Celebration School Issues Students Wearable Java Computers.

CELEBRATION, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1999--Dallas Semiconductor (NYSE:DS) jointly announced that Celebration School, a K-12 innovative public school in Celebration, Florida, has issued students small, wearable computers that will grant access to buildings, classrooms, computers and Web pages. The 'key' to Celebration School is Dallas Semiconductor's iButton(TM), a Java(TM) computer chip armored in a small stainless steel case.

A very personal computer, the iButton provides the student convenient entry to a variety of portals, whether physical or informational. For example, the student will press a dot with their iButton to gain access to a building or a specific classroom door. That same iButton can provide conditional access to a Web page from any computer on the intranet at school or from home using the Internet.

Michael Bolan, vice president of product development at Dallas Semiconductor, said, "Of course students use computers, but they haven't been able to wear them until now. Each student is issued an iButton that can be worn according to the individual's preference--on a ring, a key fob, a dog tag, or a watch. The student's access privileges will be granted via their iButton."

Students will initially use their iButton to open locked doors of the building. The electronic door locks, manufactured by Schlage, have a dot for the iButton. Students need only press the dot with their iButton to open the door. The network integration of locks was developed by Lares Technology.

To show educators how the school is using advanced technology, Celebration School is hosting a "Celebration of Technology" event that will focus on the various ways technology is integrated within the learning environment. The event takes place on Friday, March 19th from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. Visitors will see the students sporting the iButton on their Java Rings. The iButtons issued to the visitors will have limited privileges but will be able to log onto a Sun authentication server from kiosks to click through a survey on a Web page. The authentication server controls all access privileges to the networked doors, computers and Web pages. Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) developed the kiosk integration.

Here are some additional potential uses of the iButton in a school setting:

-- If a football player is laid up at home with an injury and wants

to submit homework on time, the iButton can digitally sign

documents that can then be e-mailed with the assurance that the

homework was sent by the proper person. A $15 accessory called a

Blue Dot receptor cables to the back of any PC to allow iButton

communication.

-- Class attendance can be automatically captured by the networked

classroom door. The doorknob has an embedded Java computer that

reads the students' iButton and forwards the time and attendance

record to the server.

-- Each iButton can have a change purse to store e-cash. School

supplies and cafeteria services can be conveniently paid and have

the receipts posted on a Web page only accessible with the

iButton. E-Cash can be added to the iButton as needed.

-- For computer-aided teaching, the student can quickly log on to

any computer that is on the school's intranet or the Internet at

home using the iButton as authentication and get credit for the

next lesson.

-- Students can choose to put personal information in the iButton,

such as a photo of their boyfriend/girlfriend, a favorite poem,

or medical records.

The iButton has several safeguards to overcome students' natural tendency to lose things. First, they wear the iButton on an accessory they've spent their whole lives practicing how not to lose, such as a watch, a key chain, a ring, or a dog tag. Because it is encased in stainless steel, the iButton is extremely durable and withstands the hard knocks of everyday wear. Second, a safeguard can be added whereby if the student does not enter their PIN number every day, the iButton becomes inoperable until a valid PIN is entered. Then if somebody else finds the iButton, they can't use it.

At Celebration School, technology is integrated into the curriculum and viewed as a tool to enable learning. To meet this challenge, Celebration School has developed 17 alliances with experts in the technology field. The goal is to continue to enhance these existing relationships as well as seek new opportunities. Celebration School is a K-12th grade public school, owned and operated by the Osceola County School District. The school is located in Celebration, an innovative new community under development just outside of Orlando, Fla.

Dallas Semiconductor (NYSE:DS) designs, manufactures and markets CMOS chips and chip-based subsystems. In its 15-year history, the company has sold its products to more than 15,000 customers worldwide. Major markets include Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in computers, telecommunications, office equipment, instrumentation, factory automation, medical equipment and mainframe computers. The iButton brand product is directly available from www.iButton.com or authorized software developers worldwide. The company's Web site address is www.dalsemi.com.

Backgrounder

The Java Ring worn by the students at Celebration School uses the iButton technology described below:

The Java powered(TM) iButton provides secure long-term storage of important user information such as private keys and public key certificates. Applets running on the iButton use its hardware-based cryptographic accelerators to ensure that private keys are never required to leave the physically secure boundary. As an authentication token, the iButton becomes active after the individual enters a PIN and then computes a cryptographic response to challenges sent from a secure network server. The latest model, iButton Release 2.0, executes 1024-bit RSA and DSA, SHA-1 and Triple DES algorithms; generates random numbers; time stamps from its True Time clock; and has up to 134K bytes of storage for applets and data. Both the network and power connection for the iButton come from a single electron path through the steel case to the chip inside using the 1-Wire protocol. A software development kit is offered to programmers wanting to include iButton support for their application. Support for Java application developers is provided by the OpenCard Framework. Existing applications such as Web browsers (Netscape's Communicator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer) are supported by iButton-aware PKCS No.11 and CSP implementations. Java powered iButton software can be downloaded from http://www.ibutton.com/jibkit/index.html.

The electronic doors at Celebration School use the Java technology described below:

Having built the first wearable Java computer, Dallas Semiconductor is pressing on with the development of an ultra-light Java microcontroller for applications such as Web servers as well as applications for the Jini "plug and work" environment. A chip set called Tiny Internet Interface 1.0, Tini 1.0, is the world's smallest Web server that runs Java. The Tini Web server displaces less than 1 cubic inch of space. More than small size, this chip set brings new promise on how people and things interact with the network as the virtual meets the physical world. The Tini 1.0 includes support for both the Internet Protocol and Dallas Semiconductor's 1-Wire(TM) protocol so that inexpensive 1-Wire chips are only one hop from the Internet. Dallas 1-Wire chips attach to everyday things and Java technology makes them part of the network.

For more information:

Dallas Semiconductor Corporation: http://www.dalsemi.com Celebration School: http://www.ctan.com/celebration Lares Technology: http://www.lares.com/celebration/ Schlage Lock Corporation: http://www.schlage.com/products/epkey.htm Science Applications International Corp.: http://www.saic.com Sun Microsystems: http://www.sun.com/software/cover/

Note to Editors: iButton, Tini, and 1-Wire are trademarks of Dallas Semiconductor. Java, Java Ring, and Jini are trademarks of Sun Microsystems.