-development of phase IIB clinical trials since, should Curis exercise its co-development option, Curis’ last deliverable under this arrangement would be its participation on the clinical development steering committee through phase IIB. The steering committee effort is also expected to be consistent over the six-year period.
The Company has attributed the $500,000 up-front fee plus $600,000, the total amount of currently committed research funding which the Company expects to receive for providing two full-time equivalents at $300,000 each over the first year of the collaboration, to the undelivered research and steering committee services. The $1,100,000 in total payments is being recognized as revenue over the Company’s performance period of six years under the collaboration. If the research period, number of full-time equivalents requested by P&G, or the estimate to complete phase II clinical trials changes, then the Company will update its estimated level of effort and total expected payments under the arrangement. During the three months ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded revenue of approximately $10,000. Of this amount, approximately $3,000 was attributed to the amortization of the up-front license fee and is included in the “License fees” line item within the Revenues section of the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations for the three months ended September 30, 2005. The remaining $7,000 was related to research services performed by the Company’s two full-time equivalents and is included within the “Research and development contracts” line item within the Revenues section of the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations.
The Company views the preclinical and clinical development milestones, as well as the drug approval milestones under its collaboration with P&G to be substantive in nature since the successful achievement of these milestones involves significant risk and uncertainty and a reasonable amount of time passes between the up-front license payment and the first milestone payment as well as between each subsequent milestone payment. Should the Company ever successfully achieve any preclinical or clinical development milestones or drug approval milestones under this collaboration agreement, any related milestone payments would be recorded as revenue within the “Substantive milestones” line item within the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations.
As of September 30, 2005, the Company has not provided any consideration, such as payments under co-development arrangements, to P&G.
(b) Genentech April 2005 Drug Discovery Collaboration
(i) Collaboration Summary
On April 1, 2005, the Company entered into a drug discovery collaboration agreement with Genentech for the discovery and development of small molecule compounds that modulate a signaling pathway that plays an important role in cell proliferation. This pathway is a regulator of tissue formation and repair, the abnormal activation of which is associated with certain cancers. Under the terms of the agreement, the Company has granted Genentech an exclusive, royalty-bearing license to make, use and sell the small molecule compounds that are modulators of the pathway. Curis has retained the rights for ex vivo cell therapy, except in the areas of oncology and hematopoiesis.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Company will have primary responsibility for research and development activities and Genentech will be responsible for clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of products that may result from the collaboration. Genentech paid the Company an
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up-front license fee of $3,000,000 and has agreed to fund up to $6,000,000 for research and development activities during the initial two-year research term, subject to its termination rights described below. Genentech will also make cash payments to the Company that are contingent upon the successful achievement of certain preclinical and clinical development milestones and drug approval milestones. Genentech has an option to extend the initial two-year research term for up to two additional years in one-year increments. Genentech will also pay the Company royalties on net product sales if product candidates derived from the collaboration are successfully developed.
Each party has the right to terminate the agreement for uncured material breach by the other party. Genentech has the right to terminate the agreement without cause at any time after the first anniversary of the effective date, upon six months prior written notice, if such termination is to be effective prior to the end of the initial research term, and upon sixty days prior written notice otherwise. In the event of termination by Genentech without cause or if the agreement is terminated by Genentech due to material breach, the Company would be entitled to receive only a reduced royalty for those products that are covered by a subset of certain intellectual property rights, in lieu of the standard contract royalties that would otherwise apply.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers this arrangement with Genentech to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables. The Company’s deliverables under this collaboration include an exclusive license to its technologies in this signaling pathway and certain performance obligations, including research services for at least two years and participation on a steering committee. The Company applied the provisions of EITF 00-21 to determine whether the performance obligations under this collaboration can be accounted for separately or as a single unit or multiple units of accounting. The Company determined that these deliverables represented a single unit of accounting, since the Company believes that the license does not have stand-alone value to Genentech without the Company’s research services and steering committee participation during certain phases of research and because objective and reliable evidence of the fair value of the Company’s research and steering committee participation could not be determined.
The Company’s ongoing performance obligations under this collaboration consist of participation on a steering committee and the performance of research services. Because the Company can reasonably estimate its level of effort over the term of the arrangement, the Company is accounting for the arrangement under the relative performance method. In developing its estimate of the Company’s level of effort required to complete its performance obligations, the Company estimated that Genentech would elect twice to extend the research service period and related funding, each in one-year increments, although there can be no assurance Genentech will, in fact, make such an election. The Company estimates that it will provide an equal number of full-time equivalents for the four-year research and development service term. In developing this estimate, the Company assumed that Genentech will maintain its initially elected number of twelve full-time equivalent researchers throughout the four-year period. The steering committee effort is also expected to be consistent over the four-year period. The $3,000,000 up-front fee plus $12,000,000, the total amount of research funding which the Company will be entitled to for providing twelve full-time equivalents at $250,000 each over four years, is therefore being attributed to the research services. Revenue is being recognized as the research services are provided over the four-year period through March 2009 at a rate of $312,500 per full-time equivalent. If the research period is changed or the number of full-time equivalents requested by Genentech changes, then the Company will update its estimated level of effort and total expected payments under the arrangement.
The Company recorded revenue under this collaboration of $944,000 and $1,533,000, respectively, during the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005. Of this amount, approximately $187,000 and $375,000, respectively, was attributed to the amortization of the up-front license fee and is
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included in the “License fees” line item within the Revenue section of the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations for the three-and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, respectively. The remaining $757,000 and $1,158,000, respectively, were related to research services performed by the Company’s full-time equivalent researchers and are included within the “Research and development contracts” line item within the Revenues section of the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations.
The Company views the preclinical and clinical development milestones and drug approval milestones under this collaboration with Genentech to be substantive in nature since the successful achievement of these milestones involves significant risk and uncertainty and a reasonable amount of time passes between the up-front license payment and the first milestone payment as well as between each subsequent milestone payment. Should the Company ever successfully achieve any preclinical or clinical development milestones or drug approval milestones under this collaboration agreement, any related milestone payments would be recorded as revenue within the “Substantive milestones” line item within the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations.
As of September 30, 2005, the Company has provided cash consideration to Genentech in the form of co-development payments for the Company’s equal share of U.S. development costs of a basal cell carcinoma product candidate that is being developed under a separate collaboration with Genentech.
(c) Genentech April 2005 Hedgehog Antagonist Collaboration Amendment
(i) Collaboration Summary
On April 13, 2005, the Company entered into a second amendment to the Collaborative Research, Development and License Agreement with Genentech dated June 11, 2003. The effective date of the amendment was April 11, 2005. The Company considered the provisions of EITF 00-21 and determined that this agreement is a separate contract from its June 2003 agreement since it was not contemplated at the time of the June 2003 arrangement, was separately negotiated in order to increase the number of full-time equivalents providing research and development services and to provide xenograft tumor samples to Genentech, and was not entered into at or near the time of the June 2003 agreement.
Under the terms of the amendment, Genentech will provide to the Company $2,000,000 of funding to continue development of therapeutics to treat solid tumor cancers, and the research term has been extended until December 11, 2005 (previously June 11, 2005). At Genentech’s option, the research term may be extended for an additional six-month period to June 11, 2006, upon written notice delivered to the Company by October 2005. Genentech notified the Company in October 2005 of its decision to extend the research term, and will now fund ten Curis full-time equivalents through June 11, 2006. Genentech will pay the Company $1,250,000 in June 2006, provided that Curis has performed the required research services. Other than the change to the period of the research term and payments associated with such research, the amendment has not changed the terms of the June 2003 agreement, which remains in full force and effect.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers the April 2005 amendment to be a separate agreement and unit of accounting from the June 2003 agreement, and a previous amendment entered into between the Company and Genentech in December 2004. The Company’s performance obligations under this agreement are to provide research services and xenograft tumor samples to Genentech through June 11, 2006. Since Genentech elected to exercise its option and extend the research services, the Company’s performance obligations would extend for an additional period from December 2005 through June 2006. The Company has applied the provisions of SAB No. 104 and is recognizing the research funding as revenues under this collaboration as such research services are performed. The amount payable to the Company and, accordingly, the amount of revenue to be recognized will vary if the Company provides less than the required sixteen full-time equivalents through December 2005 or the ten full-time equivalents through June 2006. As of September 30, 2005, the Company had recorded $1,188,000 as accounts receivable from Genentech in the Company’s Current Assets section of its Consolidated Balance Sheet.
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6. Research and Development Collaborations Entered into Prior to January 1, 2005
During the third quarter of 2005, the Company updated certain aspects of its disclosures related to its research and development collaborations entered into prior to January 1, 2005. The disclosures previously presented in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, are updated and presented within this Note.
