Consumer Electronics Show - LAS VEGAS, Nevada – January 8, 2001 – Consumers are increasingly aware of personal security risks in portable and wireless Internet products, according to a recent online survey of 1,001 America Online users and American Advantage members. In fact, 97 percent of the consumers surveyed said it was important for Internet products to have a high level of security to protect their personal information like credit cards numbers from hackers. Cirrus Logic Inc.’s (NASDAQ:CRUS) Maverick chip is the only general-purpose processor that provides the highest level on-chip security for personal privacy and corporate content.
Industry analysts are echoing consumer's concern. “Security is the most important issue facing the Internet appliance industry,” said Jay Srivatsa, semiconductor analyst at Gartner Group Inc.’s Dataquest. “Companies providing solutions with on-chip security features at an affordable price are best positioned to benefit from the explosive growth forecasted over the next five years.”
While Napster has raised awareness of the security needs of content providers like
record labels to protect their copyrights, U. S. consumers have become increasingly savvy of the security risks they face as they use their Internet audio players, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and other consumer Internet products. Personal information like credit card numbers, personal passwords, stock trades, etc. are stored inside Internet devices and thus subject to hacking.
"Maverick chips are the only general purpose processor currently on the market that can protect consumer's sensitive information,” said Matthew Perry, vice president and general manager of Cirrus Logic’s Embedded Processors Division.
"In fact, Maverick security offers consumers and corporations many levels of protection, ranging from patent-pending ‘military-grade' MaverickLock™ technology and patent-pending MaverickKey (TM) protection to software security solutions. All Maverick weapons are aimed at winning the war against hackers.
Buying Trends and Demographics
Despite the common perception that MP3 and Internet audio players are the domain of college students, the survey revealed that the 25-34 year-old age group are just about as likely to purchase an Internet audio player as their college-age counterparts. In fact, 28 percent of 25-34 year-olds say they plan to purchase an Internet audio player in the next 12 months compared to 34 percent of the 18-24 year-olds, while only 19 percent of 35-49 year-olds plan to an Internet audio player in the next year.
The # 1 choice of consumers, who plan to purchase an Internet audio player in the next six months, was the Rio. Maverick chips power the Rio 600, the Rio 800 and Rio's
Nike Internet audio players, as well as the Rio receiver.
“Although Maverick processors have been on the market a mere nine months, they power two of the top three portable digital music players, SONICBlue's Rio 600 and Creative Labs’ Nomad II family,” said Mike Paxton, senior analyst for Cahners In-Stat Group. “Creative and SONICBlue account for 60 percent of all worldwide shipments.”
“When the Maverick processor’s marketshare is combined with this year’s projection of 399 percent growth rate in portable digital music players, it makes the Maverick presence compelling indeed,” added Paxton.
With the majority of Internet audio players priced between $150 and $300, the financial trends of the survey are just as surprising. 81 percent of households making less than $50,000 and 65 percent of households making $50,000 - $90,000 a year, say they will be purchasing an Internet audio player in the next twelve months. By contrast, only 41 percent of households making $100,000 or more plan to buy an Internet audio player.
According to Cahners In-Stat's Paxton sales of portable digital music players are projected to hit $998 million in 2001 and $1.25 billion by 2002. According to the analysts’ July 2000 report at Jupiter Communications, sales of digitally downloaded music, starting at $9 million in 2000, are projected to be worth $1.5 billion by 2005. Digital music can be sold, rented or previewed leveraging Maverick chip security, depending on the desire and business model of the content providers. When asked their preference in acquiring digital music, 53 percent of consumers said they would prefer to buy by the song, 25 percent would choose to buy
by the album, 17 percent want to rent by the song, 6 percent desire to rent by the record label’s collection and 3 percent favor renting by the album.
Format and Recording Trends
Furthermore, consumers prize choice and flexibility in Internet audio. 65 percent of consumers do not want Internet audio players to be limited to the MP3 format. They prefer their Internet audio players to run more than one kind of audio file, such as WMA.
Finally, in an interesting security twist, within the population surveyed who currently own Internet audio players, over one-third say they do rip CDs to MP3 or WMA, while more than half say that they do not rip CDs to MP3 or WMA.
The believed-to-be statistically and demographically sound survey was commissioned by Cirrus Logic and was conducted by the DMS division of AOL.
MaverickLock technology – the height of security
Cirrus Logic’s MaverickLock™ technology provides the highest level of security available. Incorporating Cirrus Logic patent-pending circuitry, MaverickLock provides hardware security typically found only in special-purpose government or military products. MaverickLock technology can be used to protect all types of content and is MetaTrust-Certified™. MaverickLock technology provides complete hardware and software protection against unauthorized invasion by “locking” the chip from the inside out with the “keys” inside. A hidden, unique, private key number linked to a private key ensures that MaverickLock chips boot a secure environment. Debug and other interfaces are automatically disabled when a MaverickLock device is securely booting or operating in secure mode. This capability blocks hackers from accessing the internal portions of the chip where the private ID number and other secure information is stored. If the device detects a non-secure mode, then the security information is permanently hidden. Cirrus Logic has introduced in MaverickLock technology in two products: the Maverick EP7339 SOC for Internet music players; and the Maverick™ EP9312 for home audio jukeboxes and servers.
Maverick
Maverick processors, a leader in portable Internet audio, strengthens its market position as product designers of second-generation Internet audio players increasingly leverage key Maverick processor features, including a choice of:
PocketZip (TM) media
Maverick chips also provide security and digital rights management with Microsoft’s WMT and InterTrust’s Rights PD™ firmware and are designed into a variety of Internet entertainment devices including the leading portable Internet audio players, network-based home players, digital car audio players, eBooks, Web-based entertainment and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). After only six months of production, Cirrus Logic shipped its millionth Maverick processor in August 2000. More information about Cirrus Logic’s Maverick processor is available at www.cirrus.com.
Cirrus Logic
Cirrus Logic is a premier supplier of high-performance analog and DSP chip solutions for Internet entertainment electronics. Building on its global market share leadership in audio integrated circuits and its rich mixed-signal patent portfolio, the company targets high-volume audio, storage and communications applications. Cirrus Logic sells its products under the Crystal®, Maverick™ and 3Ci™ brands as well as its own name. Founded in 1984 in Silicon Valley, Cirrus Logic operates from headquarters in Austin, Texas and major sites located in Fremont, California and Broomfield, Colorado as well as offices in Europe, Japan and Asia. More information about Cirrus Logic is available at www.cirrus.com.
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Safe Harbor Provision
Any forward looking statements and all other statements that may be made in this news release that are not historical facts are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to Cirrus Logic’s current Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more information on the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ. The foregoing information represents our outlook as of the date of this news release, and Cirrus Logic undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.
Note to editors: Cirrus Logic, Crystal® and Maverick™ are trademarks of Cirrus Logic Inc. All other product names noted herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.
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Bill Schnell Manager Public Relations (512) 851-4084 |
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