Date: 01/03/2011

Car body electronics MCUs from Freescale embed cryptographic engine

To protect the car from bad hands and any hacking, Freescale Semiconductor has launched MPC56xx family of Qorivva 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) built on Power Architecture technology for use in car-body electronic systems. But these devices are available in production volumes only after six months from now.

Freescale says MPC564xB/C devices are the first MCUs for the automotive market that incorporate a cryptographic services engine (CSE), which enables secure and trustworthy transmission of information between electronic components. Cryptography finds use in automotive industry to encode and decode data for various functions, such as blocking illegal manipulation of a vehicle's mileage, activating immobilizers that prevent a car from being stolen without the key and preventing individual electronic control units from being dismantled and reused in other vehicles.

MPC560xD are cost-optimized entry level MCUs with single controller area network (CAN) node supporting OEM power budgets, small package footprints and a range of communication interfaces such as LIN, SPI and CAN. The MPC560xD is suggested as optimal chip for body control end nodes, such as the ones used in door and seat applications.

"The security of a car's electronic systems is critical to the operation of the vehicle and the safety of its occupants," said Ray Cornyn, director of Freescale's Automotive MCU business. "Our Qorivva MPC56xx family offers solutions at both ends of the performance spectrum and provides the peace of mind that comes with having advanced security features without sacrificing power or cost."

The key features of this chip include:
MPC564xB/C devices offer up to 300 DMIPS of performance, ideal for executing large amounts of code in a CPU-intensive BCM/gateway application.
The MPC564xB/C implements a CSE that supports the secure hardware extension (SHE) specification published in 2009 by the Hersteller Initiative Software consortium of European car makers.

CSE included in the Freescale devices moves control of the cryptographic keys from the software to the hardware domain, which is less riskier security method than a software solution. Software is said to be more vulnerable to attacks compared to hardware security.

The Qorivva MCU devices from Freescale include MPC560xD, MPC564xB/C along with older MPC560xB/C devices targeting automotive body electronics applications. The host processor core applies Power Architecture technology, such as processing capability, on-chip memory, analog capabilities, timing systems and other features required to handle complex control and diagnostic systems.

Availability:
MPC560xD: 4th Q 2011
MPC564xB/C: 2nd Q2012