32-bit MCU makes it easy to add security to IoT devices

Security threats are increasing exponentially in terms of frequency, targeted devices, malignancy and costs of attacks. The CEC1302 allows for pre-boot authentication of the system firmware in order to ensure that the firmware is untouched and uncorrupted, thereby preventing security attacks such as man-in-the-middle, denial-of-service and back-door vulnerabilities. It can also be used to authenticate any firmware updates, protecting the system from malware or memory corruption.

The CEC1302 offers private key and customer programming flexibility with a full-featured MCU in a single-package solution in order to minimise customer risk. The device provides savings in terms of power drain and also improved execution of application performance. In addition, since the CEC1302 is a full 32-bit MCU with an ARM Cortex-M4 core, adding security functionality only results in a small additional cost. The CEC1302 can be used as a standalone security coprocessor or can replace an existing MCU. The hardware-enabled public key engine of the device is also 20 to 50 times faster than firmware-enabled algorithms, and the hardware-enabled hashing is 100 times faster.

In order to quickly develop applications based on the CEC1302, use MikroElektronika’s CEC1302 Clicker (MIKROE-1970) and CEC1302 Clicker 2 (MIKROE-1969). Use these boards with MikroElektronika’s complete development toolchain for Microchip CEC1302 ARM Cortex-M4 MCUs which includes compilers, development boards, programmers/debuggers or with standard third-party ARM MCU toolchains.

The CEC1302D-SZ-C0 is available today for sampling and volume production in a 144-WFBGA package.