Atmel Releases the First High-End Smart Card Secure Microcontroller Based on Its New Secure AVR Architecture.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ROUSSET, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 2002

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML), announced today the availability of the first high-end smart card secure microcontroller based on Atmel's new secure AVR(R) architecture.

This new architecture forms the basis of the AT90SC19264RC, which is a high-performance 8-bit secure microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced RISC architecture. Its low power consumption also makes it compliant with mobile phone requirements. The AT90SC19264RC is the first member of a family of very secure processors that Atmel is developing, to provide heightened security for electronic finance, e-commerce and m-commerce transactions. The rest of the family will be introduced over the next quarter's end with the objective being to offer a set of products ranging from 2-Kbytes EEPROM up to 128-Kbytes all being software compatible to each other.

The AT90SC19264RC features outstanding on-chip highly compact ROM program memory of 192-Kbytes, together with its flexible 64-Kbyte EEPROM for data occupies less than 25 square millimeters and is suitable for cost-sensitive high volume smart cards production. This capability provides all that is necessary for high-end smart card applications where security, fast computation and short time-to-market are required.

This wide memory space, the powerful RISC core and a large RAM working memory (6-Kbytes), makes this product particularly suitable to reach and even exceed JavaCard(TM) expectations. The high security level provided by the numerous dedicated security features (RSA, DPA/SPA resistant DES/TDES co-processor, true Random Number Generator (RNG), firewalls, and environmental protections), is above the state-of-the art, and is about to be certified against the more demanding security rules designed for banking and government applications.

Lucien Brau, Atmel's Smart Card IC's Division Director said, "We are very proud to offer this new highly secured microcontroller. This is the first one based on our new secure AVR architecture, which is a definitive step forward on the smart card microcontroller market. Our customers can now benefit from all the advantages afforded by this technology, such as flexibility of use, very high performances, advanced security features, and short time-to-market, giving them a key leading position to develop further innovative applications."

A complete set of development tools is available, and the first ROM codes are already accepted for bulk production. In addition, evaluation kits can be delivered under specific security procedure. Typical high-volume pricing is $4.00 for 100K units.

Glossary

RSA - Rivest Shamir Adelman DPA - Differential Power Analysis SPA - Simple Power Analysis DES - Data Encryption Standard TDES - Triple Data Encryption Standard

About Atmel

Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic, mixed-signal, non-volatile memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process technologies.

Information:

Atmel's AT90SC19264RC product information may be retrieved at www.atmel.com/atmel/acrobat/1563s.pdf Requests may be sent via e-mail to [e-mail] or by visiting Atmel's website at www.atmel.com

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