Maxim Integrated Products MAX32558 DeepCover microcontroller

Manufacturers of security-sensitive industrial, consumer, computing and Internet of Things (IoT) devices now have a fast, efficient way to build in secure cryptographic operations, integrate key storage and enable active tamper detection with the MAX32558. A member of the DeepCover family of secure microcontrollers from Maxim Integrated Products, the device offers these robust security features while enabling designers to save up to 50% of printed circuit board (PCB) space versus the closest competitor.

The Arm Cortex-M3 flash-based secure microcontroller delivers strong security in a small footprint while simplifying design integration and speeding time to market. It integrates several security features into a small package, including secure key storage, a secure bootloader, active tamper detection and secure cryptographic engines. It also supports multiple communications channels such as USB, serial peripheral interface (SPI), universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART) and I²C, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.

Compared to a secure authenticator, the product provides 30x more general-purpose input/output (GPIO) in the same PCB footprint (4.34 x 4.34 mm) wafer-level package (WLP). The closest competitor, meanwhile, offers a device with similar features but in a larger package (8 x 9 mm ball-grid array 121).

The device embeds a number of security features to address point-of-sale payment card industry (PCI) pin transaction security (PTS) requirements, as well as several analog interfaces. It provides 512 KB of internal flash and 96 KB of internal SRAM.

There is a complete software framework including real-time operating system (RTOS) integration and code examples in the product’s evaluation kit. Code can be easily ported from one device to another as it shares the same API software library as the rest of the product family.

A pre-certified Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV)-L1 stack for smartcard interface is provided. The product also includes extensive documentation and code for managing the device life cycle, such as secure firmware signing and device personalisation.