Motorola and Certicom demonstrate elliptic curve digital signatures on smart card without crypto coprocessor; Fast, low cost authentication now available.ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1997--Certicom Corp., a leading provider of cryptographic technologies, along with Motorola CSIC (Customer Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "c-sick." Another term for ASIC, which was coined by Motorola. Some feel this is a more accurate description of an ASIC chip. See ASIC. Consumer & Smartcard Division, a leading provider of Smart Card ICs, today announced the demonstration of SigGen -- a low cost public-key card generating digital signatures -- at the CardTech/SecurTech 97 conference in Orlando. The prototype card contains an industry standard Motorola 68HC05 smart card microcontroller (MCU (1) (MicroController Unit) A computer on a single chip. See microcontroller. (2) (Multipoint Control Unit) A device that is used to moderate a videoconference of three or more end points (users at computers or groups of users ) the MSC (1) (MSC.Software Corporation, Santa Ana, CA, www.mscsoftware.com) Founded in 1963 by Richard H. MacNeal and Robert G. Schwendler, MSC is the world's largest provider of mechanical computer aided engineering (MCAE) strategies, simulation software and services. 0208, a low cost, secure MCU. Certicom's elliptic curve In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point O. An elliptic curve is in fact an abelian variety—that is, it has a multiplication defined algebraically with respect to which it is an engine -- (CE)2 -- has been implemented on the MSC0208 in co-operation with Schlumberger using the Multiflex card operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. (O/S). A cryptographic co-processor is not required due to the efficiencies of Certicom's implementation techniques. This uniquely positions SigGen in the public-key smart card market as a full strength, low cost card. "Smart cards Example of widely used contactless smart cards are Hong Kong's Octopus card, Paris' Calypso/Navigo card and Lisbon' LisboaViva card, which predate the ISO/IEC 14443 standard. The following tables list smart cards used for public transportation and other electronic purse applications. provide an ideal platform for user identification and strong authentication required for network access control, home banking, and business-to-business electronic commerce applications," said Phil C. Deck, president & CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , Certicom. "However, the smart card solution must provide a secure implementation environment and a low cost solution for wide deployment. For these reasons we selected the Motorola MSC0208 to meet the cost point required." "We are pleased that our MSC0208 was selected as the first smart card implementation platform for Certicom's elliptic curve engine," said Bob Pinteric, operations manager See datacenter manager. , Americas' Region, of the Motorola Smartcard Semiconductor Operation. "We achieved our goal working with Certicom to supply a low cost solution with enhanced security." SigGen contains the elliptic curve digital signature scheme to generate full strength, public-key signatures in less than 600 ms (or six-tenths of a second). Users have the option of personalizing with an access password and certification data. The MSC0208 microcontroller contains 12 Kbytes ROM, 240 Bytes RAM and 8 Kbytes EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) A rewritable memory chip that holds its content without power. Although EEPROMs spawned flash memory, EEPROMs are byte addressable at the write level, whereas flash chips must erase a block of bytes before rewriting. . Since the (CE)2 functions have been implemented in under 4Kbytes of EEPROM and use only 90 Bytes of RAM, there is still plenty of memory available for application specific implementation. The CSIC Consumer & Smartcard Division is a business unit within Motorola's Microcontroller Technologies Group, headquartered in Austin, Texas. With 1996 worldwide sales of $7.9 billion, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector is the largest U.S.-based broad line supplier of semiconductor solutions. Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors, and advanced electronic systems, components, and services. Major equipment businesses include cellular telephone, two-way radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics, and computers. Motorola semiconductors power communication devices, computers and millions of other products. Motorola's 1996 sales were $28 billion. Certicom is a leading provider of cryptographic technologies to computing and communications companies. Certicom's core technology is the Certicom Elliptic Curve Engine (CE)2 -- a stronger, faster, smaller engine which performs public-key encryption and digital signatures required for advanced data security. (CE)2 is available for software, firmware, and integrated circuit implementations and is particularly well suited for constrained environments such as smart cards, wireless devices, and high-transaction servers. Certicom's headquarters are located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, with sales and marketing operations in San Mateo, CA, and regional offices in Washington, D.C. and New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . Certicom shares are quoted on the Canadian Dealing Network Canadian Dealing Network (CDN) The organized OTC market of Canada. Formerly known as the Canadian Over-the-Counter Automated Trading System (COATS), the CDN became a subsidiary of the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1991. under the symbol "CERT". -0- Note to Editors: Visit Certicom's home page at www.certicom.com CONTACT: Certicom Corp. Kim Morningstar, 905/507-4220 kmorning@certicom.com or Miller/Shandwick Technologies Sheri Dupart/Carey Anderson, 415/962-9550 sdupart@miller.shandwick.com canderson@miller.shandwick.com or Motorola Reader Response, 800/765-7795 Ext. 889 |
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