Infineon Technologies and ARM are working together on the development of secure processor cores for chip card microcontrollers.
In a new move for the Cambridge-based processor firm,
Infineon is licensing the ARMv6M and ARMv7M IP which it will integrate into its own processor cores, maintaining the ARM instruction set, for use in hardware-based security systems such as bank cards.
"Our agreement with Infineon is a clear demonstration of collaborative differentiation further extending the applicability of the ARM architecture to the most demanding security applications," said Mike Inglis, EVP and GM, Processor Division, ARM.
Infineon aims to have the first products, for SIM card applications, in volume production by the second half of 2011.
There are also plans to develop cores for high-end security segments.
Infineon is following its strategy to base its security products on its own cores.
"We will create proprietary security cores which combine our state-of-the-art security features along with the specific benefits of the ARM architecture, offering high performance, low power and the ARM ecosystem," said Dr. Helmut Gassel, President of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies.