Atmel Corporation, a developer of advanced semiconductor solutions, and FingerGear, the consumer products division of biometrics company Bionopoly LLC, released the Bio Computer-On-a-Stick USB Flash Drive now with fingerprint security. The Computer-On-a-Stick is said to be the world's first bootable USB flash drive. The OS and all Desktop Software applications come preinstalled and occupy as little as 200Mb of flash memory. The device also features Atmel's FingerChip sensor for convenient and accurate one-swipe secure data access, and a large font LCD display for the ultimate user- friendly experience.
The FingerGear Computer-On-a-Stick also includes an Office Productivity Suite, along with many of the most commonly used home and office applications. The Office Suite, developed by OpenOffice.org, is compatible with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The Computer-On-a-Stick also bundles the Mozilla FireFox web browser, as well as a PDF Creator, a zip compression utility, and an Instant Messenger which communicates with Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger, AIM, and Napster, among others.
With sales projections for USB Flash Drives as high as 100 Million units or greater for 2005, and average storage capacities exceeding 256MB, the trend towards USB storage devices with value-added capabilities has only just begun. Moreover, users are increasingly demanding greater security as potential network hackers become more and more sophisticated. The FingerGear Bio Computer-On-a-Stick features both public and private partitions. The public partition is accessible on any Windows, Linux, or Macintosh PC with a standard USB port, thus making it easy to share non-sensitive files. The encrypted private directory can only be accessed when booting from the device, by using a login password or fingerprint authentication. Data is protected with the help of Atmel's FingerChip.
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