(a) GENENTECH, INC. JUNE 2003 COLLABORATION
(i) Collaboration Summary
In June 2003, the Company licensed its proprietary Hedgehog pathway antagonists to Genentech for human therapeutic use. The primary focus of the collaborative research plan has been to develop these molecules for cancer indications. The collaboration consists of two main programs: the development of a small molecule Hedgehog antagonist formulated for the topical treatment for basal cell carcinoma; and the development of systemically administered small molecule and antibody Hedgehog antagonists for the treatment of certain other solid tumor cancers. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement, Genentech agreed to make specified cash payments, including an up-front payment of $5,000,000, license maintenance fee payments totaling $4,000,000 over the first two years of the collaboration and substantive milestone payments at various intervals during the clinical development and regulatory approval process of small molecule and antibody Hedgehog antagonist product candidates, assuming specified clinical development and regulatory approval objectives are met. In addition, Genentech will pay a royalty on potential future net product sales, which increases with increasing sales volume.
Under the collaboration agreement, the Company has the option to elect to co-develop Hedgehog antagonist products in the field of basal cell carcinoma in the U.S. In January 2005, the Company elected to exercise this co-development option and will now share equally in both U.S. development costs and any future U.S. net profits and/or losses resulting from the development and commercialization of its basal cell carcinoma product candidate. This co-development right includes basal cell carcinoma and any additional indications for which this product candidate may be developed in the U.S. As a result of participating in co-development, the Company will forego U.S. development milestone and royalty payments on potential future U.S. sales of the basal cell carcinoma product candidate. Should the Company determine that it cannot continue funding its equal share of the development expenses, the Company may opt out of the co-development structure and receive certain development and regulatory approval milestones and royalties on sales of the basal cell carcinoma product candidate, should any ever occur. In addition, in certain major international markets, the Company will receive substantive milestone payments if specific clinical development objectives are achieved and a royalty on any international sales of any basal cell carcinoma product candidate.
Under the systemic Hedgehog antagonist program of the collaboration, Genentech is also obligated to make substantive milestone payments to the Company assuming the successful achievement of clinical development and drug approval objectives. In addition, Genentech will pay a royalty on potential future net product sales, which increases with increasing sales volume.
Unless terminated earlier, the agreement shall expire six months after the later of the expiration of Genentech’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company under the agreement or such time as no activities have occurred under the agreement for a period of twelve months. Early termination provisions are as follows:
•
Either the Company or Genentech may terminate the agreement upon sixty days written notice for cause upon either the occurrence of bankruptcy, insolvency, dissolution, winding up, or upon the
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breach of any material provision of this agreement by the other party, provided such breach is not cured by the other party within the sixty day period following written notice of termination by the other party.
• Genentech may terminate the agreement without cause, effective no earlier than June 12, 2004, upon six months prior written notice. Genentech may also terminate the agreement solely with respect to a particular compound, indication or country no earlier than June 12, 2004, upon six months prior written notice.
• If Genentech terminates the agreement for cause, all licenses granted by Genentech to the Company automatically terminate and revert to Genentech and specified licenses granted by Curis to Genentech shall survive so long as Genentech is not then in breach under the Agreement. The consideration for any product that the Company shares gross profits and losses with Genentech through a co-development structure (i.e., the basal cell carcinoma product candidate) will be modified so that the Company will no longer receive its share of gross profits and losses. The Company will instead receive clinical development and drug approval milestones and royalties on product sales for such product.
• If the Company terminates the agreement for cause or Genentech terminates the agreement without cause, all licenses granted by the Company to Genentech automatically terminate and revert to the Company and specified licenses granted by Genentech to the Company shall survive so long as the Company is not then in breach under the Agreement. At the time of such termination, Genentech shall no longer conduct any development or commercialization activities on any compounds identified during the course of the agreement for so long as such compounds continue to be covered by valid patent claims.
As a result of its licensing agreements with various universities, the Company is obligated to make payments to these university licensors when certain payments are received from Genentech.
In the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded an adjustment to correct an error in recording the fair value of shares issued in connection with its collaboration with Genentech. On June 11, 2003, in connection with the collaboration agreement, the Company sold to Genentech 1,323,835 shares of its common stock. The shares were recorded at a price of $2.644 per share based on a 30-day trailing average of closing prices prior to June 11, 2003, pursuant to the terms of a stock purchase agreement. Therefore, the Company allocated $3,500,000 as stockholders’ equity in the Company’s consolidated balance at December 31, 2003. The fair market value of the Company’s common stock was $3.77 per share on June 11, 2003, as determined by the quoted closing price on the NASDAQ national market. During the third quarter of 2005, the Company determined that it should have ascribed $4,991,000 in value to the common stock, calculated as the $3.77 per share closing price multiplied by 1,323,835 shares sold to Genentech. Consequently, the Company recorded a credit of $1,491,000 to additional-paid-in capital to correct the understatement in the fair value of the shares issued, a $1,072,000 reduction in deferred revenue to correct the overstatement of deferred revenue, and a $419,000 reduction in license fee revenue to correct the cumulative overstatement of revenue. The Company also entered into a registration rights agreement with Genentech pursuant to which, at the request of Genentech, the Company shall use its reasonable best efforts to register the shares of common stock for resale in the future under specified conditions.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers its June 2003 arrangement with Genentech to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables. The Company’s deliverables, or performance obligations, under this collaboration include an exclusive license to its Hedgehog antagonist technologies and performance obligations, including
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research and development services for the first two years of the collaboration and participation on steering committees. The Company applied the provisions of EITF 00-21 to determine whether the performance obligations under this collaboration could be accounted for separately or should be accounted for as a single unit of accounting. The Company determined that the performance obligations, the license and the research and steering committee services, represented a single unit of accounting because the Company believes that the license, although delivered at the inception of the arrangement, does not have stand-alone value to Genentech without the Company’s research services and steering committee participation and because objective and reliable evidence of the fair value of the Company’s research and steering committee services could not be determined.
The Company had attributed the $5,000,000 up-front fee and the $4,000,000 of maintenance fees to the undelivered research and steering committee services. The $9,000,000 in total payments was being recognized as revenue over the Company’s performance period under the collaboration, which the Company estimates to be through June 2011, the estimated date that the products under the collaboration may receive regulatory approval. The Company cannot reasonably estimate the total level of effort required over the performance period and, therefore, is recognizing the $9,000,000 on a straight-line basis over the performance period. During the third quarter of 2005, the Company recorded a cumulative adjustment reduction to its License fee revenue of $419,000. This cumulative adjustment was recorded to correct license revenues that it had previously recorded relating to $1,491,000 in consideration that had been allocated to the $5,000,000 up-front license payment. As noted above, this consideration was reclassified from deferred revenue to additional-paid-in capital accounts. As a result of a cumulative adjustment, the Company recorded negative revenues under this collaboration related to the license and maintenance fees of $206,000 during the third quarter of 2005. During the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded $340,000 in license revenues. These amounts are included in “License fees” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations. The $4,000,000 in maintenance fees were not considered substantive milestones because receipt of the payments did not involve significant risk at the inception of the arrangement and the receipt of such payments is not tied to the achievement of any specific developmental objectives under the arrangement. Therefore, these payments were also attributed to the research and steering committee service performance obligations. The Company’s ongoing performance obligations under this collaboration consist of participation on two steering committees, one for BCC and one for solid tumors. The steering committees are comprised of an equal number of employees from the Company and Genentech. Each member of the steering committees receives the right to cast one vote, but Genentech generally has the final decision making authority. While the Company is obligated to serve on the steering committees as long as any drug covered under the collaboration is being developed or commercialized, the Company believes that it will provide significant contributions under its steering committee services only through the first product approved in both the basal cell carcinoma and systemic Hedgehog antagonist programs. The Company has no manufacturing or selling capabilities and, as such, believes that its participation in the steering committees after regulatory approval would be inconsequential and does not represent a performance obligation.
In July 2004, the Company received the first maintenance fee payment in the amount of $2,000,000. The second $2,000,000 maintenance payment was replaced by a $2,000,000 payment for research services in December 2004 as part of an amendment to the collaboration in December 2004. The Company considers the December 2004 amendment to be a separate agreement and unit of accounting from the June 2003 agreement. However, because the $2,000,000 payment received in December 2004 was paid to the Company in exchange for research services conducted prior to the execution of the December 2004 agreement, the Company determined it would amortize this payment over the remaining period in which the Company expects to fulfill its performance obligations under the collaboration (e.g., June 2011).
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The Company views the clinical development and drug approval milestones under this collaboration with Genentech to be substantive milestones since the successful achievement of these milestones involves significant risk and uncertainty and a reasonable amount of time passes between the up-front license payment and the first milestone payment as well as between each subsequent milestone payment. Should the Company ever successfully achieve any clinical development or drug approval milestones under this collaboration agreement, any related milestone payments would be recorded as revenue upon achievement of the milestone in “Substantive milestones” in the Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations.
The Company considered the provisions of EITF 99-19 and recorded $91,000 and $130,000, respectively, during the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, as revenue related to expenses incurred on behalf of Genentech that were paid by the Company and for which Genentech is obligated to reimburse the Company. The Company will continue to recognize revenue for expense reimbursement as such expenses are incurred, provided that such expense reimbursement meets the revenue criteria established under EITF 99-19.
