Date: 06/03/2011

Chip to protect MCUs from hacking

Atmel Corporation has unveiled hardware based cryptographic authentication device for securing microcontroller from hacking. The low power consuming ATSHA204 has on-chip 4.5Kbit EEPROM memory and a hardware SHA-256 accelerator. Fully tested ASF software libraries are available for Atmel AVR and ARM-based microcontrollers and are integrated within the new AVR Studio 5. This new chip is suggested for industrial, consumer, energy metering, home automation, computing and medical electronics applications and for specific products such as OEM batteries, game consoles, printer cartridges, licensed accessories.

This device supports authentication of objects, control the OEM supply chain, prevent piracy of software or other intellectual property (IP), and protect sensitive data. Atmel says capability of this product to securely generate, store or transfer secret keys makes it the ideal complement to the AES accelerators in microcontroller-based systems. Because the device has 256-bit keys, which makes it larger than any other authentication device on the market, system architects can have the confidence that their designs will remain secure over the complete lifecycle of the system, claims Atmel.

"Atmel is committed to offering easy-to-use crypto products that incorporate the latest NIST cryptographic algorithms for the highest level of trust," said Kerry Maletsky, director of Crypto Products, Atmel Corporation. "These products fill the void for secure storage needs missing in most microcontroller and ASIC solutions for component authenticity, firmware integrity checks, secure storage of proprietary and confidential data storage, and so on. Even more, these devices are so easy to use that an application developer can confidently implement an authenticity check without knowledge of cryptography."

The enhanced security features in this chip to protect the EEPROM content including an active metal shield, internal memory encryption, secure test modes, glitch protection and voltage tamper detection. This device offers an internal high-quality random number generator that can be used in crypto protocols to prevent replay attack.

Package: SOT-3, SOIC-8, UDFN-8 and TSSOP-8 packages
Availability: Now
Price: Each $0.41 for 1,000-piece