Atmel's AT91SO101 Helps Achieve PCI Certification and EMV Approval for Thales' Artema S10 PIN Pad

Rousset, France and Velizy, France (ots/PRNewswire) -

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), announced today that the
recent Payment Card Industry (PCI) and EMV approvals of Thales'
Artema S10 PIN Pad is the result of a long-term collaboration between
the two companies. Thales' Artema S10 PIN pad, which combines high
performance with high security, is powered by Atmel's AT91SO101,
belonging to the AT91SO family of secure microcontrollers for highly
secure systems such as card payment terminals.

The AT91SO101's embedded security mechanisms, designed to reach
Common Criteria EAL4+ certification, were instrumental in obtaining
Artema S10's PCI certification. In addition, approval was achieved
with the AT91SO101's integrated smartcard interface which is already
EMV pre-certified.

Olivier Moraillon, Product Manager at Thales e-Transactions
stated, "These certifications are the result of a fruitful
combination of Thales' innovative drive to provide high-end secure
card payment solutions and Atmel's proven expertise in designing
integrated, quick-processing high security products."

Olivier Debelleix, Atmel's Security Worldwide Tactical Marketing
Manager commented, "Our AT91SO product for secure systems serves the
needs of our customers for security and versatile communication
interfaces. We are proud of Artema S10's EMV and PCI certifications.
This shows that Atmel's expertise in integrated security is a plus
when it comes to serving customers like Thales."

Atmel's AT91SO Family

Based on the ARM(R) 32-bit SecureCore(TM) SC100 CPU core, the
AT91SO achieves an outstanding level of integration of a wide array
of peripherals. They feature 256KB of EEPROM, 100KB of RAM and 32KB
of ROM, cryptography engines to accelerate DES/TDES, AES, SHA-n, RSA,
Elliptic Curves as well as many flexible interfaces such as USB, SPI,
UARTs, GPIOs, magnetic strip and smart card interfaces.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory
and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's
broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is
able to provide the electronics industry with complete system
solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications,
computing and automotive markets.

About Thales

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group,
addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide.
Thales's leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers
who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy
field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the
group's civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a
common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security
of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its
unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with
national customers and market players, while leveraging its global
expertise to support local technology and industrial development.
Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with forecast 2007
revenues in excess of 12 billion Euros.

Thales delivers user-friendly solutions that simplify and secure
electronic card transactions. The company is a European leader in the
field of secure electronic payment solutions, supplying fixed,
portable and mobile payment terminals, as well as integrated EFT
solutions, unattended payment devices and secured PIN pads for ATMs.

(C) 2008 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), logo
and combinations thereof, are registered trademarks or trademarks of
Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. ARM(R) is a registered
trademark of ARM Ltd. Other terms and product names may be trademarks
of others.

Information:

Information on Atmel's AT91SO family may be retrieved at:
http://www.atmel.com/products/SecureTerm/

Atmel Press Contacts:
Leslie Grace Casiano, Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: +33-4-42-53-60-52, Email: leslie-grace.casiano@atmel.com
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
Tel: +1-408 487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com
Thales Press Contacts
Beatrix Fontius, Thales e-Transactions
Tel: +49-6103-91-16-205,
Email: beatrix.fontius@thales-e-transactions.de

Web site: http://www.atmel.com

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Leslie Grace Casiano, Marketing Communications Manager,
+33-4-42-53-60-52, leslie-grace.casiano@atmel.com, or Helen Perlegos,
Public Relations, +1-408-487-2963, hperlegos@atmel.com, both of Atmel
Corporation; or Beatrix Fontius of Thales e-Transactions,
+49-6103-91-16-205, beatrix.fontius@thales-e-transactions.de