Five Electronics Giants Form Secure Memory Alliance
A group of five consumer electronics and/or flash memory majors has been formed, to support digital rights protection on connected devices. Panasonic, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony and Toshiba will collaborate to create a would-be standard, provisionally called the Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative.
Focal Points:
- This will optimize content protection for flash memory devices like SD Cards as well as various embedded storage devices, and promises to be able to protect high definition video with unique identification technologies and tools based on public key infrastructure.
- The partners claim in their joint statement that a reworked standard is necessary to protect high definition video streams and Blu-ray movies when copied to and played from flash memory. So the resulting platform will enable consumers to experience applications like HD network download, and digital copies from Blu-ray discs) across different devices, including smartphones, tablets TVs and Blu-ray players.
- Tapping into the multi-screen content trend, the companies say they will start licensing their secure memory system early next year. But they are being criticized in some quarters for adopting a protectionist approach under the guise of setting standards.
- Peter Clarke of EETimes points out that the proposed system will presumably rely on identification technology applied to flash memory die - yet several significant flash manufacturers, such as Hynix, Micron and Intel, were not part of the alliance. Among the participants, Samsung, Toshiba and SanDisk are three of the leading NAND flash producers, with the first two sharing about 70% market share, and they may be trying to disadvantage rivals by making the ability to play HD and Blu-ray streams on mobile devices dependent on their flash memory standards - or at least stealing a headstart.
Editor’s Note: Hopefully this alliance will create standards that can be utilized by consumer-created sources as well. Portable digital rights management is significantly deficient.
