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.