MCUs feature robust chip-level security for IoT endpoints

Microchip offers the new SAM L10 and SAM L11 families of 32-bit MCUs which address the growing demand for security in IoT endpoints by protecting against the increasing the risk of exposing IP and sensitive information. The new MCUs are based on the Arm Cortex-M23 core, with the SAM L11 featuring Arm TrustZone for Armv8-M, a programmable environment that offers hardware isolation between certified libraries, IP and application code. The company allows robust security by including chip-level tamper resistance, secure boot and secure key storage which, when coupled with TrustZone technology, protects customer applications from both remote and physical attacks. Both MCU families provide what is claimed to be the industry’s lowest power consumption, as well as capacitive touch capability with best-in-class water tolerance and noise immunity. When benchmarked for power consumption, the SAM L10 received a ULPMark score of 405, which is over 200% better performance than the nearest competitor certified by the EEMBC. The company uses proprietary picoPower technology to give industry-leading low power consumption in active and all sleep modes. In addition to TrustZone technology, the SAM L11 security features include an on-board cryptographic module supporting AES, GCM and SHA. The secure boot and secure key storage with tamper detection capabilities establish a hardware root of trust. It also offers secure bootloader for secure firmware upgrades. The devices are available in a variety of pin counts and package options in volume production quantities.