Dallas Semiconductor has introduced the DS3600, a comprehensive secure battery-backup controller for data protection in point-of-sale terminals. The DS3600 provides active tamper detection and rapid-erasure key memory. It supports FIPS-140 security levels 3 and 4, and it meets the highest requirements of Common Criteria. The DS3600 is packaged in a CSBGA, a preferred choice for certification because no pins are exposed to the outside world so the package is resistant to tampering. Its proprietary, on-chip nonvolatile SRAM is used for storage of encryption keys, complementing the SRAM cells to eliminate the possibility of memory imprinting due to oxide stresses. The DS3600 has tamper-detection inputs to interface with system voltages, resistive meshes, external sensors, and digital interlocks.
Dallas Semiconductor