CORDIS Archive

CRISP (20847)

Introduction

The smartcard and electronic tag market is expected over the comming 10 years to have annual growth of 30%. This translates to a $500 million of semiconductor chip sales in 1999. There is a clear market need for a low cost, multi-application smartcard using public key cryptography. In order to validate the cryptographic and physical security requirements and enable exploitation through manufacturing of product, a fully functional smartcard IC must be designed and built. The OMI project SOSCARD is developing a powerful new cryptographic reduced instruction set processor, CRISP, to meet the exacting requirements in silicon area and cryptographic performance of smartcard ICs and provides an ideal platform for this work.

Objectives :

• To provide an OMI macrocell by refining and enhancing the SOSCARD design and functionality on the basis of experience to date and market requirements,.
• To design and build a smartcard IC of minimum silicon area for the highest level of security and card functionality incorporating the CRISP architecture.
• To design & implement state-of-the-art development tools and supporting software.
• To validate security and trial technology within other research projects.

Approach :

This project will bring together the existing SOSCARD consortium (including world-class experts in cryptographic hardware, software & systems and in RISC processor design) and one of Europes leading smartcard IC designers. This strategic and potent collaboration will enable the excellent features of the SOSCARD project to be refined and combined with memory in a secure silicon design in an area suitable for low cost card production.

An independent laboratory will carry out a full security analysis of the chip. Feedback from the SOSCARD project will enable a refinement and enhancement of the CRISP design and the extension of the field of application of the crypto unit by adaptation into an OMI macrocell.The project will extend the SOSCARD development of a secure operating system and applications that can be downloaded onto the card. Software development tools will be designed and implemented to ensure ease of uptake of the new technology.

The project will include the delivery of trial cards and identify pilot trials from the ESPRIT project CAFE and its follow up, Transport Telematics demonstrator projects and the UK advanced communications project, NetCard.

Exploitation Plan :

The results of the project will be exploited directly by INSIDE Technologies through the large scale manufacture (via a foundry contract) and sale of production smartcards developed directly from the project trial smartcards. Licensing agreements will ensure the other partners gain directly according to their share of the IPR. Further exploitation paths include the licensing of the OMI cryptographic macrocell, the sale of software development tools and smartcard systems based on CRISP.

Start date: November 1996
End date: November 1998

Project Coordinator:

Ron van der Hoorn
General Information Systems Ltd
8/9 Bridge Street, Cambridge CB2 1UA
United Kingdom
Tel : +44 1223 462200
Fax: +44 1223 301096
E-mail: ron@gis.co.uk

Partners:

GENERAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS (United Kingdom)
DIGI CASH (The Netherlands)
INSIDE TECHNOLOGIES (France)
IAIK, TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ (Austria)