The Company’s right to co-develop the Hedgehog antagonist products in the field of basal cell carcinoma was not considered a deliverable under EITF 00-21 and was exercisable only at the Company’s option and, therefore, did not impact the initial accounting for this arrangement. As a result of its decision to exercise its right to co-develop the basal cell carcinoma product candidate, the Company expects to make significant cash payments to Genentech during the period of clinical development. The Company has recorded $820,000 and $5,698,000, respectively, in co-development payments to Genentech for the three- and nine-months periods ended September 30, 2005, as contra-revenues at its Consolidated Statement of Operations. The Company will follow the provision of EITF 01-09 and expects to record its future co-development payments first as a reduction of revenue, to the extent of both cumulative revenue recorded to date and probable future revenues, which includes any unamortized deferred revenue balances under all arrangements with such customer, and then as an expense.
(b) GENENTECH, INC. DECEMBER 2004 AGREEMENT
(i) Collaboration Summary
On December 10, 2004, the Company entered into an amendment to its June 2003 agreement with Genentech. The Company considered the provisions of EITF 00-21 and determined that this agreement should be accounted for as a separate agreement and not part of its June 2003 agreement since it was not contemplated at the time of the June 2003 arrangement, was separately negotiated in order to increase the number of full-time equivalents providing research and development services, included a separate performance obligation for the Company to provide xenograft tumor samples to Genentech, and was not entered into at or near the time of the June 2003 agreement.
The December 2004 amendment, effective from June 12, 2004 to June 11, 2005, increases the Company’s commitment of full-time equivalents providing research and development services for the systemic Hedgehog antagonist program from eight to sixteen and increases Genentech’s funding commitment from $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 for this period. The agreement also provides for the Company to provide xenograft tumor samples to Genentech during the period from June 12, 2004 to June 11, 2005, for which Genentech paid the Company $100,000 in December 2004. In addition, the second $2,000,000 maintenance payment due under the June 2003 arrangement was removed with no economic effect since it was replaced by a $2,000,000 payment for research services made to the Company in December 2004. The remaining $2,000,000 for subsequent research services was paid in June 2005.
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(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers the December 2004 amendment to be a separate agreement and unit of accounting from the June 2003 agreement. The Company’s performance obligations under this agreement are to provide research services and xenograft tumor samples to Genentech through June 2005. The Company has applied the provisions of SAB No. 104 and is recognizing the $2,000,000 in incremental funding as revenues under this collaboration as the incremental research services are performed from December 2004 through June 2005. The amount payable to the Company and, accordingly, the amount of revenue to be recognized will vary if the Company provides less than sixteen full-time equivalents through June 2005. In April 2005, the Company entered into a second amendment with similar performance obligations. During the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded $973,000 and $2,861,000 respectively, related to its research and development services under both this agreement and the April 2005 amendment as revenue in “Research and development contracts” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations.
(c) WYETH PHARMACEUTICALS
(i) Collaboration Summary
On January 12, 2004, the Company licensed its Hedgehog proteins and small molecule Hedgehog pathway agonists to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, or Wyeth, for therapeutic applications in the treatment of neurological and other disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, Wyeth paid the Company a $1,500,000 non-refundable license fee and $1,500,000 to purchase 315,524 unregistered shares of the Company’s common stock. at a purchase price of $4.754 per share. The common stock purchase price was calculated as the 15-day trailing average closing price of the Company’s common stock immediately prior to January 12, 2004. In the quarter ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded an adjustment to correct an error in recording the fair value of these shares issued to Wyeth. As noted above, in connection with the collaboration agreement, the Company sold to Wyeth 315,524 shares of its common stock. The shares were recorded at a price of $4.754 per share based on a 15-day trailing average of closing prices prior to January 12, 2004, pursuant to the terms of a stock purchase agreement and, therefore, the Company allocated $1,500,000 as stockholders’ equity in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheet at December 31, 2004. The fair market value of the Company’s common stock was $5.19 per share on January 12, 2004, as determined by the quoted closing price on the NASDAQ national market. During the third quarter of 2005, the Company determined that that it should have ascribed $1,638,000 in value to the common stock, calculated as the $5.19 per share closing price multiplied by 315,524 shares sold to Wyeth. Consequently, the Company recorded a credit of $138,000 to additional-paid-in capital to correct the understatement in the fair value of the shares issued, a $97,000 reduction in deferred revenue to correct the overstatement of deferred revenue; and a $41,000 reduction in license fee revenue to correct the cumulative overstatement of revenue.
In addition to these initial payments, Wyeth is obligated to provide financial support of the Company’s research under the collaboration, at $250,000 per full-time equivalent researcher, for a period of up two years based on the number of full-time equivalent researchers performing services under the collaboration. The Company is obligated to dedicate between five and ten full-time equivalents to this program, as determined by Wyeth in six-month intervals, for two years. After the initial two-year period, Wyeth can, at its option, elect to extend the Company’s research obligation, and Wyeth’s funding thereof, for two one-year increments. The agreement provides for a one-year evaluation period immediately following the end of the
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research term, during which the Company may be obligated to serve on the steering committee and may be required, at Wyeth’s expense, to perform additional research and development services. The Company currently estimates that it will only be required to provide steering committee services during the evaluation period if it is also performing research services during that period. Wyeth is also obligated to make substantive milestone payments if the licensed programs successfully achieve clinical development and drug approval objectives and to pay the Company a royalty on net product sales, if any should occur, that escalates with increasing sales volume.
As part of the agreement, the Company has retained development and licensing options for certain therapeutic applications of the Hedgehog agonist technologies, including topical applications for hair growth and local delivery applications for treatment of cardiovascular disease. Wyeth has a right of first negotiation to obtain an exclusive license to the orphan drug indications and the cardiovascular applications. If Wyeth declines to exercise its right, or if the Company is unable to reach an agreement with Wyeth on terms within the contractually specified period, the Company is free to seek another collaborator for this program.
Unless terminated earlier, the agreement shall expire upon the expiration of Wyeth’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company under the agreement. Early termination provisions are as follows:
• Either party may terminate the agreement unilaterally, in whole or in relevant part, during the research program in the event of issuance of third party patents that block Wyeth’s right to use the licensed technology. If the agreement is terminated under this provision, license rights will revert to the respective parties and no royalties will be due and payable unless products continue to be sold after termination. In such event, Wyeth would continue to pay royalties as defined in the agreement.
• Wyeth may terminate the agreement at any time upon ninety days written notice, for safety reasons, if Wyeth concludes that a major mechanism-based toxicological finding would preclude the development of licensed technology products for use in humans. If the agreement is terminated under this provision, license rights will revert to the respective parties and no royalties will be due and payable unless products continue to be sold after termination. In such event, Wyeth would continue to pay royalties as defined in the agreement.
• Upon sixty days written notice and subject to an additional thirty day period of discussion between the parties, Wyeth may terminate its research funding of Company personnel upon the acquisition of the Company by a third party. Unless the agreement is terminated under another provision, this provision would permit Wyeth to retain the licenses granted provided that it continued to fulfill it’s non-research funding obligations to the Company, including payment of milestones and royalties on product sales.
• Wyeth may terminate the agreement without cause, for any reason in its entirety or on any compound, product, or country basis upon sixty days written notice, provided that such complete or partial termination cannot occur before February 2006. If a termination occurs under this provision, any terminated license rights would revert to the respective party. If the Company were to subsequently sell products that were subject to these reverted license rights, royalties would be due Wyeth in accordance with the terms of the agreement. In addition, Wyeth would continue to pay royalties to the Company on sales of specified compounds or products that were not terminated as well as on sales of specified terminated compounds or products that Wyeth continued to sell despite such earlier termination.
•
Either party may terminate the agreement in the event of uncured material default by the other party. Depending upon the nature of the default, the cure period may be extended from ninety days
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to as long as one year. Subject to the restrictions described in the agreement, the non-defaulting party may terminate the agreement in its entirety or only with respect to the compound or product that is affected by the default. If the Company elected to terminate the agreement, either partially or in its entirety, the relevant license rights would revert to the Company. In the event the Company subsequently sold terminated compounds or products that were subject to both reverted license rights and certain Wyeth intellectual property rights, the Company would owe Wyeth a royalty for such product sales, in accordance with the terms of the agreement. In the event of partial termination by the Company, Wyeth’s obligations with respect to those compounds or products that were not terminated would continue. If Wyeth terminates the agreement, all license rights become fully paid up and perpetual provided that Wyeth pays the reduced royalty rate on product sales, as described in the termination provisions of the agreement.
• To the extent permitted by applicable law, either the Company or Wyeth may exercise certain rights upon the occurrence of the other party’s bankruptcy, insolvency, dissolution, winding up or assignment of assets for the benefit of creditors. Wyeth may terminate the research program or elect to keep the agreement in effect. The Company may terminate the agreement. If either party terminates the agreement, the licenses granted to Wyeth by the Company under the agreement will terminate and revert to the Company.
