Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[goin fishn]

An example of why/how delays take place...


Courtesy of Cliffdweller at Atomic Bob's.


http://www.reselleradvocate.com/public/ram/issues/ram58/ram58_safety_coverstory02.html

An article from Reseller Advocate Magazine. The reporter discusses the Seagate FDE drives, and states why they have been delayed:

From page two


Because FDE technology encrypts the entire disk—master boot record, OS kernel files, and everything else often skipped by software-only solutions—there needs to be integration between the system BIOS and the hard drive. FDE begins with user authentication during the POST, and that password is hashed and stored on the drive. A pre-boot partition of perhaps 10MB serves to handle the authentication process before the user can gain access to the main partition and the rest of the operating system. The end result is that unless the user authenticates, the usable parts of the FDE drive are completely inaccessible.

This sounds pretty slick in theory, but implementing it in the real world proved more difficult than Seagate had anticipated. A wealth of BIOS compatibility issues had to be overcome, installers needed a more streamlined system configuration process, and users needed more robust, friendlier integration between FDE drives and other security applications. As such, Seagate pulled back on FDE deployment and is targeting a 1Q07 ramp-up—a date that meshes with the proposed Vista launch window. Seagate isn't linking the two events directly, but Joni Clark notes that the new FDE platform software Seagate is preparing will allow for drive unlocking via the Windows logon as well as seamless integration with biometric and other security devices. And while FDE doesn't yet have a single, system-wide authentication wherein the user only needs to enter his password once, this is in the works. By first quarter, the Momentus FDE drives will have also transitioned to SATA and adopted 128-bit AES encryption.