Embedded World, Nuremberg, Germany, February 26, 2008 . . . Atmel® Corporation (NASDAQ:ATML), today announced its CryptoCompanion™ chip that provides Plug-and-Play host-side cryptographic security for embedded systems that are prone to firmware theft, violation of licensing agreements, and/or product counterfeiting. Such systems include printer cartridges, smart batteries, set top boxes, cell phones, video game consoles, video game cartridges, PDAs, GPS, and any system with propriet
ary algorithms or secrets.
Embedded systems are particularly vulnerable to the uploading of unauthorized system firmware, which is frequently used to access features that have not been paid for (e.g. the ability to send photos from a cell phone, unpaid access to pay-per-view media content, or the ability to play games that are not licensed for a particular game console). These illegal firmware changes rob companies of expected revenue.
Such products can be protected by using the mutual authentication capability in Atmel’s CryptoMemory® and CryptoRF® devices, which have encryption keys and algorithms that are inaccessible and, therefore, cannot be stolen or copied. The host reader and device mutually authenticate each other by computing “challenges”, based on the unreadable keys that can only be duplicated by a device with the correct keys and algorithms. The adoption of secure mutual authentication has been limited because the complexity of designing the host reader, which requires extensive knowledge of Cryptography and associated cryptographic algorithms, and is beyond the scope of many engineers. Atmel’s CryptoCompanion chip is the world’s first device that integrates all host-side security functionality in a plug-and-play solution.
Atmel’s AT88SC016 CryptoCompanion chip is a, single-chip host solution that eliminates the need for host-side development of secure systems with mutual authentication. It integrates hardware