Validity Sensors Licenses Two Tensilica Processors for High-Volume Fingerprint Sensors

Tensilica, Inc. today announced that Validity Sensors, Inc., a privately-held biometric sensor company specializing in convenient, secure and reliable fingerprint authentication solutions, is using two Tensilica Xtensa customizable processors in their high-volume fingerprint sensors.

"Power, performance and die size are critical factors in our leading edge sensor designs," stated Alex Erhart, EVP of products at Validity Sensors.  "Moving up from a 16-bit controller to a 32-bit controller creates a lot of opportunities to add enhanced features that need to be balanced with the area and power impact of a higher end controller.  Tensilica's processors give us the speed we need with the lowest power and minimal die size. We were particularly impressed with the ability to customize the processors for our exact application requirements."

Validity's patented method of separating the sensing area from the silicon chip is a good match for Tensilica's versatile processing cores.  Users will continue to enjoy the high performance and durability analogous with Validity's LiveFlex technology along with a new and powerful feature set made possible by Tensilica's Xtensa processors.

"Validity Sensors is raising the bar for fingerprint sensor reliability and accuracy," stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing and business development. "Tensilica's Xtensa processors can be configured to give Validity Sensors the processing power and features they needed, eliminating other features that would increase power requirements. This lets Validity deliver the optimal solution to their markets.  We're very pleased that our processors were selected for their advanced, high-volume applications."

About Validity Sensors, Inc.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, Validity Sensors, Inc. develops the world's most durable, flexible and highest performing biometric fingerprint sensor for information, communication and entertainment devices. Validity's biometric security products enable convenient, secure and affordable solutions for Identity Validation, including features such as password replacement, identity verification, centralized management for corporate network security, secure wireless transactions, protection of portable data, and physical access control. For more information, visit www.validityinc.com.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. - the leader in customizable dataplane processors - is a semiconductor IP licensor recognized by the Gartner Group as the fastest growing semiconductor IP supplier in 2008.  Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) combine the best capabilities of CPUs and DSPs while delivering 10-to-100-times the performance because they can be customized using Tensilica's automated design tools to meet specific dataplane performance targets. Tensilica's DPUs  power SOC designs at system OEMs and five out of the top 10 semiconductor companies for products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including digital TV, Blu-ray Disc players, broadband set top boxes and portable media players), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica's patented, benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.