Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: Hitachi Europe | Subject: AE45X series
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 24 April 2002
Dual-interface card MCUs handle multiple
functions
Hitachi has a new series of 16bit microcontrollers that provide both contact and contactless smart card interfaces in a single chip.
Hitachi has a new series of 16bit microcontrollers that provide both contact and contactless smart card interfaces in a single chip The AE45X series has a large-capacity on-chip memory with 36Kbyte EEPROM, 128Kbyte mask ROM and 4Kbyte RAM, and incorporates a high-security encryption processor
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 16 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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This combination of features makes the series ideal for enhanced and advanced smart cards, especially multiple-application types, electronic ticket and toll-collection cards, banking cards, and employee identification cards.
Sample shipments of the first device in the series, AE45X-B, will begin in July 2002.
The new microcontrollers have an AE-4 16bit CPU core that is specifically optimised for smart cards, and a coprocessor that provides a high-security function for cryptographic systems.
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This coprocessor implements the exponential multiplication/division algorithm for the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), an environment that enables safe communication using encryption technology, (the Public Key Cryptographic Scheme).
The on-chip memory is equipped with a firewall management unit (FMU) to enable the storage of programs from multiple applications, and can store operating systems such as Multos and Java Card.
For financial cards and other types that mandate extremely high security, the microcontrollers achieve strong data protection via methods such as detection functions, a protection function, and shielding of the critical logic circuits on the chip.
According to Michael Bruhnke, product marketing engineer at Hitachi, "There's a limit to how many smart cards and credit cards consumers want to carry.
Hitachi AE45X series microcontrollers address the card proliferation issue directly because they enable rugged, highly secure smart cards that can serve multiple applications, regardless of whether those applications require a contact or a contactless interface".
Bruhnke continued, "One of our highly integrated, dual-interface devices can replace two single-interface chips in advanced smart cards.
This will reduce the cost of the cards and help accelerate the smart card market".
The AE45X-B's external contact-type interface complies with the ISO/IEC7816 standard, which regulates the physical characteristics of the card, pin sie and positions, signal protocol and commands.
The contactless interface complies with the ISO/IEC14443 Type-B standard, which regulates the physical characteristics of the card, power and signal interfaces of radio frequencies, collision prevention processing, and transmission protocol.
Smart card developers can use Hitachi's emulator (an enhanced version of the E6000) to create and debug products based on the AE45X-B microcontrollers.
These chips are software compatible with AE-4 series microcontrollers, so existing software resources such as operating systems and application programs can be used to shorten product development cycles.
The AE45X-B will be available as sawn or unsawn wafers or as COT (chip on tape).
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