Phoenix Technologies Extends Its Mobile PC Leadership With UEFI Firmware Offering

Leading ODMs & OEMs Choose SecureCore, the Best Migration Solution to UEFI 2.0

MILPITAS, CA: April 10, 2007 — Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTEC), the global leader in core systems firmware, announced the availability of its flagship product, SecureCore, the most advanced core systems firmware available today to support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface v2.0 (UEFI 2.0) while also supporting legacy BIOS implementations and drivers. UEFI is part of an industry initiative to define next generation computing platforms and ensure an efficient interface between a device’s operating system and the platform firmware.

With SecureCore, Phoenix Technologies is providing a safe and efficient bridge for OEMs and ODMs to move from traditional BIOS to UEFI core firmware. SecureCore supports traditional BIOS code developed by customers and at the same time, enables modular UEFI standard drivers and plug-ins, thus providing for long-term ROI.

“We provide a compelling technology advantage and business benefit to all our customers when it comes to bridging the gap between legacy BIOS and new UEFI-based systems,” said Dr. Gaurav Banga, CTO and SVP of Engineering at Phoenix Technologies. “The latest version of our firmware product was developed keeping our customer pain points in mind. We realized early on that our desktop and mobile customers needed a safe and gradual transition path to the new UEFI standard – a firmware solution that would implement full UEFI functionality, and at the same time provide backward compatibility with both Intel's proprietary Framework drivers and legacy BIOS drivers. We believe the current version of our SecureCore product is the best and most easy-to-use UEFI-based solution for all PC BIOS developers.”

“What is truly unique about our UEFI-based SecureCore is that we have retained the powerful feature set of core BIOS products developed and enhanced by us over two decades of intense R&D,” Dr. Banga added. “Previous versions of our BIOS products provided a bridge from legacy BIOS to UEFI. SecureCore enhances this transition by including support for EFI drivers.”

Leading ODMs and OEMs such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Corporation have already licensed Phoenix SecureCore.

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Phoenix SecureCore: The Clear Migration Path to EFI/UEFI 2.0

Built on the solid foundation of the Phoenix core system firmware code base, SecureCore offers a smooth transition to new technology standards such as UEFI 2.0 and firmware enhancements for x86-based computers, while seamlessly supporting compatibility for EFI implementations and drivers.
SecureCore is the only core firmware available that offers a clear migration path to compliance with the UEFI 2.0 specification for OEMs and ODMs who have in-house development teams that are more accustomed to coding in legacy BIOS languages.
SecureCore provides a bridge from the old world of traditional BIOS to the new world of UEFI-based modular firmware. It provides a safe and validated transition path to the new standard and does not require developers to transition immediately to a brand new code base that has little or no support for legacy hardware and drivers requiring BIOS.
SecureCore offers state-of-the art functionality by fully supporting the next generation Intel vPro and Centrino Pro platforms, AMD’s Torrenza technology, and Microsoft’s Longhorn server with Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) extensions.

Business Benefits of Migrating to UEFI 2.0

Reduced Time to Market
UEFI allows for faster, more advanced function development, improved error checking and provides consistent interfaces for hosting multi-party code. It provides extensible, standard-defined testable interfaces and allows for easier silicon initialization, which in-turn reduces the time spent on silicon validation. All these factors combine to speed the development cycle and reduce time-to-market.

Industry Support
UEFI has been adopted by Microsoft (Longhorn server, Windows Vista), Intel and AMD along with major independent hardware vendors (IHVs) for plug-in I/O hardware, and supported by training classes and industry plugfests. In fact, moving forward, Intel will only support EFI and UEFI-compliant drivers. These factors are driving an inevitable shift to UEFI compliance, which means vendors must migrate to UEFI to remain competitive.

For additional information on UEFI, please visit www.uefi.org

About Phoenix Technologies

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: PTEC) is the global market leader in system firmware that provides the most secure foundation for today's computing environments. The Company established industry leadership with its original BIOS product in 1983, and today has 154 technology patents, has shipped in over one billion systems, and continues to ship in over 125 million new systems each year. The company’s breakthrough solution, SecureCore, enables hardware vendors to bring secure devices to market with the latest advances in Microsoft operating systems. The PC industry's top builders and specifiers trust Phoenix to pioneer open standards and deliver innovative solutions to help them accelerate time to market, differentiate products and increase profits. Phoenix is headquartered in Milpitas, California with offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.phoenix.com.