Texas Instruments to Support MULTOS as First Secure OS on its RF360 Smart IC Platform for Government IDs

Logistics Insight Asia - Technology & Market Trends, 8/1/2008

Texas Instruments recently announced that MULTOS will be the first chip operating system supported on its advanced RF360 smart Integrated Circuit (IC) platform for electronic passport (e-passport) and government ID applications. This enables system integrators and government ID providers to immediately begin creating solutions on TI's RF360 product for this rapidly growing market. MULTOS was selected for its open architecture, proven security mechanisms and broad acceptance in a range of payment and government ID applications around the world, including national IDs and e-passports. TI is licensing the operating system from StepNexus, which owns and maintains the MULTOS specification.

MULTOS Security Assurance
With MULTOS from StepNexus, both the application code and data are secured on TI's RF360 smart IC products through a proven security architecture enabled by the StepNexus' Secure Trusted Environment Provisioning (STEP) process. The MULTOS provisioning process enforces a series of core security functions when applications are loaded or removed. These functions ensure that applications are only loaded onto or removed from the chip with the permission of the credential issuer; guarantee the authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of the application code and data; enforce the strict segregation of applications from interfering with one another; and assure that loading or removing an application does not effect the code and data of existing applications. STEP provides on its RF360 Smart IC Platform for Government IDs governments with complete control over the issuance, maintenance, and updates of their identity cards and documents.

Proven OS for Securing Sensitive Data and Identities
More than 60 issuers in 32 countries have issued more than 100 million MULTOS smart cards for a variety of applications worldwide, including banking and payments, government IDs, mobile commerce and transit. Texas Instruments is the first silicon provider to support the MULTOS Operating System on a FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) based product. FRAM, an advanced embedded memory technology, materially improves the speed and reliability of future smart, secure e-passports and government ID documents. For more information, please view TI's government ID web site at www.ti.com/govid.

Texas Instruments, www.ti.com