32-bit MCU, Renesas Technology, AE56U

Renesas Technology to Release AE56U 32-Bit MCU for Smartcards with On-Chip USB Controller for USB Tokens Supporting Highly Secure Digital Signature Functionality

News Release from: Renesas Technology Europe Ltd
03/03/2008

Renesas has announced the AE56U, the company's first 32-bit MCU for smartcards with an on-chip USB (Universal Serial Bus) controller. The device is suitable for USB token applications implementing highly secure digital signature functionality for fields such as online banking. Sample shipments will begin in June 2008 in Japan.

The AE56U is built around the AE-5 32-bit CPU core, which has an established track record in MCUs for smartcard applications; incorporates highly reliable on-chip EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory); and implements the following features to deliver high-level functionality and an excellent cost-performance ratio.

In addition to high performance, excellent security, and large memory capacity, the AE56U incorporates general-purpose I/O ports demanded in smartcard MCU with on-chip USB controller . As a result, when a USB token incorporating the AE56U is connected to a PC or similar terminal, connections can be made easily with peripheral devices within the terminal, such as an LCD controller for display data or flash memory.

The AE56U enables to raise the maximum data transfer rate of MCU with on-chip USB controller from 1.5 Mbps (Low-Speed) to 12 Mbps (Full-Speed) by supporting USB 2.0 (Full Speed.)

The AE56U conforms to the ETSI TS 102 600 V7.0.0 standard which defines the USB interface between a Terminal and an Integrated Circuit Card (ICC) that may be supported by the UICC (Universal Integrated Circuit Card ) and terminal in addition to the interface specified in TS 102 221.

Also, this device supports classes A (5V) and class B (3V) in ISO7816 by incorporating a regulator, enabling flexible adaptation to user’s system.