Building PINpads

At the smart card industry trade exhibition Cartes 2005, Teridian Semiconductor Corporation announced the introduction of the 73S1215F, a new advanced integrated circuit that allows manufacturers of smart card readers to build low-cost USB-connected PINpads.

The 73S1215F represents the introduction of the 73S12XX family of products, Teridian's next generation of System-on-Chip (SoC) for smart card readers. This reader device is said to offer an unrivalled level of performance and the most comprehensive set of features, while being made available at a competitive price.

The 73S1215F features an 80515 core, which has an instruction set compatible with the industry standard 8052, but requires only one clock-cycle per instruction, which allows up to 24MIPS of processing. Such performance makes PIN encryption possible, as well as high-speed computation for encryption / decryption or digital signature. The on-chip memories (64KB Flash / ROM and 2KB user-RAM) are also larger than its competitors.

Teridian says a comprehensive software library accompanies the 73S1215F, including USB and ISO7816 protocol layers compatible with full EMV4.1. Teridian will also provide a free-of-charge CCID reference design (embedded firmware) that can be used either as a basis for custom developments, or as a turnkey solution to build low-cost USB or ExpressCard smart card reader modules for PC desktops or notebooks, removing the need for any code development.

73S1215F samples are available now in either QFN44 or QFN68 package forms. The product will be in production in the first half of 2006. For large volume production and/or low-cost needs, die form and masked-ROM options will be available.

A development toolkit that includes a 73S1215F Evaluation Board, a JTAG In-Circuit-Emulator and a CDROM (containing Teridian software libraries) will be available in December at $1,100 price.