Cryptography Research and Tiempo Announce Agreement for Differential Power Analysis Countermeasures Patents

SAN FRANCISCO & GRENOBLE, France, Sep 22, 2010  -- Cryptography Research, Inc. and Tiempo SAS today announced an agreement which will enable Tiempo to develop DPA countermeasures for use by licensees of Cryptography Research's DPA patents.

"Tiempo clockless design technology is very well suited for secured low-power applications. Thanks to the use of Cryptography Research's patented DPA countermeasures, Tiempo is now able to deliver what we consider to be the most secure and power efficient microcontroller and cryptoprocessor IP cores on the market," said Serge Maginot, CEO at Tiempo, the leading provider of clockless IPs for smart security applications.

"There is growing demand for DPA-resistant cryptographic cores in a variety of security applications, with nearly five billion chips made annually under license from Cryptography Research. We are pleased that Tiempo has become an authorized developer to help supply solutions to this growing market," said Carole Coplan, vice president of business development, tamper resistance solutions at Cryptography Research.

DPA is a form of attack that involves monitoring the fluctuating electrical power consumption of a target device and then using advanced statistical methods to derive cryptographic keys and other secrets. Strong countermeasures to DPA help protect tamper-resistant products used in applications such as banking, pay television, mass transit, secure ID and wireless telecommunications.

Cryptography Research has been awarded a portfolio of over 50 patents covering countermeasures to DPA attacks, with additional patent applications pending worldwide.

About Cryptography Research, Inc.

Cryptography Research, Inc. develops and licenses technology to solve complex security problems. In addition to security evaluation and applied engineering work, the company is actively involved in long-term research and technology licensing in areas including content protection, tamper resistance, network security and financial services. Nearly 5 billion security chips are made each year with technology licensed from Cryptography Research, and security systems designed by Cryptography Research engineers protect hundreds of billions of dollars of commerce annually for wireless, telecommunications, financial, digital television, entertainment, and Internet industries. For additional information please visit www.cryptography.com.

About Tiempo SAS

Tiempo develops and commercializes asynchronous IP cores for the design of innovative integrated circuits that are ultra-low power, ultra-low noise, operating at low and variable voltage levels, very reactive (immediate sleep and wake-up), robust against PVT (Process/Voltage/Temperature) variations, and secured against hardware attacks (power analysis and fault injections). Tiempo IP portfolio includes ultra-low power and secured microcontroller and crypto-processor cores. Targeted applications are chips for low-power embedded electronics and/or secured devices, e.g. power management, sensor networks, metering devices, RFIDs, smartcards with/without contact, chips for consumer markets (mobiles, smartphones, e-books, netbooks). For additional information, please visit www.tiempo-ic.com.