In addition, as part of a termination agreement entered into between the Company and Élan Corporation, the Company will pay Élan royalty payments related to any revenues in excess of the first $1,500,000 received by the Company from Wyeth, other than revenues received as direct reimbursement for research, development and other expenses that the Company receives from Wyeth. The Company and Élan had previously collaborated on the development of the Hedgehog agonist technologies currently under development with Wyeth. The Company is also obligated to make payments to various university licensors when certain payments are received from Wyeth. To date, all amounts have been paid to the university licensors.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company considers its arrangement with Wyeth to be a revenue arrangement with multiple deliverables, or performance obligations. The Company’s performance obligations under this collaboration include an exclusive license to its Hedgehog agonist technologies and performing services, including research and development services for at least two years and participation on a steering committee. The Company applied the provisions of EITF 00-21 to determine whether the performance obligations under this collaboration could be accounted for separately or as a single unit or multiple units of accounting. The Company determined that these performance obligations and research and steering committee services represented a single unit of accounting, since the Company believes that the license does not have stand-alone value to Wyeth without its research services and steering committee participation and because objective and reliable evidence of the fair value of the Company’s research and steering committee participation could not be determined.
The Company’s ongoing performance obligations under this collaboration consist of participation on a steering committee and the performance of research services. Because the Company can reasonably estimate its level of effort over the term of the arrangement, the Company is accounting for the arrangement under the relative performance method. In developing its estimate of the Company’s level of effort required to complete its performance obligations, the Company estimated that Wyeth would elect twice to extend the research and development service period and related funding, each in one-year increments, for a total of four years. The agreement provides for a one-year evaluation period immediately following the end of the research term, during which time the Company may be obligated to serve on the steering committee and
20
may be required, at Wyeth’s expense, to perform additional research and development services. The Company estimates that it will provide an equal number of full-time equivalents for the four-year research and development service term plus the one-year evaluation period. In developing this estimate, the Company assumed that Wyeth will maintain its initially elected number of eight full-time equivalents throughout the five-year period. The steering committee effort is also expected to be consistent over the five-year period. The $1,500,000 up-front fee plus $10,000,000, the total amount of research funding which the Company will be entitled to for providing eight full-time equivalents at $250,000 each over five years, is therefore being attributed to the research services. Revenue is being recognized as the research services are provided over the five- year period through February 2009 at a rate of $287,500 per full-time equivalent. If the research period is shortened or the number of full-time equivalents requested by Wyeth changes, then the Company will update its estimated level of effort and total expected payments under the arrangement.
During the third quarter of 2005, the Company recorded a reduction to its License fee revenue of $41,000 to record the cumulative adjustment to license revenues that it had previously recorded relating to $138,000 in consideration that had been allocated to the up-front license payment. As noted above, this consideration was reclassified from deferred revenue to additional-paid-in capital accounts. During the three- and nine- month periods ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded revenue of $585,000 and $2,169,000, respectively, related to the Company’s research efforts under the Wyeth arrangement, of which $24,000 and $174,000, respectively, were recorded in “License Fees” and $561,000 and $1,745,000, respectively, were recorded in “Research and development contracts” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations. Additionally, for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2005, the Company recorded $250,000 in the “Substantive milestones” section of it Consolidated Statement of Operations. Included within “Research and development contracts”, the Company recorded $61,000 and $245,000 for the three- and nine- months ended September 30, 2005 as revenue related to expenses incurred on behalf of Wyeth that were paid by the Company and for which Wyeth is obligated to reimburse the Company. The Company will continue to recognize revenue for expense reimbursement as such reimbursable expenses are incurred, provided that the provisions of EITF 99-19 are met. As of September 30, 2005, the Company had recorded $142,000 as amounts receivable from Wyeth in “Accounts receivable” in the Company’s Current Assets section of its Consolidated Balance Sheets.
The Company views the clinical development and drug approval milestones under its collaboration with Wyeth to be substantive in nature since the successful achievement of these milestones involves significant risk and uncertainty and a reasonable amount of time passes between the up-front license payment and the first milestone payment as well as between each subsequent milestone payment. Should the company ever successfully achieve any clinical development or drug approval milestones under this collaboration agreement, any related milestone payments would be recorded as revenue in “Substantive milestones” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations.
As of September 30, 2005, the Company has not provided any consideration to Wyeth.
(d) ORTHO BIOTECH PRODUCTS, L.P.
(i) Collaboration Summary
In November 2002, the Company licensed its broad bone morphogenetic protein, or BMP, technology portfolio to Ortho Biotech Products, L.P., a member of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. Two of Ortho Biotech Products’ research affiliates, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. and Centocor Research & Development, also members of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, will have joint responsibility for further research and development of the Company’s licensed BMP technology portfolio.
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The transaction relates to all of the Company’s proprietary BMP compounds including BMP-7, which has been studied in animal models as a treatment for chronic kidney disease and systemic complications, such as renal osteodystrophy, a form of bone disease, and blood vessel complications that have been associated with chronic kidney disease. Use of the Company’s BMPs for the repair or regeneration of local musculoskeletal tissue defects and dental defects is the subject of an exclusive agreement with Stryker and is not included as part of this transaction.
The agreement provides for Ortho Biotech to pay the Company an up-front payment of $3,500,000, which was paid in December 2002, and substantive milestone payments at various intervals during the U.S. and European regulatory approval process assuming the first two therapeutic indications are successfully developed. These substantive milestone payments include a $30,000,000 payment if Ortho Biotech achieves U.S. regulatory approval of a product for the treatment of kidney disease or associated complications. The agreement further specifies that the Company will receive a royalty on net sales of products that incorporate the Company’s BMP technologies.
Unless terminated earlier, the agreement shall remain in effect until the expiration of Ortho Biotech’s obligation to pay royalties to the Company under the agreement. Early termination provisions are as follows:
• Ortho Biotech Products may terminate the agreement, for any reason, upon ninety days written notice to the Company.
• Either the Company or Ortho Biotech Products may terminate the agreement immediately for cause upon the occurrence of bankruptcy, insolvency, or if the other party assigns substantially all of its assets for the benefit of creditors.
• Either the Company or Ortho Biotech may terminate the agreement upon ninety days’ prior written notice if the other party has materially breached or defaulted on any material obligations under the contract, provided that the other party has not cured such breach within the ninety-day period following written notice of termination.
• Ortho Biotech may terminate the agreement upon thirty days written notice if the Company breaches its representation to Ortho Biotech that certain of the Company’s other license agreements do not contain restrictions which would restrict Ortho Biotech from exercising its license rights under the agreement.
If Ortho Biotech terminates the agreement for cause, the licenses granted by the Company to Ortho Biotech shall survive such termination and the royalty rates owed to the Company would be reduced. If the Company terminates the agreement for cause or if Ortho Biotech terminates upon thirty days written notice without cause, the licenses granted by the Company to Ortho Biotech shall terminate.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company has no future deliverables under this license agreement and has applied the provisions of SAB No. 104 for recognizing revenue under this collaboration. The Company recognized the up-front payment of $3,500,000 as revenue in the fourth quarter of 2002 because the Company has no continuing performance obligations under the contract.
The Company views the clinical development and drug approval milestones under its collaboration with Ortho Biotech to be substantive in nature since the successful achievement of these milestones involves significant risk and uncertainty and a reasonable amount of time passes between the up-front license payment and the first milestone payment as well as between each subsequent milestone payment. Should the
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Company ever successfully achieve any clinical development or drug approval milestones under this collaboration agreement, any related milestone payments would be recorded as revenue in “Substantive milestones” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations. The Company has not recognized any revenues under its arrangement with Ortho Biotech in either the three- or nine- month periods ended September 30, 2005.
As of September 30, 2005, the Company has not provided any consideration to Ortho Biotech Products.
(e) SPINAL MUSCULAR ATROPHY FOUNDATION
(i) Collaboration Summary
Effective September 7, 2004, the Company entered into a sponsored research agreement with the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation. Under the agreement, the Foundation will grant the Company up to $5,364,000 over a three-year period for the identification of therapeutic compounds to treat spinal muscular atrophy, a neurological disease that is the leading genetic cause of infant and toddler death.
The research will utilize the Company’s proprietary technologies and expertise to develop and refine assays in motor neurons and then use those assays to screen for potential drug candidates. The Company will own any compounds that it generates under this collaboration and will also have the ability to bring any such compounds into the clinic, either using the Company’s own resources or with a collaborating third party. If any drug candidates developed under the agreement are successfully commercialized, the Company will be required to make payments to the SMA Foundation if cumulative revenues from the sales of such products exceed $100,000,000. Unless terminated earlier, the agreement will continue until the expiration of the research activities. The Company or the SMA Foundation may terminate this agreement upon sixty days’ prior written notice upon the occurrence of bankruptcy, insolvency, dissolution or winding up of the other party; or upon the breach of any material provision of the sponsored research agreement by the other party, provided that the other party has not cured such breach within the 60-day period following written notice of termination. Termination of the agreement will not relieve either party of obligations that have accrued prior to termination, including the SMA Foundation’s obligation to make payments for research activities. In addition, the Company remains obligated to make payments to the SMA Foundation in the event the Company recognizes an aggregate of $100,000,000 in revenues on products containing any drug candidates developed under the agreement.
