Atmel's Secure Microcontroller Offers Easy-to-Implement Security to Prevent Cloning and Counterfeiting

Atmel's AT90SO4 can protect against cloning of various applications including ink and toner cartridges, computer and gaming console accessories, white goods, batteries and battery chargers, MP3 players, Bluetooth® earphones, smart energy meters and more.

Industry data shows that counterfeiting is causing companies to lose $700 billion annually. As such, many companies are eager to find more efficient solutions against counterfeiting and cloning to protect their research and development investments, said Olivier Debelleix, marketing manager for system security at Atmel Corporation. Atmel's AT90SO4 solves this problem by offering cryptography functionality, secure data storage and industry-standard interfaces that make it as perfect as a tamper resistant authenticity seal. This cost effective product is available in tiny packages for easier integration.

Based on Atmel's optimized 8-/16-bit RISC secureAVR CPU architecture of an existing secure microcontroller dedicated to banking smartcard applications, the AT90SO4 features 4 Kbytes of EEPROM, 96 Kbytes of ROM and 2 Kbytes of RAM. Additionally, the standard symmetric cryptography algorithms (AES and DES/TDES) are supported by the hardware which is compatible with the Common Criteria EAL5+ and FIPS140-2 certification levels--International computer security certifications. The product comes with a variety of multiplexed interfaces including ISO7816 (a smartcard standard interface), high-speed SPI, I2C and GPIOs.