Date: 22/04/2012

ATA5580 transponder released by Atmel for car key fob applications

Atmel Corporation has announced the availability of the secure transponder ATA5580.
The ATA5580 transponder is based on Atmel's AVR microcontroller. It includes open immobilizer protocol stack with a built-in AES-128 hardware cryptographic unit, a low frequency immobilizer interface and a low frequency antenna.

The ATA5580 standalone immobilizer transponder is over-molded in simple mechanical keys which are accompanying full featured remote keyless entry key fobs. The transponders are used for remote keyless entry systems in vehicles.

The ATA5580 transponder avoids the usage of a lead frame construction to provide electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. The typical coupling factor is in the range of 1% while running a complete AES authentication. The ATA5580 allows car manufacturers to transit from cryptographic systems to AES without using the lock cylinder mechanical redesigns.

The AVR microcontroller embeds 8kB flash and 2kB EEPROM memory that hosts the Atmel open immobilizer software stack. The protocol stack is released under an open source license.

"Immobilizer systems are the most critical function of a car access system. They are simply not allowed to fail. The ATA5580 offers a particularly attractive combination of high-security AES cryptography along with coupling factor requirements usually found in basic transponder state-machines featuring insecure immobilizer algorithms. This device proves that AES does not mean high power consumption," said Dr. Jedidi Kamouaa, marketing manager for car access products, Atmel Corporation.

Samples of the ATA5580 are now available. Pricing starts at USD $2.00 for 10,000-piece quantities.

For more information, visit http://www.atmel.com/devices/ATA5580.aspx

Atmel is hosting 2012 Atmel Technology live, a new developer conference Sept. 11 to 13 at the San Jose convention center. For details, visit www.atmel.com/Microsite/techlive2012