(ii) Accounting Summary
The Company’s sole deliverable under this sponsored research agreement is to provide research services. The Company has applied the provisions of SAB No. 104 for recognizing revenue under this collaboration. The Company is recognizing revenues under this collaboration as the services are performed, provided that payment is reasonably assured under the terms of the grant. For the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, the Company recognized $205,000 and $1,425,000, respectively, related to the reimbursement of our research and development efforts under this sponsored research agreement. This amount is included in “Research and development contracts” in the Company’s Revenues section of its Consolidated Statement of Operations. As of September 30, 2005, the Company had recorded $127,000 in amounts due from the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation in “Accounts receivable” in the Company’s Current Assets section of its Consolidated Balance Sheets.
Should the Company ever generate over $100,000,000 in cumulative future revenues from products developed under this agreement, we expect to record any payments to the SMA Foundation as contra-revenues in accordance with EITF 01-9.
As of September 30, 2005, the Company has not provided any consideration to the SMA Foundation.
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7. Genentech Co-Development Accounting
In connection with its election to exercise its co-development option related to its basal cell carcinoma program under development with Genentech (see Note 6(a)), the Company has applied the provisions of EITF Issue No. 01-9, Accounting for Consideration Given by a Vendor to a Customer (Including a Reseller of the Vendor’s Products), or EITF 01-9, which addresses the accounting for revenue arrangements where both the vendor and the customer make cash payments to each other for services and/or products, as is the case with the Company’s collaboration agreements with Genentech. EITF 01-9 states that situations in which a vendor (the Company) is paying its customer (Genentech) must be evaluated in order to determine if the vendor payment can be treated as expense or as a reduction to revenues generated by the customer relationship. EITF 01-9 also requires that all transactions with a customer be considered when determining the appropriate accounting treatment, including separate collaborations with the same customer.
The Company has entered into two collaborations with Genentech, including the June 2003 license to its Hedgehog antagonist technologies and an April 2005 license relating to another signaling pathway. Under these collaboration agreements with Genentech, the Company, as the vendor, sold licenses to Genentech and received or may receive from Genentech, as the customer, license fees, development and drug approval milestones, royalties on potential future product sales, payments for research services, and reimbursement for certain patent expenses and other costs. In addition, the Company also makes co-development payments to Genentech in connection with the basal cell carcinoma product candidate. The payments made by the Company to reimburse Genentech for co-development payments are considered by the Company to be within the scope of EITF 01-9 because the Company considers these payments to be payments from a vendor made to a customer, and the Company has concluded that such payments did not meet any of the scope exceptions outlined in EITF 01-9.
Because the Company concluded that its co-development payments are within the scope of EITF 01-9, the Company is required to record all co-development costs as contra revenues, provided that the cumulative co-development costs do not exceed both cumulative revenues recognized to date and probable future revenues, which includes unamortized deferred revenue balances, under both of our collaborations with Genentech. Any future co-development costs incurred by the Company in excess of the total cumulative revenues recognized and probable future revenues under the Genentech collaborations will then be recorded against research and development expenses.
As of September 30, 2005, cumulative co-development costs of $5,698,000 incurred by the Company did not exceed cumulative revenues recorded related to its collaborations with Genentech of $7,870,000. Therefore, in accordance with EITF 01-9, the co-development costs have been recorded as a reduction to revenues, or contra-revenue, of $820,000 and $5,698,000 in the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Operations for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2005, respectively.
http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.z6szw.htm
zdnet test OS X on x86 complete with photos
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/os/0,39024180,39235916,00.htm
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/os/0,39024180,39235916-6,00.htm
Darren Dittrich followed up on the discovery that Sony was playing a dirty trick on its customers, secretly installing a malware-style "root kit" on their computers via audio CDs:
I recently purchased Imogen Heap's new CD (Speak for Yourself), an RCA Victor release, but with distribution credited to Sony/BMG. Reading recent reports of a Sony rootkit, I decided to poke around. In addition to the standard volume for AIFF files, there's a smaller extra partition for "enhanced" content. I was surprised to find a "Start.app" Mac application in addition to the expected Windows-related files. Running this app brings up a long legal agreement, clicking Continue prompts you for your username/password (uh-oh!), and then promptly exits. Digging around a bit, I find that Start.app actually installs 2 files: PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of anyone installing kernel extensions on my Mac. In Sony's defense, upon closer reading of the EULA, they essentially tell you that they will be installing software. Also, this is apparently not the same technology used in the recent Windows rootkits (made by XCP), but rather a DRM codebase developed by SunnComm, who promotes their Mac-aware DRM technology on their site.
http://www.macintouch.com/#tip.2005.11.10.sony
Darren Dittrich followed up on the discovery that Sony was playing a dirty trick on its customers, secretly installing a malware-style "root kit" on their computers via audio CDs:
I recently purchased Imogen Heap's new CD (Speak for Yourself), an RCA Victor release, but with distribution credited to Sony/BMG. Reading recent reports of a Sony rootkit, I decided to poke around. In addition to the standard volume for AIFF files, there's a smaller extra partition for "enhanced" content. I was surprised to find a "Start.app" Mac application in addition to the expected Windows-related files. Running this app brings up a long legal agreement, clicking Continue prompts you for your username/password (uh-oh!), and then promptly exits. Digging around a bit, I find that Start.app actually installs 2 files: PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of anyone installing kernel extensions on my Mac. In Sony's defense, upon closer reading of the EULA, they essentially tell you that they will be installing software. Also, this is apparently not the same technology used in the recent Windows rootkits (made by XCP), but rather a DRM codebase developed by SunnComm, who promotes their Mac-aware DRM technology on their site.
http://www.macintouch.com/#tip.2005.11.10.sony
The Curious Case of The One-Eyed Sheep
Matthew Herper, 11.28.05
How a freakish birth defect among Idaho lambs 50 years ago has led to a powerful new cancer treatment.
Idaho sheep ranchers couldn't figure out why, in the decade after World War II, a random batch of their lambs were being born with strange birth defects. The creatures had underdeveloped brains and a single eye planted, cyclopslike, in the middle of their foreheads. In 1957 they called in scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate.
The scientists worked for 11 years to solve the mystery. One of them, Lynn James, lived with the sheep for three summers before discovering the culprit:corn lilies. When the animals moved to higher ground during droughts, they snacked on the flowers. The lilies, it turned out, contained a poison, later dubbed cyclopamine, that stunted developing lamb embryos. The mothers remained unharmed. The case of the cyclopamine and the one-eyed Idaho lambs remained a freakish chemistry footnote for the next 25 years; researchers never could uncover why cyclopamine caused birth defects.
Click Here For From Poison to Palliative
But now cancer researchers have improbably seized on the obscure plant chemical as the blueprint for a half-dozen promising tumor-fighters. Cyclopamine, it turns out, blocks the function of a gene called Sonic hedgehog that is essential for embryonic development but also plays a lead role in causing deadly cancers of the pancreas, skin, prostate and esophagus. "It's a beautiful accident of evolution," says Philip A. Beachy, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Johns Hopkins University and one of the key players in this genetic detective story. In early tests researchers have stopped the growth of the most virulent human tumors, varieties accounting for 25% of cancer deaths.
Genentech and partner Curis, a fledgling biotech in Cambridge, Mass., are first out of the gate with an experimental hedgehog-blocking skin cream for basal cell skin cancer. More drugs in the pipeline are aimed at other cancers. Julian Adams, the superstar chemist who invented the AIDS drug Viramune and cancer drug Velcade, has made a hedgehog inhibitor one of his lead medicines at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Little is known about his drug, which has not yet entered human trials, but on its Web site Infinity points to the role of hedgehog in pancreatic cancer. Novartis, Abbott Laboratories and Boehringer Ingelheim are all thought to be pursuing hedgehog programs. "It would be a major triumph for basic science if a drug were to come from this,"says Matthew Scott, an HHMI cancer genetics expert at Stanford University.
The discovery of the hedgehog genetic pathway originated in the quest to understand how an embryo knows what body parts to grow and where. A developing embryo starts out as a ball of identical cells with no top or bottom, no front or back. No one knew how this ball of cells figures out where to put an arm, a wing, a head or a foot.
In the late 1970s researchers Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus completed their massive study of thousands of fruit-fly mutations, a landmark in large-scale biological analysis. They found 50 genes that turned out to be very important to the development of fly embryos. One that they mutated caused the flies to grow a coat of spines all over their undersides, so they dubbed it the hedgehog gene. (The two won the Nobel Prize in 1995 for this work.)
