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Texas Instruments keeps Certicom deal secret

Much that TI does with its OMAP mobile platform is kept secret; and what little that does leak out, is often abstruse; but why is the chip giant so coy about its security deal with Certicom?

The bare bones of the announcement look simple enough: Texas Instruments has licensed Certicom security solutions for its OMAP wireless platform. "TI's OMAP platform, a highly advanced processing architecture, sits as the core of 2.5G and 3G mobile devices, including mobile handsets, PDAs and advanced mobile Internet appliances," is the way it's phrased on Certicom's own web site in a press release.

The Omap platform has its own special corner of TI's web site, but apart from a couple of announcements back in April, related to the Symbian developer conference (where TI was an exhibitor) there's nothing in the 'news' section.

The Omap focus, today, is on streaming video - that's a PDF, sorry! - with TI claiming that it can de-compress highly-reduced MPEG-4 files quicker, or at least, using less battery power, than some rivals. Again, no mention of the importance of security.

"As a key member of TI's OMAP Developer Network, Certicom will provide wireless device manufacturers with advanced security solutions optimized for the OMAP platform," said David Potts, worldwide applications director for TI's OMAP platform.

Key, apparently, but not "of great importance."

For more information, contact Certicom directly.