Today at the Cartes Trade Show in Paris, Infineon Technologies announced a strategic technology collaboration for the development of optimized chip solutions for high-density (HD) SIM cards with Intel Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, Infineon will architect modular chip solutions with Intel offering memory capacities from 4MB to 64MB (Megabytes). Infineon contributes its vast expertise in security hardware and will develop a 32-bit security microcontroller based on its existing SLE 88 family for use with HD SIM cards. Intel is contributing its leading-edge flash memory technologies, capabilities and manufacturing.
The close technical collaboration will allow Infineon"s HD security microcontroller to be optimally calibrated with Intel"s flash memory solutions for efficient integration into HD SIM cards. The initial development of the flash memory product line will scale up to 64 MB with NOR flash memory manufactured on 65-nanometer (nm) and 45-nm process technologies. The security microcontroller is currently produced on 130-nm process technology, which is state-of-the-art for chips used in smartcard applications. All HD SIM solutions operate across the voltage range of 1.8 V to 3.3 V according to ETSI specifications. The SLE 88 family concept allows the operating system software developed for existing SIM cards to be easily reused.