That set off a search by Philip Beachy and a dozen others to explore the hedgehog pathway in higher-order animals such as fish and mammals. They found several in each species, whereas flies have only one. In mammals, the most important may be the Sonic hedgehog gene, named after the Sega videogame character by scientists in the Harvard laboratory of Clifford Tabin in 1993. Mutations of Sonic hedgehog in people may result in babies with a single eye or a hole in the center of their head. The infants' brains can be so underdeveloped that they often don't survive. Usually patients have less serious mutations: a single front tooth or a slightly deformed face.
If Sonic hedgehog is mutated when a mouse is growing its paws, the animal won't grow digits. Interfere with it when the developing brain is casting out the two bulges of nerve tissue that become the eyes, and you get cyclopean sheep. "It's spectacular," says Frederic de Sauvage, a hedgehog researcher at Genentech.
All these mutations were done by physically changing the animals' DNA. It wasn't until Johns Hopkins' Beachy and his colleagues remembered reading about the Idaho lambs that they realized cyclopamine could be used as an easier on-off switch for the hedgehog pathway. They published their discovery in 1998, and Beachy and others began exposing animals to cyclopamine to study its role.
Matthew Scott of Stanford and a team at UC, San Francisco, working separately, made a huge connection: Defects in hedgehog or related genes were present in two rare diseases linked to cancers. One, called Gorlin's syndrome, sometimes causes basal cell skin cancer to blanket patients as soon as they hit puberty. A second, called medulloblastoma, afflicts the brains of nearly 400 children a year in the U.S., often fatally. Normally the hedgehog gene is dormant in adults. But Beachy theorized it is needed to make repairs in parts of the body that undergo constant regeneration, as in chronic acid reflux, where Sonic hedgehog works overtime to reline the throat. When the gene's activity goes awry in places like the lungs and skin, it can lead to tumors. Beachy has turned normal prostate cells cancerous with a single mutation in Sonic hedgehog. "This pathway has more quirks and twists than you can imagine," says Beachy. "Now the evidence is really expanding."
http://www.forbes.com/business/free_forbes/2005/1128/069.html?partner=yahoomag
Apple files patent: system and method for creating tamper-resistant code (updated)
Posted on Nov 3, 2005 at 3:43pm by Neo
On Nov. 3, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed that Apple = has filed patent application 20050246554 titled “system and method for creating tamper-resistant code.” James D. Batson is listed as the sole inventor for application 837413 originally filed in April 2004. This appears to be related to Apple’s forthcoming Tiger-Intel platform.
Summary
A system and method for creating tamper-resistant code are described herein. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a first object code block. The method also comprises translating the first object code block into a second object code block, wherein the translating includes applying to the first object code block or the second object code block tamper-resistance techniques. The method also comprises executing the second object code block.
In one embodiment the system comprises a processor and a memory unit coupled with the processor. In the system, the memory unit includes a translator unit to translate at runtime blocks of a first object code program into a blocks of a second object code program, wherein the blocks of the second object code program are to be obfuscated as a result of the translation, and wherein the blocks of the second object code program include system calls. The memory unit also includes a runtime support unit to provide service for some of the system calls, wherein the runtime support unit is to deny service for others of the system calls, and wherein service is denied based on a tamper resistance policy.
Background
Tamper-resistant software is software that is difficult to change, tamper with, and/or attack. Code obfuscation is one technique for achieving tamper-resistant software. Generally, the goal of code obfuscation is to make it difficult for attackers to determine what is happening in a block of code. If attackers use debuggers or emulators to trace instructions, code obfuscation can make the code difficult to understand or change.
According to one code obfuscation technique, additional instructions are added to a program. The instructions are added to confuse attackers and/or produce ancillary results, which must be verified before execution can continue past certain points. One problem with this method of code obfuscation is that it typically requires code to be modified by hand. Moreover, it may require existing software to be completely restructured, especially if parts of the software must run in a tamper resistant interpretive environment with system service restrictions.
See part two for descriptions of 11 associated illustrations: A system for creating tamper-resistant code using Dynamic and Static translation is revealed.
References to Mac OS X, Linux and Microsoft Windows
Under claims for Apple’s patent application 20050246554, there’s a consistent reference to a first or second operating system selected from a set consisting of Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. Note the following:
Patent Point # 20: A method comprising: receiving a system call, wherein the system call is formatted for requesting a service from a first operating system, wherein the system call is included in a first object code block, wherein the first object code block is a run-time translation of a second object code block; determining which system call services of a second operating system are needed for providing the service; determining whether system call services for servicing the system call have been disabled, wherein the determining is based on a tamper-resistance policy; servicing the system call, if the system call services for servicing the system call have not been disabled.
22: The method of claim 20, wherein the first operating system is selected from the set consisting of Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
23: The method of claim 20, wherein the second operating system is selected from the set consisting of Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
Patent Point # 24: A method comprising: installing a first object code program, wherein the installing includes, statically translating the first object code program into a second object code program that is executable on a machine, wherein the statically translating includes, determining an identifier based on a state of the machine or a user attribute; and obfuscating the first object code program or the second object code program, wherein the obfuscating depends on the identifier; and storing the second object code program for execution by the machine.
29: The method of claim 24, wherein the machine includes an operating system selected from the set consisting of Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
35: The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the second object code program is executable on an Apple Macintosh or Windows PC.
Patent Point # 64: A machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: receiving a system call, wherein the system call is formatted for requesting a service from a first operating system, wherein the system call is included in a first object code block, wherein the first object code block is a run-time translation of a second object code block; determining which system call services of a second operating system are needed for providing the service; determining whether system call services for servicing the system call have been disabled, wherein the determining is based on a tamper-resistance policy; servicing the system call, if the system call services for servicing the system call have not been disabled.
66: The machine-readable medium of claim 64, wherein the first operating system is selected from the set consisting of Microsoft Window, Linux, and Mac OS X.
67: The machine-readable medium of claim 64, wherein the second operating system is selected from the set consisting of an Apple Macintosh Operating System, Linux, and Microsoft Windows.
Patent Point # 68: a machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising: installing a first object code program, wherein the installing includes, statically translating the first object code program into a second object code program that is executable on a machine, wherein the statically translating includes, determining an identifier based on a state of the machine or a user attribute; and obfuscating the first object code program or the second object code program, wherein the obfuscating depends on the identifier; and storing the second object code program for execution by the machine.
#72: The machine-readable medium of claim 68, wherein the machine is selected from a set consisting of Apple Macintosh and Windows PC.
Notice
Macsimum News presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.
Patent Application: 20050246554
neo@macsimumnews.com
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apple_files_patent_system_and_method_for_creating_tamp...
Did I miss the Intel announcement?
How about the day you have to order a pizza and this is what you get?
http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927
Now a take-over target...
Geron Prices Stock Offer at $9 Per Share
Friday September 16, 11:14 am ET
Geron Prices 6-Million-Share Public Offering at 10 Percent Discount to Stock Price
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) -- Biopharmaceutical company Geron Corp. said Friday that its public offering of six million common shares was priced at $9 per share -- a 10 percent discount to the stock's Thursday closing price of $9.99.
Concurrent with the closing of offering, which is expected on Sept. 21, Merck & Co. will exercise a warrant to purchase $18 million Geron common shares also at $9 per share.
Proceeds of the gross public offering price and the Merck deal will total $72 million. Geron said it plans to use the funds for research and development, including clinical trials, and other general corporate purposes.
UBS Investment Bank is acting as the sole book-running manager for the underwritten public offering. SG Cowen & Co., Needham & Co., Lazard Capital Markets LLC, Rodman & Renshaw LLC and WBB Securities LLC are acting as co-managers. Geron has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an added 900,000 shares to cover over-allotments.
Geron shares fell 14 cents to $9.85 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050916/geron_stock_offer.html?.v=1
Patriot Scientific Files 2005 Form 10-K, Representing Important Milestone in Company Turnaround Under New Management
Wednesday September 14, 11:59 am ET
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2005--Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTCBB:PTSC - News) a high-tech intellectual properties company working in the advanced microprocessor field, today filed its 10-K annual report for its fiscal year ending May 31, 2005. The report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, includes audited financial statements for its fiscal year and related disclosures concerning the company's results of operations and financial condition during that period.
"This filing is an important milestone for Patriot Scientific," said David H. Pohl, chairman and CEO. "While the 10-K presents mostly historic data, it provides the clearest picture yet of the challenges that the company faced and the exciting position we are now in to transform the way Patriot conducts its business. We now have an excellent basis for moving forward with financial momentum."
Activities at Patriot Scientific that have occurred since the close of the fiscal year covered in the 10-K include:
* Appointment of new executive management focused on Patriot's new business opportunities
* Favorable settlement of major litigation that was a drain on resources.
