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.