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Monday March 27, 1:50 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
AMD and Wave Systems to Enable
Advanced Security Features for
Commercial and Consumer
Computing
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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
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(TM) 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 -
news).
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 www.wave.com (NASDAQ: WAVX - news)