 |
|
DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY /
|
Systems/Enterprise:
PHOENIX REDEFINES DEVICE
MANAGEMENT LANDSCAPE
Phoenix Technologies Ltd has unveiled its vision and roadmap for the new
category of core system software. It will deliver dramatically improved levels
of trust, manageability, connectivity and usability for both individual and
enterprise users of industry standard systems. The announcement was made at
the company's Strategy 2004 conference.
"Through our Core System Software, Phoenix is making a dramatic change that
will become the basis of networked computing for the next two decades," said
Albert E. Sisto, chairman president and CEO of Phoenix. "For the past two
decades, BIOS has been all about PC compatibility based on the original IBM
standard. As such, it provided only limited security, no network awareness,
and no network connectivity at the core of the PC architecture. Today, nearly
all digital devices are connected to a network, whether to conduct global
commerce or just to access e-mail. This requires an advanced foundation for
implementing an extensible and flexible architecture designed specifically for
the age of networked computing."
Years in development, the new Core System Software category is powered by
the
Phoenix Device-Networked Architecture (d-NA), a structured framework and set
of interoperable software building blocks. Phoenix d-NA will significantly
expand the capabilities previously provided by legacy system BIOS while
enabling PC OEMs, ODMs and system builders to offer highly differentiated
solutions in an increasingly price-competitive marketplace.
Phoenix d-NA is based on Phoenix's technical and market expertise providing
firmware to more than 1 billion open architecture PC and non-PC digital
devices for 25 years. It takes a structured, modular "building blocks"
approach to meeting the four critical requirements of users and device
developers, including:
- Trust -- Devices serving as network endpoints can be integrated into to an
easy to implement "trustworthy computing" model that leverages secure,
digitally signed core system software. This is the critical first link in a
"chain of trust." In addition, Phoenix d-NA will incorporate a new class of
Windows-advantaged components that leverage the Microsoft CryptoAPI (CAPI) to
provide unprecedented trust and intrinsic security for systems running Windows
and .NET applications.
- Manageability -- Intelligent devices and servers based on Phoenix d-NA are
able to provide self-management, self-healing and self-authentication as
standard capabilities. By leveraging Phoenix d-NA, software developers in a
wide range of categories, from identity management to asset management, will
be able to incorporate intrinsic "device authentication" into the fabric of
their offerings.
- Connectivity -- Core System Software built with Phoenix d-NA has the
inherent capacity to provide an always-on live connection to both operating
system and network services and standards, including TCPIP and XML. While this
capability is powerful in user-driven computing, it is even more powerful when
applied in the context of machine-to-machine computing as well as grids,
clusters and blade-centric computing.
- Usability -- OEMs can now define customer segment-centric device
personalities for market and individual requirements. They also can leverage
the popular Phoenix Core Managed Environment (cME) to deliver critical
protected applications, including system recovery, virus protection, PDA
synchronization and more.
"Over the coming weeks, we will be rolling out a new family of Phoenix cME
TrustedCore products for notebook, desktop, server and embedded systems," said
Timothy D. Eades, senior vice president of Corporate Marketing and Product
Division at Phoenix. "These new products will help our customers and partners
benefit from value-based differentiation and extended compatibility within the
entire ecosystem."
|