1998-10-27 , E/IC-1050/39
Product News From Philips Semiconductors

In the first quarter of 1999, Philips Semiconductors will introduce the world's first smart card cryptocontroller IC family based on 0.35 µm technology, the P8WE5032. The fully-featured smart card crypto controller family is targeted at multi-service cards, Java cards including public key encryption, Pay-TV, secure authentication modules (SAM) for POS terminals and electronic commerce applications.

Using leading-edge technology, this new family reinforces Philips Semiconductors' leadership in functional capability, such as its FameX crypto coprocessor for public key encryption and confirms Philips' commitment to providing solutions with the highest level of security.

Philips Semiconductors' embedded FameX, forming the platform for smart card cryptocontrollers on both the  80C51 and Philips' new SmartXA architecture, is the most advanced crypto coprocessor available in the market. It is capable of supporting a flexible key length of up to 4 Kbits, as well as different public key algorithms based on modular exponentiation, including elliptic curves. FameX provides the fastest available solution to calculate RSA, with a 512 bit key length processed within only 35 ms, or a 1024 bit key length processed in 160 ms.

Based on the 80C51 architecture, the new cryptocontroller family has twice the core speed of the current family and offers significantly enhanced security features. The small 0.35 µm feature size, based on a proven Philips base-line process, in conjunction with its five metal-layer structure, reduces chip size dramatically while increasing physical security. Together with Philips Semiconductors' fully automated unique chip design process (glue logic), these devices provide the highest possible level of resistance to physical attacks. A new dynamic memory protection concept also prevents data stored in the memory being read by sophisticated visual inspection techniques.

The P8WE50xx family features a triple-DES coprocessor which reduces execution times considerably, enabling a triple-DES operation to be completed in less than 110µs. As a result, the overall time required for a triple-DES operation within a transaction can be reduced by a factor of up to 400. For cryptographic key generation, Philips Semiconductors' Fips 140-1 evaluated True Random Number Generator (TRNG) is also available on all products in this new 0.35 µm family.

The P8WE5032 will feature 32 kB ROM, 2.3 kB RAM and 32 kB EEPROM and will enter volume production in Q2 1999, with customer ROM codes accepted from March 1999. Other members of this 0.35 µm family will have reduced memory to fit cost-sensitive applications. The first derivative, the P8WE5016, a secured smart card controller with 16K of EEPROM will be available at the same time. A simulator based on the KEIL development platform is available now and tool support based on the Ashling platform using a dedicated emulator chip will be available in January 1999.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Philips Semiconductors is a leader with a proven reputation in the development and production of cryptocontroller and contactless smart card ICs as well as in components for radio frequency identification. Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by regional application labs.