Replies to post #152872 on Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[x-point]

FloridaWave

The Europeans are actively pursuing an open source approach to Trusted Computing because they are uncomfortable with such sensitive technology being solely in the hands of large American corporations. We could probably think of this as the 'Microsoft Effect'. So I just posted that because I thought it was something to be aware of, even though it is year old news (I hadn't seen it before but perhaps it has been posted).

These developments are sort of plus/minus to me. On the one hand they should lead to competition but on the other they should help establish TC technologies in the marketplace, eventually leading to a much larger market. The net effect should be positive for Wave IMO because I think Wave is ahead of these folks in developing products; ours are in the market already after all.

That goal of a much larger market has people like Peter Biddle from MS and David Grawrock from Intel crossing the pond to engage in the discussion:
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Report from the conference "The World of Trusted Computing - Hightech in Europe", Berlin, Germany, October 19-20, 2006

By Arnd Weber, ITAS, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, together with Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum and ISITS (International School of IT Security), organised a conference on the needs of European public and private organisations regarding Trusted Computing (TC) and the future of this global initiative.(emphasis mine)

http://www.opentc.net/publications/OpenTC_Newsletter_June_2007.html

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Welcome to OpenTC

The Open Trusted Computing (OpenTC) consortium is an Research & Development project focusing on the development of trusted and secure computing systems based on open source software. The project targets traditional computer platforms as well as embedded systems such as mobile phones.
The goal of OpenTC is to protect against system-related threats, errors and malfunctions.


The lack of platform security in today's computers has given rise to waves of successful attacks, resulting in severe damages to enterprises and potential failure of critical infrastructures.

The OpenTC consortium will define and implement an open Trusted Computing framework.The architecture is based on security mechanisms provided by low level operating system layers with isolation properties and interfaces to Trusted Computing hardware. These layers make it possible to leverage enhanced trust and security properties of the platform for standard operating systems, middleware, and applications.

The suggested architecture is applicable to a wide range of platform types, e.g. servers, GRID technology, mobile phones and industrial automation. It provides basic building blocks for complex, distributed scenarios with inherent, multilateral trust and security capabilities. The framework will be built around the "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM) specified by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) and the new generation of x86 CPUs from Intel and AMD

To enable maximum community benefit, project results will be integrated in and distributed as Open Source software, supporting Linux in particular.

The project aims to have first Open Trusted Computing prototypes available around the time when proprietary Trusted Computing operating systems and solutions are expected to hit the market.

You can read more about the goals and objectives of the project and the various activities addressing these goals, in the relevant sections of this website.


Contact coordination(AT)opentc.net for more information.

The work is cofinanced by the European Commission through the 6th framework programme.


http://www.opentc.net/

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The EMSCB Project
European Multilaterally Secure Computing Base (EMSCB) aims at developing a trustworthy computing platform with open standards that solves many security problems of conventional platforms. The platform deploys

hardware functionalities provided by Trusted Computing,

a security kernel based on a microkernel and

an efficient migration of existing operating systems.

In the sense of multilateral security, the EMSCB platform allows the enforcement of security policies of different parties, i.e., end-users as well as industry. Consequently, the platform enables the realisation of various innovative business models, particularly in the area of Digital Rights Management, while averting the potential risks of Trusted Computing platforms concerning privacy issues. The source code of the EMSCB platform will be published under an open source license.

The EMSCB project is partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

http://www.emscb.com/content/pages/main.htm

[x-point]

FloridaWave

As to whether we still be in the picture.

I am confident we will. I think that the revenue ramp up has begun in earnest with the release of the Seagate FDE drives. We should get just a glimpse of this in the Q3 numbers (I'm guessing around 2.25M), with meaningful revenue in Q4 (I'm guessing around 4.5-5M). By the end of the year we should be close to covering our current burn rate, but I personally don't expect us to be at BE because I am expecting our expenses to ramp up just as fast, if not faster, as the market engages. I think we are starting to see this now with the new job openings.

We are only on the threshold of this major structural shift towards virtualization and Trusted Computing. We can glean the outlines of this new environment by looking at some of the patents that have been posted here recently. What is clear to me is that there is readily approaching a need for vast amounts of new code to be written to make this theoretical framework a market reality. Intel has done the heavy lifting as far as developing the framework, but they are leaving it to the ISVs to build market solutions on that framework, although they did contract with Redhat to give it a push. Wave, because of their close working relationship with Intel, is superbly positioned to have insight as to what needs to be done and how to capitalize on that knowledge. How many other shops specializing in Trusted computing code do we know of? I'm not worried about the OpenTC effort at this point.

I've said it before but for me the real action begins when Redhat releases their software to support and enable VPro virtualization and TXT technologies. Eventually we will see what Microsoft is going to bring out as well. I expect Wave to thrive in both environments, but only by building out the workforce as rapidly as possible. Profitability is not an immediate concern in this situation; revenue growth and market share are the metrics we should watch and care about.

All of this is just my opinion.


Regards,

x-point

[scorpio_esq]

it will have little effect. it is a set of bsic tools for manipulating a TPM and exercising its basic functions, like storing a certificate, on a Linux machine. Wave's higher-level applications, such as device authentication, are not now focused on the small Linux market. Worry about something else.