Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[SPIN]

AMD & WAVX - Trusted Computing?

I'm a former AMD s/h & current WAVX s/h. AMD announced a partnership for MB reference designs incorporating Wave's EMBASSY/Trusted Client specs into future MBs. I know AMD doesn't produce MBs and am wondering in light of last week's announcement w/Intel-WAVX whether there's anyone here who might have some knowledge on the subject.

Wave Systems is also a founding member of the Trusted Computing Group w/AMD (& was an early member of the TCPA predecessor). The deal was announced 3 years ago & nottaword since?!?

I noticed the thread re: The Inquirer. Mike Magee reported in the Spring that AMD would be releasing Trusted Computing products featuring Wave's TPM functionality, but there hasn't been a peep from Sunnyvale on the subject...

Anyone know of developments related to this initiative? I would think AMD has something up its sleeve, especially in light of the attention that WAVX received last week from the Intel announcement. There's also no mention of AMD in the Reuters article (below) which discusses every TCG member except AMD.

Any info would be appreciated.

tia,

SPIN

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AMD AND WAVE SYSTEMS TO ENABLE ADVANCED SECURITY FEATURES FOR COMMERCIAL AND CONSUMER COMPUTING

SUNNYVALE, CA-MARCH 27, 2000-AMD, a leading supplier of integrated circuits for personal and networked computers, and Wave Systems Corp., a provider of electronic commerce, content distribution and security services, today announced an alliance to integrate new security functions for commercial and consumer computing. These advanced functions will enable personal computers and emerging information access devices to assume a key new role for secure delivery of content such as music and video, as well as a full range of e-commerce transactions. Users will have a stronger set of tools to protect the privacy of their sensitive information such as electronic identity and credit card numbers. For the content industry, this will provide a major step forward to implement new distribution and buying models while providing protection of the intellectual property of artists, authors, and performers. For the corporate world, key new content protection features will provide enhanced security for documents as well as enable secure options for remote access, business to business virtual networks, and authenticated network logon.

"To participate fully in the next generation of e-commerce, personal computers and information access devices must provide a secure environment that protects digital Internet content delivered to both the home and office," said David Somo, AMD's Vice President of Marketing, Computation Products Group. "As a result, systems manufacturers must add important new functions for security and privacy to their platforms. With this agreement, AMD is taking a leadership role in delivering key technologies to enable the growth of digital content and e-commerce."

AMD and Wave Systems will work jointly to incorporate Wave's Trusted Client architecture as a core component of PC motherboards and other platforms. This will add new functionality including new user privacy options, distributed e-commerce and transaction capability, and a programmable security hardware infrastructure. The extended functionality will be based on an evolving standard for PC platform security being created by the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA). Both AMD and Wave Systems participate in the TCPA, which is an industry alliance focused on hardware and software specifications to enhance security and trust of the PC platform. Over the past year, Wave has been working with many of the important industry leaders to develop an open industry standard referred to as the Embedded Security Application System (EMBASSY) based on Trusted Client architecture.

"We are committed to using the TCPA specification as a building block for an open programmable Trusted Client Architecture as we move forward," states Gregory Kazmierczak, Vice President, Technology, Wave Systems Corp.. "The EMBASSY System is a robust platform capable of flexibly supporting a wide range of security and privacy standards as they evolve. Wave is shipping versions of their Trusted Client Architecture in peripheral devices, but believes that ultimately this functionality should be a fully integrated component of computing platforms. AMD plays a pivotal role in bringing this functionality to home and business computing."

After successfully integrating the security functions, AMD will include this new functionality into some commercial and consumer motherboard reference designs - AMD's "blueprint" for PC motherboards given to PC manufacturers. These future AMD reference designs will include specifications on how and where Trusted Client technology can be integrated into PC motherboards in an effort to standardize and deploy Trusted Client technology as an open systems specification.

The extended set of capabilities enabled by the Trusted Client architecture are aimed at delivering a wide range of new content and services to users. By using any high speed network and Wave's Trusted Client Architecture, consumers can take advantage of a number of new distribution and buying models for content including rent to own, pay-per-view, as well as free trials of full function software, games, music, and videos. Businesses will benefit from enhanced security in the use of emerging net-based tools such as ASP (Application Service Provider) software delivery.

