3G USIM Software Design Simplified

US : SST (Silicon Storage Technology ) introduced a new product line to the successful Emosyn Theseus smart card IC family.

The flash-memory based Emosyn Theseus Titanium product line offers smart card developers a 100 percent User-Configurable Memory (UCM) with a variety of security peripherals.

Offering a smart card IC solution based completely on UCM technology provides developers with greater design flexibility, faster time to market and a higher level of security. The optimizations made to the Emosyn Theseus Titanium smart card IC product line, which include several security and ease of use features, make it an ideal solution for high-volume mobile communications SIM card and 3G USIM card markets.

Theseus Titanium devices utilize a 256-byte UCM page to store both code and data, enabling smart card developers to choose the dividing line between code and data storage. By having a single UCM page size, the memory handling in Theseus Titanium devices is made much simpler for the smart card software developer. The 256-byte UCM page also allows the ability to store SMS messages and phone book entries along with other miscellaneous data.

A High-Security Smart Card Solution

The Emosyn Theseus Titanium product line offers customers several easy-to-use, high-security features that make it a superior solution compared with competitive products. UCM technology provides customers with greater security by completely eliminating physical memory security risks. Unlike competitive ROM-based solutions, the use of UCM technology within the Emosyn Theseus Titanium devices eliminate the risk of reverse engineering and the threat of the smart card’s physical memory being read.

Several other security attributes in the smart card IC devices make it ideal for SIM- and 3G USIM-based applications. Developers are capable of locking certain pages in the Theseus Titanium’s operating system in order to prevent writing, erasing and data fetch (read) operations. In addition, the devices offer an encrypted bootloader, providing excellent protection against code theft during production programming of the smart card operating system. The Theseus Titanium’s advanced bootloader is capable of achieving loading speeds of more than 115 KByte/s.

“The flash memory-based Emosyn Theseus Titanium product line represents a significant advancement in smart card technology,” said Richard Morley, senior director smart card IC business, SST. “Leveraging our expertise in both flash and smart card ICs, we are delivering a solution that solves two big concerns for smart card developers: security and time to market.”

Seamless Development Tool Integration

Emosyn Theseus Titanium devices feature the newly developed Theseus Simulator that integrates into the industry standard Keil development environment. The Theseus Simulator provides an ideal hardware interface for programming Theseus Titanium smart cards. The Theseus Simulator offers a superior scripting tool for test and verification and is able to extract exact logical and timing information of the target device.

Ideal Low-Cost Solution for High-Volume Applications

Emosyn Theseus Titanium smart card IC devices provide customers with a low-cost solution by shortening product development time and lowering inventory costs. With its third-generation smart card product line, Emosyn enables code developers the ability to program trial cards instantly, reducing the time needed to develop smart-card applications by months. Production volume delivery times are shortened because the devices can be in the card manufacturer’s factory awaiting code completion. Once the code is approved, card manufacturers can provide samples to customers immediately. Theseus Titanium devices are also capable of being used in multiple projects, providing a purchasing volume cost advantage.

Pricing and Availability

The Emosyn Theseus Titanium smart card IC product line features five flash-based versions ranging in densities from 30 KBytes to 230 KBytes. The Theseus Titanium 30 and Theseus Titanium 80 are available now in volume production. Pricing for the Theseus Titanium 30 devices starts at $0.37 and pricing for the Theseus Titanium 80 devices starts at $0.57, both in 100K-unit quantities. For additional information about product availability, contact SST at http://www.sst.com.