Secure MCUs address mobile point of sale market

18th November 2015

Jordan Mulcare

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Freescale Semiconductor announces that its Kinetis K8x MCU family, the industry’s most secure MCUs based on ARM Cortex-M technology, is now shipping worldwide in volume quantities. The company has also introduced the pin-compatible Kinetis KL8x family, which retains many of the same world-class security features, while leveraging the energy-efficiency of the ARM Cortex-M0+ core to address secure mobile applications including point of sale products.

As consumers embrace the ease-of-use and convenience of cashless and contactless payment, global retailers continue to invest in electronic mobile POS (mPOS) solutions, with the market projected to grow to more than 80m installed units by 2018 according to IHS Research. mPOS equipment manufacturers need technology and solutions designed to address this growth, while meeting the stringent security and battery life requirements of the latest IoT-inspired mobile payment technologies.

Additionally, the Kinetis KL8x MCU family’s high performance, encryption/tamper detection features and ultra-low power capabilities extend its reach beyond traditional mPOS pin pads and terminals into more power-restricted payment applications, such as smartphone and tablet attach readers, as well as those embedded in wearable technology.

“These Freescale products strengthen our leadership position in embedded security, and give mPOS system developers access to features historically found only on high-end processors,” said Steve Tateosian, Manager of MCU Platforms, Freescale’s MCU group. “With Freescale devices now deployed across a range of PCI 4.0-certified POS equipment, these Kinetis MCUs are helping to enable a more secure future for expansive mobile payment technology in the IoT era.”

To complement these MCUs, Freescale also introduces the TWR-POS-K81 – a complete POS reference design engineered to speed the device Payment Card Industry (PCI) certification process. Supporting both the K8x and KL8x MCU families, it includes a chip-and-PIN keypad based on Cirque SecureSense technology. The solution complies with PCI PTS requirements without the need for physical protection of the touch sensor. The TWR-POS-K81 module interfaces to a contact/contactless card module with NFC technology from NXP. Full application software and documentation for (pending) PCI PTS 4.x certification are also available under NDA.