"Today's announcement is a very important step in Wave's strategy to deploy a network of Trusted Client devices," said Steven Sprague, CEO, President and COO, Wave Systems Corp. "By including Wave's Trusted Client architecture as the basis of security in the PC motherboard reference design, AMD is incorporating a fundamental building block of future PCs and information access devices. I'm very confident in our ability to work together to evolve these devices into a central point of trust and transaction in the digital economy."

Additional information and a white paper on the EMBASSY "trusted client" are available at http://www.wave.com.

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets. AMD produces processors, flash memories and products for communications and networking applications. AMD processors, including the AMD-K6®-2 and AMD Athlon® product families, power computers manufactured by nine of the Top 10 computer manufacturers worldwide. AMD's mobile processors are used in more than 50 percent of notebook computers sold in the retail market to consumers and small businesses. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $2.9 billion in 1999. (NYSE: AMD).

About Wave Systems Corp
Founded in 1988, the mission of Wave Systems Corp. is to create the world's best technologies and services to secure and sell digital information. With the recently completed acquisition of N*Able Technologies, Wave now has a comprehensive line of trusted client co-processor systems. Wave's technology is an inexpensive, open standards, hardware and software-based device that enables secure transaction processing and distributed information metering in users' PCs. Embedded in PC hardware and peripherals, set-top boxes and other devices, Wave's trusted client technology is the foundation for client-based security applications and a new distribution and purchasing model for content and services. This low-cost, secure "system within a system" will enable the personal computer to assume an important new role in the evolving digital economy. By moving secure transactions to the desktop, Wave provides intrinsic value to the electronic commerce process, benefiting PC users, application developers, and hardware manufacturers. For more information, please visit Wave's corporate web site at http://www.wave.com

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Security underdog Wave Systems wins Intel pact

By Elinor Mills Abreu

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31 (Reuters) - Wave Systems Corp. on Thursday said Intel Corp. will use its software in future products, endorsing the company's novel way of securing digital content against theft and unauthorized copying.

Wave <WAVX.O> shares rocketed 167 percent, or $1.41, to close at $2.25 on the news.

Under the agreement, Santa Clara, California-based Intel <INTC.O> will embed Wave's software in a future Intel motherboard -- the internal chassis that holds the chips and other circuitry used to run personal computers.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Intel will introduce the new motherboard, designed for use in desktop business PCs, in the fourth quarter, said Intel spokeswoman Laura Anderson.

Wave will receive royalties on each motherboard sold, company spokesman John Callahan said.

Computers containing the embedded security chip and software will provide added levels of security. Windows software users will be able to encrypt their data, store it in a secure "vault" area of the hard drive and digitally "sign" electronic communications to confirm the authorship and origin, Callahan said.

SECURE, OR "TRUSTED," COMPUTING

The deal promises to accelerate the market for so-called "trusted computing," an industry-backed concept for protecting PCs from attackers or prying eyes. The technique relies on embedding security features into the chips that are at the core of data processing.

The concept was launched in 1999 by Trusted Computing Platform Alliance -- now known as the Trusted Computing Group -- consisting of Intel, Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O>, International Business Machines Corp. <IBM.N> and Hewlett-Packard Co. <HPQ.N>. Scores of other tech companies have since joined the group.

The effort was met with resistance by cyber privacy and free speech advocates who complained that the system would be used not only to keep malicious hackers out, but to monitor, and eventually charge for, music, movies and even software consumers use.

Both Intel and Wave said their agreement has nothing to do with so-called "digital rights management," although Callahan said the Lee, Massachusetts-based Wave does sell products for that purpose.

Wave said it also has deals with National Semiconductor Corp. <NSM.N> and Infineon Technologies AG <IFXGn.DE> of Germany to bundle Wave's security software into a specialized chip.

The deals are a huge win for Wave, which has been "plugging away" on security products for the past five years or so after trying to sell wireless handheld devices before that market was fully ready, said Callahan.

Wave has illustrious backers. It was founded in 1988 by Peter Sprague, a former chairman at National Semiconductor whose son, Steven, is Wave's president and chief executive.

Wave's board of directors includes such luminaries as high-tech futurist George Gilder and Silicon pioneer Nolan Bushnell, who founded gamemaker Atari.

Shares of Intel rose 40 cents, or 1.6 percent, to close at $24.89 on Nasdaq.

(With additional reporting by Eric Auchard in New York.)

07/31/03 18:25 ET