INSIDE Secure and IDT collaborate to offer single-package secure microcontroller and oscillator solution

The solution significantly reduces the bill of materials when designing USB tokens for authentication

INSIDE Secure and Integrated Device Technology recently announced that the two companies have collaborated to bring to market a compact, single-package secure microcontroller and oscillator solution that significantly reduces the bill of materials when designing USB tokens for authentication and digital signatures.
 
Available now in different package standards (SOIC8 or QFN20), the INSIDE/IDT offering combines the security, cryptography and connectivity features of the high-performance, low-power INSIDE Secure AT90SO72 secure microcontroller with the stability of the ultra-low power IDT 3MN11G CrystalFree(TM) CMOS oscillator to create the perfect solution for applications where low cost and reduced size are most critical.
 
"Based on customer feedback, INSIDE has optimised the size and cost of the AT90SO72 to make it particularly well-suited as a secure microcontroller to drive USB authentication and signature tokens," said Christian Fleutelot, general manager of the Vault-IC SAS business unit and executive vice president for digital security, at INSIDE Secure. "Guided by the same strategy, we have now partnered with IDT to provide a very compact solution that makes the design of USB secure smart objects much easier and cost effective."
 
Technological features
The INSIDE AT90SO72 is based on a high-performance, low-power, 8/16-bit enhanced RISC CPU and is common criteria EAL5+ ready. It features a hardware random number generator, hardware AES (128-, 192- and 256-bit key supported), DES and triple DES. The AT90SO72 also includes the exclusive INSIDE 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 is also supported for both RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC).
 
The AT90SO72 offers a USB 2.0 interface with six software-configurable data transfer endpoints with in-or-out (I/O) directions for bulk, interrupt or isochronous transfers. The flexible I/O options also include a master/slave Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) controller, I2C (two-wire) controller, up to seven GPIO lines and an ISO 7816 interface. The AT90SO72 features 288K bytes of ROM and 72K bytes of high-density EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory), which can be mapped as part of the program memory to provide a highly flexible and cost-effective solution for many applications.
 
"As the recognised leader in silicon timing, IDT is constantly expanding its product and technology portfolio. The CrystalFree CMOS oscillators are an ideal example of a compelling customer timing solution," said Scott Hills, marketing director of the silicon frequency control product line at IDT. "We are pleased that INSIDE Secure selected IDT's CMOS oscillator for USB token solutions where low power and small package size are crucial."
 
The IDT 3MN-series belongs to a revolutionary product family of ultra-low power monolithic CMOS ICs that replaces quartz crystal-based resonators and oscillators at the thinnest possible form factors without the use of any mechanical frequency source or Phase Locked Loop (PLL). These innovative devices empower system designers to integrate bare-dice into thin multi-die packages, or chip-on-board multi-die solutions. The IDT 3MN-series is optimised to work with USB 2.0 full/low speed and USB-InterChip (USB-IC) interface controller ICs, and high-density SIM and smart cards. It features a total frequency accuracy of 2,000 ppm over the industrial temperature range with an active-mode supply current of about two mA (milliampere).