* A license with Intel Corporation for rights to use Patriot Scientific intellectual property
* A commercialization agreement delegating authority for licensing activities for the Patriot Scientific intellectual property portfolio to an aggressive, experienced team of licensing professionals
* Licensing revenue that places the Company on a firm financial footing
* Continuation of rights to develop and market intellectual property products including IGNITE(TM) and INFLAME(TM)
A copy of the Company's 10-K is available for download at www.patriotscientific.com
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050914/145348.html?.v=1
Locking down OS X to the hardware...
http://packetstormsecurity.nl/mac-osx/050819-securing-mac-os-x-tiger.pdf
Rowling to offer Harry Potter e-books via iTunes. eom
I'm getting excited about the ViiV...
If the ViiV comes with OS X and a TPM we may have another block-buster on our hands.
This is what I think is important... [bolds are mine] "settled certain suits involving potential infringers of its intellectual property and was unable to finalize the report for filing in a timely manner."
PART III - NARRATIVE
State below in reasonable detail the reasons why the Form 10-K, 10-KSB, 20-F,
11-K, 10-Q, 10-QSB, NSAR, or the transition report, or portion thereof, could
not be filed within the prescribed time period. (Attach Extra Sheets if Needed).
The Company has recently experienced a change in Chief Financial Officers
and also recently settled certain suits involving potential infringers of
its intellectual property and was unable to finalize the report for filing
in a timely manner.
http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Filing.asp?D=12TC3.zqHk&CIK=836564
go-kitesurf, I'm not sure what is sparking this hostility and perhaps it is just my interpretation of your language. So if I'm reading hostility and impatience with me and it is not your intention please let me know. I'm sincerely trying to learn from your deep wisdom.
BTW, regarding micro's post, here is what it is said and he sent me a PM about it and I thought it courteous to respond to it. As you can see it does not say 'In reply to: go-kitesurf'.
Posted by: micro59
In reply to: None
Date:8/24/2005 11:33:58 AM
Post #of 92905
Kitesurf,
from AWK's post: http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=7470137
"Yes, it is important to know that the core-root-of-trust is ALWAYS based on the 1.2 TPM in the PC space."
Can you explain this to me please?
I thought the TPM was on the mobo. which is inside the pc.
Now I am confused.
TIA,
micro...
go-kitesurf, I don't think this has been stated by AAPL, but be sure to inform me otherwise...
"Once again, the OS, according to Apple, will not run unless authorized by the TPM to run."
Does the OS interact with the TPM for services? One service is receiving the 'okay' to launch the OS, but what about services once the OS is launched - does the OS have a hand in any of that?
Say, for example, I have a movie on a DVD and I want to securely play it and prevent it being ripped, will the OS play a hand in working with the TPM from preventing the rip?
I'm sure I didn't intentionally repeat questions or mix your words. You are educating me so please be patient as well.
OT...Digital Insight and TriCipher Partner to Enhance Online Banking Security With Multifactor Authentication
Thursday August 25, 8:00 am ET
Partnership Will Provide Middle Market Financial Institutions With Customizable Solution That Helps Protect End Users and Administrators Against Online Fraud and Identity Theft
CALABASAS, Calif., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Insight Corp. (Nasdaq: DGIN - News; www.digitalinsight.com), the leading online banking provider, announced today it has entered into a strategic partnership with TriCipher, Inc. (www.tricipher.com), a leading innovator of strong authentication technologies, to help enhance online banking security. The latest partnership supporting Digital Insight's comprehensive security offerings, Multifactor Authentication is designed to help banks and credit unions seamlessly protect their users and administrators from various forms of online fraud by strengthening security at login with a multi-part credential for each user.
"Digital Insight is committed to helping ensure the security of online banking for our clients and their users in a convenient manner, and strong authentication has emerged as one of the most important steps in protecting against Internet-based electronic fraud," said Scott Mackelprang, vice president of security and compliance for Digital Insight. "The Multifactor Authentication solution we have chosen can significantly reduce the threat of current online concerns such as phishing, pharming and other unauthorized user attacks, while still providing scalability to address the potential security concerns of tomorrow."
Multifactor Authentication from Digital Insight meets the diverse needs of the Digital Insight client base. Client financial institutions can implement a customizable, user-friendly version of TriCipher's robust strong authentication system and still maintain enough flexibility to create different authentication levels that match application, data or user risk. The baseline solution enhances login security beyond username and password by storing a second factor of identity authentication on each user's PC that helps prevent fraudsters from impersonating legitimate users. Depending on the level of security desired, a financial institution can elect to incorporate additional layers of strong authentication from users in the form of challenge questions and temporary passcodes, downloaded software modules, USB memory tokens, or other methods of identity verification.
"Flexibility and cost have long been critical issues for middle market financial institutions seeking the security of strong authentication without significant change to existing infrastructure," added TriCipher CEO Ravi Ganesan, who formerly served as Vice Chairman of CheckFree Corporation. "We have worked with Digital Insight to develop a customizable solution that meets the specific needs of their customers and believe this partnership will provide significant, user-friendly protection to their clients and end users."
"Digital Insight continues to provide the critical capabilities, solutions and security services our client financial institutions need to compete and win in the marketplace," said Digital Insight Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Stiefler. "We are pleased to partner with a leading anti-fraud technology provider like TriCipher and look forward to working with them to help our clients deliver greater peace of mind to users."
About TriCipher
TriCipher, Inc. provides strong authentication for the real world. The first authentication system that issues multiple types of credentials from a single infrastructure, the TriCipher Armored Credential System(TM) (TACS) allows for authentication strength to change in response to new threats without any infrastructure changes. Its patented technology fills the gap between authentication systems that are either not secure enough or too hard to use and deploy. TriCipher's innovative approach to strong multi-factor authentication protects against phishing and eliminates dictionary attacks. Founded in 2000, TriCipher is headquartered in San Mateo, California. The Company was incubated as NSD Security before launching as a separate entity in 2005. Investors in TriCipher are ArrowPath Venture Capital, Intel® Capital, Trident Capital and Wasatch Venture Partners.
About Digital Insight
Digital Insight® Corporation is the leading online banking provider for financial institutions. Through its comprehensive portfolio of Internet-based financial products and services built upon the company's unique architecture, Digital Insight enables banks and credit unions to become the trusted transaction hub for their retail and commercial customers. Digital Insight offers consumer and business Internet banking, online lending, electronic bill payment and presentment, check imaging, account-to-account transfers, Web site development and hosting and marketing programs designed to help increase online banking end user growth and more. Each Digital Insight product and service reinforces the strength of its financial institution clients.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations. Because of various risks and uncertainties, actual strategies and results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected. Additional discussion of factors affecting these forward looking statements is contained under the caption "Risk Factors" in Digital Insight's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Digital Insight undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements.
Source: Digital Insight Corporation
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050825/lath036.html?.v=26
go-kitesurf, I don't wade through the board. I responded to Micro because it was listed in my iHub 'mailbox'. I thought it to be courteous to respond to posters who respond to you. Apparently not only have my TPM skills weakened, but understanding of posting etiquette has also weakened.
go-kitesurf, [whew!] then I'm pleased that you agree with me that the TPM-enabled "brick" can operate outside a trusted server infrastructure. Now the question is: What can that TPM do in conjunction with the OS?
c m, in my opinion it is not a "TiVO-like device," rather a TiVo killer. And I don't disagree with the IDHVC connection either.
If, and I can't say one way or the other, but IF this box has a TPM on it AND if AAPL allows the OS X to run on it, then this would lend credence to a rumor I heard, a rumor mind you, that AAPL is bringing an iTunes-like service out for movies whereby the end-user will be able to make purchases through the iFlick (my terminology) store, secured by the TPM and delivered through the INTC box.
Let me categorically deny having any information other than rumors and my own speculation to any of this scenario (posited above and in the past) and I reserve the right to be correct or incorrect based upon such summations and guesses.
go-kitesurf, remember SCSI vs ATA? Yes, AAPL has a history of managing hardware in the way it wants to.
Would you explain to me how the OS X is going to run on a x86 with a TPM present because if the OS is unimportant to the entire trusted process, what will I see (UI) on my machine if I'm running OS X on an Intel x86?
go-kitesurf, so one can have a TPM-enabled client-side architecture that is independent of the server trust system?
micro, that makes two of us! eom
go-kitesurf, re: trusted ecosystem...
Thank you for this presentation.
Clearly a TPM is a requirement (at the moment, but with SoC technology such as what Transmeta is working on, this might not always be the case). The disconnect is how important the OS is (or isn't) in the entire process. If it is not important then this is the disconnect.
When I was a member of the TCPA there were discussions about the grid ecosystem, though I think the paper that this came out of HP (I posted this long, long ago) actually looked at periperal devices hubbing off the PC platform and controlled by the OS and BIOS with the TPM. I guess this is the paradigm I'm stuck in at the moment, thanks to HP! I remember how interested Lark was in this paper back then too.
http://trustedcomputingsociety.org/HP%20client%20side%20storage.pdf
Ramsey2, your MacTel post...
I can't see what would keep AAPL from developing the communication and server infrastructure.
I have apparently been away from Wave's business model so long that I have fallen behind the times and I must be missing more to the story.
go-kitesurf, thanks for your reply!
