Wave Systems To Integrate Sun Microsystem's Java Card Technology Into Consumer Devices To Extend EMBASSY E-Commerce Solutions

Business Wire, May 10, 1999

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 1999--

Java Card Technology Enables Application Developers to

Create Secure Consumer Applications for a Wide Range

of Consumer Devices

Wave Systems Corp., (OTC BB: WAVX; http://www.wave.com), a company that facilitates secure transactions in consumer devices, today announced plans to bring consumer-centric e-commerce solutions to desktop computers and other consumer devices.

Wave Systems will integrate Sun's Java Card(TM) application framework into Wave's EMBASSY E-Commerce System. With Java Card application support, EMBASSY plans to provide a trusted, open-standards environment on PC hardware for Java Card technology-based smart card applications and typical smart card data such as bank account information, personal information, or stored value accounts to use in cash-like transactions on the Internet.

Today's announcement should simplify and facilitate financial transactions done at the consumer's device rather than at the merchant's server, thereby elevating user devices, including PCs, to a central role in e-commerce value exchange. In turn, dramatic new digital distribution models for secured content and services can be created by embedding a trusted client, the EMBASSY System, at the user's end of the network.

"Adding secure e-commerce and financial transaction capabilities at the point of consumption will speed the adoption of an exciting new model for digital content and distribution of services," said Michael Killen, President of Killen & Associates. "Just as important is open systems. The fact that Wave and Sun's technology are both standards-based and interoperable on a number of different platforms will accelerate industry-wide acceptance of their solution."

The EMBASSY E-Commerce System is a programmable, standards-based platform for running secure applications and securely storing important data and digital identities on individual PCs and other end user devices such as set-top boxes.

By adding standards-based Java Card capabilities to EMBASSY, developers using Sun's Java Card Application Programming Interface (API) will be able to create applications that execute on the embedded smart card hardware in PC's and other consumer devices, in addition to standard smart cards. The Java Card API is a widely supported blueprint for building applications to run on smart cards. The EMBASSY can leverage the major finance and technology industry investments in secure hardware, application development skills, and distributed applications.

"The Java Card platform is the established standard for smart card applications. EMBASSY is a perfect platform for incorporating secure Java Card capability in the PC and other devices, extending an integrated, multi-platform infrastructure for e-commerce," said Patrice Peyret, Director, Consumer and Embedded Systems Division of Sun Microsystems. "We are also delighted about the potential of having the EMBASSY-based trusted client system with Java Card deployed in a wide range of devices from home networks, to business oriented virtual private networks."

EMBASSY:

The EMBASSY E-Commerce System, recently announced by Wave Systems, is the first implementation of the trusted-client technology and will allow third-party software vendors to develop secure e-commerce applications that run in a trusted environment on multiple platforms.

"Wave System's open systems strategy for the EMBASSY System has been to integrate major technologies already widely deployed in order to leverage the current skills, applications and products across many platforms," states Steven Sprague, President, Wave Systems Corp. "This approach is an absolute requirement to achieve mass adoption of the trusted client capability, thereby enabling Wave Systems and many others to deliver exciting new services to end users."

Core benefits of the EMBASSY E-Commerce System:

-- PC and consumer OEMs will gain a new service delivery point

in their platforms to benefit from new content distribution

and services revenues that can be delivered and transacted

in the client devices.

-- The software and content community can benefit from a new

electronic distribution model, flexible pricing models and

persistent content security inherent in trusted-client

technology.

-- Consumers utilizing the EMBASSY technology will be able to

quickly and conveniently use, purchase, pay-per-use or

rent-to-own top entertainment, education and software titles

directly from their own trusted devices.

Moreover, EMBASSY allows distribution through all content channels, including the Internet, cable television, data broadcast, satellite, or physical distribution media channels such as CD-ROM, or DVD. Consumers receive the flexibility of access to the broadest set of content and entertainment products while only paying for the services based upon their actual usage.

About Wave Systems Corp:

Founded in 1988, the mission of Wave Systems Corporation is to create content distribution and secure services based on a new distributed trust model for e-commerce. Wave's core EMBASSY technology is an inexpensive, open hardware and software-based device that enables secure transaction processing and distributed information metering in users' devices. Embedded in PC hardware and peripherals, set-top boxes and other devices, EMBASSY 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 and consumer appliances to assume an important new role in the evolving digital economy. By moving secure transactions to the user, 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 http://www.wave.com