ROUSSET, FRANCE: Atmel Corporation announced the addition of three new members of its AT91SO family for high security systems. These devices are fully compatible with the AT91SO100 secure silicon platform that has already been widely used in markets that require enhanced security such as Electronic Transaction Terminals.

Based on Atmel's ARM SecurCore SC100 CPU core, the new AT91SO25, AT91SO50 and AT91SO51 feature 256 Kbytes of EEPROM for program and data, 32 Kbytes of ROM for on chip Atmel libraries and 100 Kbytes of RAM. They include dedicated peripherals such as USB, SPI, USARTs, I/O ports, magnetic stripe and smart card interfaces. These devices incorporate strong security mechanisms to meet Common Criteria EAL4+ certification, including intrusion sensors, dedicated hardware protections, real time clock and battery backup. They also have an impressive set of cryptographic features: hardware DES/TDES, AES and SHA-n, a cryptographic accelerator for asymmetric algorithms (RSA, elliptic curves, key generation) and a true random number generator.

"Based on the AT91SO100, already widely recognized for its performance, its integration and its very high security level, these three new chips offer the flexibility required to design systems such as high-end POS terminals or low-cost PIN Pads complying with Visa® PCI PED, health card readers or any other system requiring security and versatile communication interfaces," stated Olivier Debelleix, Worldwide Business Development Manager for Atmel's Secure Products Division.

The AT91SO50 is available in a BGA 208 package. The AT91SO51 integrates in the same package the AT83C26 which offers five smart card interfaces. The AT91SO25 distinguishes itself by an extremely compact BGA 144 package.