Date: 21/11/2009

Atmel TwinAVR dual-core secure MCUs for smart card apps

Atmel has launched the AT90SDC100/104, a new dual-core secure microcontrollers for smart card applications such as PayTV conditional access market.

Atmel's TwinAVR MCU features an ISO 7816-3 smart card interface and a built-in DataFlash interface. Large amounts of data can be stored with flash die stacking to the microcontroller and by fitting both chips in a standard smart card module. This product meets Common Criteria EAL5+ security certification.

The Master Core is built around Atmel's 8-/16-bit RISC secureAVR, with 128K ROM, 36K EEPROM and 6K RAM. The Secure Core is built around Atmel's 8-/16-bit RISC secureAVR, with 64K ROM, 18K EEPROM, 6K RAM, AdvX Crypto Processor, TDES, AES & AIS31 TRNG. This dual core architecture simplifies the implementation of the RED/BLACK concept of segregation between high sensitive plaintext data (RED) and encrypted data (BLACK), leading to an easy and fast certification.

"As the PayTV conditional access market continues to grow and become more complex, smart card developers demand higher performance and storage capacity while maintaining the highest level of security," said Eric Le Cocquen, Atmel's marketing manager for PayTV products. "Atmel's TwinAVR addresses all these issues. Segregation of the RED and BLACK domains traditionally relies on hardware firewalls and a lot of software. The TwinAVR goes one step beyond by offering, on the same chip, a master core to implement the BLACK domain and a secure core to implement the RED domain, thus providing an indisputable segregation between the two domains. The two cores also increase the overall system performance considerably, equaling a 32-bit MCU, while the data flash interface enables large storage capacities. This new family offers a complete solution for smart card developers in the PayTV market."

Price:
AT90SDC100: Starts at $1.85 for 100Ku in bare die form
AT90SDC104: Starts at $4.00 for 100Ku in smart card modules

Availability:
AT90SDC100: Standalone TwinAVR are available now
AT90SDC104: 4Mbit TwinAVR samples will be available Q1 2010

For more details visit www.atmel.com