ARM targets NFC smart cards with Cortex variant

With its SC100 SecurCore processor IP (intellectual property), ARM believes that it has the largest share of the approximately 50 million-unit-per-year market for secure smart-card processors. ARM licenses the IP to 12 silicon vendors, and SIM (subscriber-identity-module) cards represent the biggest application category for it. ARM is now updating that offering with the Cortex M3-based SC300, which it designed for incorporation into USB and contactless smart cards. It employs the Thumb 2 instruction set and, the company says, provides twice the performance/energy factor of its predecessor. ARM also provided it with real-time handling of multiple interfaces for high-speed and contactless applications, including smart-card Web servers and NFC (near-field communication).

The company expects the use of multiple-application cards, such as large memory cards with secure interfaces, to proliferate in the growing base of NFC applications, according to Richard York, product manager. Designers use these cards to host, for example, media and music storage, and the processor must be able to support media streaming while conducting secure transactions. The SC300 provides the resources to perform these tasks. By limiting the gate count and providing the ability for licensees to tune the processor's configuration, ARM created a silicon-and-code footprint that is no bigger than an 8-bit chip. “The energy efficiency of the SC300 is the real justification of the product,” says York. The development-tool chain is “standard ARM,” he notes, and a DLL (dynamic-link library) models the processor in a smart-card simulation. You can then simulate a smart card on a PC in real time at 10 to 20 MHz and physically connect the simulation to a card reader. The smart-card world is still largely based on proprietary architectures. With the SC300, ARM hopes to convert silicon vendors to ARM's approach.