Chips ahoy for Siemens family

Siemens has revealed that it is developing three micro-chips for use with its smart card technology. Two chips in its S smart card controller product group and its Combi Chip for use with contact or contactless smart cards were unveiled on Tuesday.

The Combi Chip includes a contactless data interchange interface, a microcontroller for data interchange through contacts and memory. Samples will be available at the end of the year.

The two S-family chips are called the SLE 44C160S and the SLE 44CR80S.

The former is the only chip in the S product group to include the cryptoalgorithm coprocessor.

Volumes of the 44CR80S are now available, but the 44C160S is only available as a sample. Volume production is scheduled for the end of the year.