Obviously things have changed. I thought the OS was more important to the interface to the TPM than it apparently is now.
awk, how involved is MOT in TrustZone? eom
Intel Unveils Own PC Brand
[commentary - what OS will come on this box and will it have a TPM?]
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
August 25, 2005; Page D4
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel Corp. unveiled its new Viiv brand name of personal computers designed for digital home entertainment.
Executives at the Intel Developer Forum said they expected to see the first Viiv PCs in the market during the first quarter of 2006.
The Viiv machines will store and play television programs, with an optional TV tuner, and connect to DVD players, TV sets and stereos.
The machines will display high-definition video and will be designed to work with remote controls.
Intel Preps Mac OS X Developer Tools
August 24, 2005
By John Rizzo
Intel Corp. will port its software developer tools to Mac OS X and will ship its first beta later this year, the chip maker told developers on Tuesday at its first-ever session on Mac OS X at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. ADVERTISEMENT
Kevin Smith, director of Intel Compiler Labs, said that Intel will port a complete set of compilers and performance-enhancing libraries to Apple Computer Inc.'s Intel-based version of Mac OS X. Intel will provide Mac tools for both single-core and multicore processors based on Intel's latest compiler technology. Smith said that the tools will contain the same feature set that Intel now provides for its Windows and Linux development tools.
Intel's compilers and libraries will work as plug-ins to Apple's Xcode development environment running in Mac OS X for Intel. Smith said Intel has no plans to offer the Mac tools in a version running on its Windows development environment. Developers creating software for both operating systems must use the tools running on each platform. The Mac OS X compilers and libraries will require Apple's prototype Intel-based Macs hardware and won't run on generic PCs, he said.
Intel will help developers migrate from PowerPC to Intel architecture, according to Smith. Intel won't, however, provide tools for the simultaneous creation of software for both Intel and PowerPC processors, a strategy that Apple has said will help the transition to the Intel architecture.
The Intel tools will support C, C++ and FORTRAN, but will not provide a compiler for Objective C, a language that Apple supports for Mac OS X developers. The Intel tools will be interoperable with Objective C. Smith said that Intel will also provide a migration guide for Metrowerks, a programming environment that Apple will not support with Mac OS X for Intel-based Macs.
Click here to read more about Apple's move to Intel processors.
Intel's Mac OS X tools are still in the early stages of development, and Intel has not completed the feature set.
"We're not at the demo stage yet," said Smith.
Intel will support the development of device drivers for Mac OS X but has not made any decisions on what that support will take. Smith said that the first release will not have integration with I/0 Kit, Apple's device driver subsystem. I/0 Kit also enables high-level applications to access the hardware.
Intel has also not considered whether it will support Altivec instructions, a 128-bit vector execution unit in PowerPC G4 and G5 processors. Such support won't be in the early betas.
Intel's emphasis on performance is the reason why developers should use Intel's compilers and libraries, according to Smith.
"We'll do more tuning for Intel Macs than anyone else," he said.
Check out eWEEK.com's Macintosh Center for the latest news, reviews and analysis on Apple in the enterprise.
Copyright (c) 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1851752,00.asp
I wish there was a way to default this selection! eom
micro, yes, I remember! That seems so long ago...
Your point about the "MSFT empire" is noted. I think Linux really discovered that MSFT has an Achilles heel and provided the world with a 'window' into the future regarding their OS dominance being at risk.
I would like to clarify the statement of "AAPL market size." Would anyone be complaining that this is off-topic if Wave were making money from the multi-billion dollar Mac OS industry? It is small relative to the overall OS market. But it is huge by most comparisons.
svenm, I do hope you are correct. I have a general idea as to the costs, but since I'm not at Wave I must defer to them regarding the management of their funds and resources. Though I wonder if a partnership with AAPL would help alleviate the burden? After all, isn't this what Wave has done for years - partner and gain resource support?
Ramsey, it is possible, I suppose, that AAPL has no intention of joining the TCG and they are going to do all of the development themselves. It wouldn't be the first time they have struck out on their own.
Imagine AAPL being a competitor to Wave in the software build for trusted computing. Not a competitor to Wave regarding deployment with Windows, but a competitor in the way that Wave does not get to deploy software with this competing OS. The negative impact to Wave is only a few billion dollars unless the MacOS takes off on the x86 platform...
go-kitesurf, I think you might need to educate me. Perhaps some of my technology understandings are incorrect?
I was of the belief that the TPM has a software package (ETS in the Windows world) that coordinates communications between the BIOS, OS and the trust server. If the OS is unimportant does all of this communication take place outside the OS, and if so, why are the APIs so important?
It is because of my understanding that I think the prevailing OS is important going into the future.
If, however, I'm not far off-base on this understanding, perhaps you are saying that no matter what OS is in the marketplace, if it runs on an Intel motherboard it will be required to communicate with the TPM (using this as the metaphor for the entire trust package) via ETS? And if this is the case how is it that ETS will communicate with a non-Windows OS if it has not been designed to do so?
If you would correct any architectural misunderstandings I may have and explaining why the OS is unimportant now or into the future I would be appreciative.
go-kitesurf, Then I guess Wave would not spend time/money chasing a multi-billion market that dominates digital content distribution? I think that if AAPL needs a software solution to talk to the TPM on the Intel motherboard and it's not available, they will build it themselves. This really means nothing to Wave or this board if the Mac OS does not take off on the x86. On the other hand, should the Mac OS take off on the Intel motherboard and AAPL has used their own software solution (or someone's other than Wave) then I suppose Wave would care as they would see their revenues less than they would if their software was ubiquitous.
That is not to say that Wave might not make some substantial money, just not as much as they could and if the opposing OS takes off then they make less over time because the deployment of the Windows OS decreases over time.
Your point is well taken on the MacTel having the software pre-loaded. I believe that if Jobs wants it to be so then it will be so. However, that software will have to communicate between the OS and the TPM and pre-loading a software that the consumer pays for that doesn't work is probably not going to happen.
I see it like this (simplified):
[OS]+[motherboard]+[TPM]+[software]+[server]=trusted computer
MacOS+Intel+TPM+?+server=trusted computer
Windows+Intel+TPM+ETS+server=trusted computing computer
awk, for you and the movement toward digital media phones. I wonder if there is a TPM or TZ involvement?
iTunes mobile detailed in Motorola user manual
By AppleInsider Staff
Published: 04:00 PM EST
A verified authentic draft of a user manual for Motorola's forthcoming E790 GSM mobile handset contains several pages dedicated to an embedded version of Apple's iTunes jukebox software, AppleInsider has discovered.
The E790, dubbed the "Motorola ROKR Model E1" by some Russian language Motorola documents, appears to be one of the company's first music phones. However, it's based on the E398 handset, which doesn't exactly fit the rumored ROKR phone profile.
Motorola's ROKR line of iTunes music phones are expected to span several models and designs, a few of which could debut simultaneously. Earlier this year Motorola documents revealed another unannounced iTunes ROKR phone, adorned in black and sporting the company's PEBL design profile.
In a 5-page portion of the E790 manual, Motorola describes the basic functions of the iTunes mobile software, which can be controlled largely by the handset's navigational key.
"iTunes is a software application you use to manage the music on your computer and transfer music to your phone," reads the Motorola documentation. "You can use iTunes to purchase and download music for your phone, listen to CDs and digital music, and create playlists of your favorite songs on your phone."
According to the documentation, users of the E790 will be able to launch iTunes via a physical 'iTunes' key and then use the navigation key to operate the software. From the iTunes menu interface, pressing the navigational key up or down will scroll through playlists, while pressing the key right or left will make a selection or return to the previous menu, respectively.
Once a user has selected a song, iTunes mobile switches to a display screen that will allow users to pause, rewind, and fast forward tracks by pressing the navigational key up, right and left. Meanwhile, the iTunes key will return the user to the menu interface and provide access to a 'shuffle songs' function.
All song purchases and playlist creation will take place via iTunes software for Mac and PC. Users will then be able to transfer their purchased songs or complete playlists to the iTunes phone, the document states.
Motorola, through a series of brief comments to the press, has committed to launching its line of ROKR iTunes phones during a music event to take place before the end of September.
Several photos of a pre-proudction Motorola's E790 follow:
http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1242
Doma, you should send...
... them a note and ask them.
Is the glass half empty or half full?
These are just developer boards. That is the only answer I have for you.
Snackman, and therein lies what I believe to be the fallacy of your thought.
This is about the future OS on the x86 platform.
Do you know what the dominant OS will be in 5 years? If not, ubiquity requires to be prepared for the future.
Is there room for a competitor to MS?
Whatever you may feel personally about the competing OS, the market will decide. I think Linux proved MSFT has an Achilles heel. I believe AAPL is now going to take advantage of MSFTs Achilles heel with INTCs help.
For me, this is not a debate between what OS you prefer (or not). This is about ubiquity.
[No disrespect was intended in any of my responses this morning and I hope no one has taken offense to any of my uses of language.]