FB
For our readers who are not familiar with UPEK, could you give us a brief background of the company, please?

BB
UPEK was originally the TouchChip products group that was part of STMicroelectronics. In March of 2004, UPEK was spun out of STMicroelectronics as a separate company. So our products, customers and development activities have been going on since 1999, although as of March of this year we are a newly formed independent company.

FB
And can you provide our readers with a brief description of your product line-up?

BB
We make products that are used in both embedded and stand alone applications for fingerprint authentication purposes. They are used in products ranging from notebook computers, as peripheral devices attached to PCs, in portable ID products, PDAs, mobile phones, safes, physical access such as door locks; pretty much anything you can think of where you might need to confirm someone's identity.

FB
Do I understand that you provide an end-to-end biometric solution, both hardware and software?

BB
That's correct. We provide the entire solution consisting of sensors, companion chips if necessary, firmware, application software, enterprise software, -- the whole thing end-to-end.

FB
Now you recently announced a relationship with IBM and the new Think Pad T42, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

BB
Yes, IBM chose our solution. Currently we are the sole supplier for the IBM Think Pad T42 notebooks. We are very excited to work with IBM and I think that their entry into this space helps to validate the use of fingerprint authentication solutions in the mobile desktop arena. We offer the most secure solution for these types of applications at this time, particularly for the notebook segment. So our solution is a great match for IBM's newest and most secure notebook.

FB
What other companies are you working with or providing solutions for?

BB
Well, within the notebook space, which is my primary area of focus, we have offered solutions for Gateway, Samsung and Micron PC, in addition to most of the Taiwanese ODM's. We have also done physical access solutions for Sisco (Brinks), mobile devices for Symbol Technologies, and cell phones for Fujitsu, to name just a few.

FB
What would you say are the competitive advantages of a UPEK solution?

BB
I think we have several important advantages, one is that we do provide the entire end-to-end solution and what that means from the customer's point of view is that we are a one-stop shop. We provide complete support for the hardware and software. That makes us very price competitive in terms of everything you need to implement these solutions, especially at the embedded level where we can offer an unmatched level of design and integration support.

A second advantage is that we offer very aggressive power consumption for embedded applications in the notebooks and by that I mean that for our applications no polling of the device is required. It is not required in the notebook for the whole CPU to be active for us to sense the presence of a finger and wake up and verify that finger. Because we don't require device polling, we can keep the sensor and companion chip in a very low-power state but also keep the ability to immediately wake up and perform any required operations.

And thirdly, we believe we offer the most secure embedded solutions. Our TBX software allows us to do the fingerprint verification off of the host CPU, so we can use a private interface, which is much more secure than competitive solutions on the market today. We have been the leader in the notebook segment and continue to dominate security-focused applications for embedded solutions. We have over 10 major design wins and our volume shipments are continuing to make these solutions more cost-effective.

FB
You mentioned that you are the leader in fingerprint solutions for the notebook market. I also understand that you are the No. 1 provider of fingerprint authentication solutions. Can you provide some numbers behind that?

BB
Certainly Peter, to date we have shipped over one million fully integrated fingerprint authentication solutions. We believe that makes us the No.1 solution provider, and by solution I mean the end-to-end solution including both hardware and software. And for the notebook market, we have shipped more than four hundred thousand sub-systems to date.

FB
What does the future hold for the company?

BB
Great things! We are continuing to expand our market share and as you know this market is growing very rapidly. And IBM's entry into the market, with our biometric solution, certainly validates that security concerns are of great importance to the IT community today and we have products that are ready for "prime time".

FB
As a leader in the biometric space, what would you say are the greatest challenges the industry faces in general?

BB
Well I think that as with any industry that is beginning to expand based on new and different types of applications, there is work to do in the area of standards. There is work to do in the area of education, in terms of communicating to people what kinds of applications can use these types of products - educating people about the convenience associated with implementing these biometric solutions, especially in support of increasing security concerns. There is a lot of activity in the government and corporate arenas, and there is just beginning to be some activity in the consumer arena. So I think as this market continues to expand and mature, primarily it's getting more standards developed to make sure that solutions can work together to meet enterprise level requirements and also to educate people about the benefits of these solutions.

FB
Well, it sounds like things are just going very well for the company and I wish you continued success in your future activities!

BB
Thank you Peter, we are very excited by what's happening today and we are looking forward to continued and growing success.

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