INSIDE Secure targets USB tokens with new app-specific secure MCU

SAN JOSE, USA: INSIDE Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure transactions and digital identity, has introduced the AT90SO72, a secure, embedded microcontroller specifically tailored to meet the needs of USB authentication token applications. The product's wide operating temperature, flexible I/O configurations and optimized cost make it ideal for use in USB tokens and a broad range of applications requiring sensitive data protection and cryptography computation, such as smart meters, secure data storage, machine-to-machine (M2M) systems and others.

"Based on customer feedback, INSIDE has optimized the size and cost of the AT90SO72 to make it particularly well suited as a secure microcontroller to drive USB authentication tokens. At the same time, we've included a robust assortment of I/O interfaces and package options that manufacturers will find attractive for a broad range of uses," said Christian Fleutelot, executive VP, digital security and GM, VaultIC at INSIDE Secure. "We also have achieved an unusually wide operating temperature for a device of this kind, from 40°C to 105°C, opening the door to applications in harsh environments, such as smart meters and other devices used outdoors."

The AT90SO72 is based on INSIDE's high-performance, low-power, 8/16-bit enhanced RISC CPU and is Common Criteria EAL4+ ready. It features a hardware random number generator, hardware AES (128-, 192- and 256-bit key supported), DES and triple DES. The AT90SO72 includes INSIDE's Ad-X(tm)2 advanced hardware crypto accelerator, which supports RSA up to 4096 bits, DSA, Diffie-Hellman and all FIPS-recommended elliptic curves up to 1024 bits. Key generation also is supported for both RSA and ECC. The AT90SO72 includes 288K bytes of ROM and 72K bytes of high-density EEPROM, which can be mapped as part of the program memory to provide a highly flexible and cost-effective solution for many applications.

The AT90SO72 offers a USB 2.0 interface supporting both full-speed and cost-effective low-speed modes. Both modes are available in configurations with no external resonator thus reducing the bill of material. This USB interface supports six software configurable data transfer endpoints with in-or-out directions for bulk, interrupt or isochronous transfers.

The flexible I/O options also include a master/slave SPI controller, an I2C (two-wire) controller, up to seven GPIO lines and an ISO 7816 interface. The AT90SO72 also includes a built-in variable frequency oscillator to reduce system cost and size and to increase security.

As with all of INSIDE's secure microcontrollers, the AT90SO72 includes a variety of dedicated anti-tampering hardware for protection against simple and differential power analysis (SPA/DPA) attacks, advanced protection against physical attacks (including active shield, enhanced protection object, C stack checker, slope detector and parity errors), environmental protection systems (voltage, frequency and temperature monitors), light protection and secure memory management/access protection.

The AT90SO72 is available now in wafers, modules and standard, RoHS-compliant SOIC-8 (5 x 5 mm) and QFN-20 (4 x 4 mm) packages.