Atmel's SHA-256 Cryptographic Authentication IC Family Prevents Cloning, Secures Data

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today its AT88SA
family of lowest cost, ultra low power, secure cryptographic
authentication ICs. The first device in the family, the AT88SA102S,
is a general purpose CryptoAuthentication(TM)
(http://www.atmel.com/products/cryptoauthentication) IC designed to
protect consumers from counterfeit electronic and medical
consumables, such as batteries, ink cartridges, test strips, blood
bags, breathing tubes, and others. They can be used to secure network
transmissions such as satellite radio broadcasts or medical records
or any other kind of logical data such as firmware or media.

Modern MCU based systems typically use nonvolatile memory to
store firmware/software. CryptoAuthentication provides a low cost way
to ensure that the stored code is authentic as well as protect
downloads from snooping or modification. For systems using AVR(R) and
ARM(R) microcontrollers that include AES
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard)
encryption engines, CryptoAuthentication provides the ideal secure
key storage solution.

Industry's Only Authentication IC with SHA-256.

Atmel's AT88SA devices are the industry's most secure
authentication ICs, with an embedded SHA-256
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA_hash_functions) engine. The 256-bit
cryptographic key size allows more possible keys than there are atoms
in the sun, making it essentially impossible to crack using brute
force methods. In contrast, the nearest competing authentication IC
has a key size of only half the bits. The AT88SA102S includes 23-bits
of one-time-programmable fuses that can be used for personalization,
status, or consumption logging and a guaranteed unique 48-bit serial
number. The device has a high speed single wire interface that is
compatible with all microcontrollers, using either a hardware UART or
bit manipulation firmware on a single GPIO pin.

Authentication. Authentication is based on a "challenge/response"
protocol between the microcontroller host and client. The host could
be a portable power tool, printer, medical test equipment, or even a
satellite radio transmitter. The corresponding client could be the
battery used in the power tool, an ink cartridge, a medical
consumable, or a satellite radio. In the case of an ink cartridge or
medical consumable, the microcontroller in the printer or medical
device can prevent system operation if the "client" is not authentic,
and allow normal system operation for authentic clients. In the case
of data, such as a broadcast to a satellite radio, the host uses the
256-bit value of the SHA-1 digest as the session encryption key for
the radio transmission, based on a random value sent along with the
data. Only an authentic client-radio containing an AT88SA102S
programmed with the correct secret will be able to translate the
random number to the session key properly to decrypt the
transmission.

Ultra-low Power Consumption. Authentication ICs spend most of
their time active, so sleep mode power consumption is the most
important power consumption metric. With sleep mode power consumption
of less than 100 nanoamps (nA), Atmel's AT88SA CryptoAuthentication
ICs have virtually no effect on system battery life. The part
supports a wide supply voltage range of 2.5V to 5.5V, and an even
wider 1.8V to 5.5V communications voltage range.

Easy System Integration. In order to speed system design, Atmel
provides complete source code libraries for the AVR microcontroller
which implements all necessary cryptographic modules to perform the
host-side authentication capability. The chip requires only a single
pin on the host processor and only three wires on the connector to
the consumable plus a standard bypass capacitor for a low overall BOM
impact.

Availability and Pricing. The AT88SA102S CryptoAuthentication IC
is available now in production quantities in a 2.9mm x 2.1mm
footprint, green-compliant (exceeds RoHS) 3-pin SOT-23 package.
Priced at US$0.66 in quantities of 100 units, it is 40% to 60% less
expensive than any authentication IC on the market.

Atmel will introduce additional AT88SA family members during
2009.

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.

(c) 2009 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), Atmel
logo and combinations thereof, Everywhere You Are(R), and AVR(R)
others, are registered trademarks, CryptoAuthentication(TM) and
others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other
terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Information. More information can be found at http://www.atmel.com.
Press Contacts:
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: Helen.Perlegos@atmel.com
Sharon Harnisch, Marketing Communications
Tel : +1-719-540-1723, Email : Sharon.Harnisch@atmel.com

ots Originaltext: Atmel Corporation
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Contact:
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations, +1-408-487-2963,
Helen.Perlegos@atmel.com, or Sharon Harnisch, Marketing
Communications, +1-719-540-1723, Sharon.Harnisch@atmel.com, both of
Atmel Corporation