Here's the INTEL connection!
Intel to Include Lucent Audio Coder Technology in Its Online Content
Security Software
HILLSBORO, Ore./MIDDLETOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2000--
Intel Corporation announced today that the Intel(R) Software Integrity
System will feature industry-leading audio compression technology from
Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU), a move that will offer the developers
of e-commerce music distribution platforms a one-stop source for
content protection and CD-quality sound.
Under a non-exclusive agreement, Lucent will license its Enhanced
Perceptual Audio Coder(TM) (ePAC(TM)) to Intel for incorporation into
its Intel Software Integrity System, a solution that features Intel's
patented tamper-resistant software technology, which hides critical
code, keys and other secrets from observation and detects attempts to
break security mechanisms.
ePAC is a new version of the Lucent Perceptual Audio Coder (PAC), an
audio compression algorithm with the highest-quality audio at the
lowest bit rates. At 128 kilobits per second, ePAC offers
CD-transparent stereo sound.
Preview Systems will be the first company to use the new solution. The
company is currently in an Internet music distribution trial with
Supertracks, which provides complete music download solutions and
services to retailers.
Intel and Lucent believe that the licensing agreement will enable
content providers to preserve and protect the highest degree of
integrity for recording artists.
"This agreement enables us to integrate the ePAC decoder tightly into
the Intel Software Security System, thereby enabling more secure
playback of music," said Parvinder S. Kohli, general manager of Intel
Internet Security Services. "Lucent's ePAC coder is an ideal embedded
solution for our system, offering a level of quality that complements
our security technology."
By their integration, Intel and Lucent technologies will enable the
secure playback of high-quality music on the Winamp music player, the
Microsoft Windows Media(1) Player and on other music players.
"The integration of ePAC into the Intel Software Integrity System
should provide recording artists and publishers with greater confidence
that their work is being represented with the highest digital audio
quality and is being protected with some of the strongest security
technology available," said Joyce Eastman, vice president of audio
initiatives at Lucent Technologies. The Intel Software Integrity System
is designed to run on all Intel Architecture processor-based systems
running Windows(1) 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT clients, and Windows
NT servers. Additional information is available at
developer.intel.com. Developed by Bell Labs,
the research and development arm of Lucent Technologies, ePAC uses
psychoacoustic modeling - that is, a representation of how humans hear
sound - to compress music in a way that is not noticeable to the ear.
Music is compressed at a rate of 11 to 1, thus reducing the
transmission time/bandwidth and storage by the same ratio, while still
retaining its fidelity. Both Intel and Lucent are members of the Secure
Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), the worldwide recording industry's
effort to develop an open, secure access system for digital music.
Several recent improvements in ePAC have pushed its performance levels
to new heights, including: ePAC's improved quantization and coding,
allowing higher quality audio at lower bit rates, and ePAC's improved
psychoacoustic modeling from Bell Labs research, which provides
CD-transparent sound at 128 kbps. ePAC's variable bit rates and
superior audio quality allow the coder to be used in multiple bandwidth
applications.
Lucent Technologies' famed research and development arm, Bell Labs, has
been at the forefront of technology for the music industry for decades,
with the introduction of sound for motion pictures in 1926; the
invention of stereo recording in 1933; the invention of the transistor
in 1947; the introduction of computer-synthesized music in the 1950s;
the introduction of psychoacoustics in the 1960s; sub-band coding of
audio in the 1970s; the introduction of linear predictive coding in the
1980s, and the Perceptual Audio Coder in the 1990s.
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs,
builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks,
communications systems and software, data networking systems, business
telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the
research and development arm for the company. For more information on
Lucent Technologies, visit the company's web site at www.lucent.com.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer
of computer, networking and communications products. Additional
information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
(1) Third party marks and brands are properties of their respective
holders.
The Intel(R) Software Integrity System includes encryption technology
from PictureTel Corporation.
CONTACT:
Lucent Technologies
Chris Pfaff
908/582-7571 (office)
800/705-2368 (pager)
cpfaff@lucent.com
or
Wendy Zajack
908/582-4824 (office)
wzajack@lucent.com
KEYWORD: OREGON NEW JERSEY
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