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February 19, 2002
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NEXT GENERATION HIFN SECURITY
PROCESSORS TO FEATURE ATHENA'S PUBLIC KEY CORES - SCALABLE
TO 100,000 EXPONENTIATIONS AND BEYOND
Licensing Agreement
Guarantees Hifn Customers Highest Available Public Key Performance
for VPNs and E-commerce
LOS GATOS, Calif., February 19, 2002 -- Network security
and flow classification market leader Hifn™ (Nasdaq:
HIFN) has announced a licensing agreement with The Athena
Group, Gainesville, Florida, for the use of the TeraFire™
family of security accelerator cores. The first of the TeraFire
technology products makes it possible to scale performance
from 5,000 to 100,000 1024-bit RSA private key operations
per second for Secure Socket Layer and Internet Key Exchange
(SSL/IKE) computations.
Hifn currently produces the
broadest array of security processors used in VPN (Virtual
Private Network) and e-commerce applications by the world's
leading networking equipment manufacturers. Future Hifn processors
will utilize the Athena PK (public key) cores for both platforms,
enabling the most cost effective solutions across the entire
performance spectrum, with unmatched integration and scalability.
"The agreement with Athena
puts Hifn in a strong position in terms of addressing future
public key performance requirements for the most demanding
applications," says Doug Makishima, Hifn vice president
of marketing. "The combination of Athena's leading PK
acceleration technology and Hifn's proven intelligent packet
processing architecture will enable security platforms superior
to anything seen before -- a truly unbeatable combination.
"Designed specifically
for computationally intensive SoC (System on a Chip) applications,
TeraFire application specific accelerator engines execute
over one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) 16-bit multiply-accumulates
per second in power-efficient IP cores. Hifn's product portfolio
includes security processors with varying performance characteristics
up to the multi-gigabit range.
"Coupling Hifn's leadership
in the security processor market with Athena's technology
makes a formidable alliance," says Pat Rugg, Athena vice
president of sales and marketing. "Our pledge is not
only to match Hifn's dedication to the highest standards of
quality and performance, but also to parallel their ambitious
road map with an equally aggressive agenda of new product
introductions."
About The Athena Group,
Inc.
The Athena Group, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida licenses high-performance
DSP (digital signal processing) technology that delivers breakthrough
performance, reduced area and reduced power consumption in
a broad range of SoC products. Athena's proprietary technology
powers leading edge applications such as secure e-commerce,
wireless communications and video compression.
In addition to their high value application level solutions,
Athena also produces a full line of fundamental DSP functions
suitable for SoC integration.
Athena was founded in 1986 and is privately held. For more
information contact: The Athena Group, 5522 NW 43rd St., Suite
B, Gainesville, FL, 32653. Phone: 352-371-2567.
Fax: 352-373-5182. Web: http://www.athena-group.com.
About Hifn
Hifn, of Los Gatos, California makes integrated circuits and
software for network infrastructure developers. Hifn's integrated
data flow technology enables intelligent secure networks with
compression, encryption and application-aware classification.
This is central to the growth of the Internet, helping to
make electronic mail, web browsing, Internet shopping and
multimedia communications better, faster and more secure.
Most of the major network equipment manufacturers use Hifn's
patented technology to improve packet processing.
Hifn was founded in 1996 and
is traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the HIFN symbol.
For more information, contact: Hifn, 750 University Avenue,
Los Gatos, CA 95032. Phone: 408-399-3500. Fax: 408-399-3501.
Web: http://www.hifn.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT NOTICE
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the U.S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the Company's
future financial performance. These forward-looking statements
related to revenue growth, expense reduction, product development,
potential impact of design wins, prospects for economic recovery,
gross margins and operating margins are subject to the risks
set forth below and actual results could vary. The specific
risks include: dependency on a small number of customers,
customer demand and customer ordering patterns. Orders from
Hifn's customers may be below the company's current expectations.
Additional risks include: risks associated with the success
of Hifn's ongoing technology development efforts; Hifn's ability
to successfully integrate new technology into products in
a cost-effective manner; Hifn's ability to effectively control
expenses; the timing of Hifn's new product introductions;
intense competition in the network and storage equipment industries;
and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of Hifn's
new products. These and other risks are detailed from time
to time in Hifn's SEC reports. Hifn undertakes no duty to
update these disclosures.
Hi/fn and LZS are registered
trademarks of Hi/fn®, Inc. Hifn, MeterFlow, Secure Flow
Processor and SFP are trademarks of Hi/fn, Inc. TeraFire is
a trademark of The Athena Group, Inc. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners
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