STMicro ST31N600 Arm SecurCore SC000 microcontroller includes biometric security, energy harvesting

ST31N600 SecurCore SC000 secure MCU

Today, I’ve learned about an Arm core family I’d never heard about: the Arm SecurCore family for smartcard and embedded security applications. The Arm SecurCore SC000 (Cortex-M0 based) and Arm SecurCore SC300 (Cortex-M3 based) have been around for years, but they’ve just been brought to my attention with STMicro ST31N600 secure microcontroller announcement. Manufactured with STMicro’s 40nm eSTM technology, the ST31N600 is designed for contact and contactless payment cards, ID cards, and transport ticketing thanks to circuitry for energy harvesting, and support for EMV ISO 7816, ISO 14443, and ISO 18092 standards. STMicro also introduced ST31N500 and ST31N400 microcontrollers with less flash memory, but other the same specifications as ST31N600: MCU Core – Lockstep 32-bit Arm SecurCore SC000 up to 60 MHz Memory – 16 KB of user RAM Storage with 25-year retention, 500,000 erase/write cycle endurance ST31N600 – 608 KB ST31N500 – 512 KB ST31N400 – 416 KB RF […]

Alipay Dragonfly F1 PoS Enables Payments with Face Recognition

Alipay Dragonfly F1

We’re being told the traditional way of paying for purchases – cash – is going away, so we’ll soon have to rely exclusively on electronics payment means such as debit cards, credit cards, contactless stored value smart cards, smartphones, our own face, etc… Wait? I could pay by just showing up my face? Apparently yes, as Alipay recently installed 12 Dragonfly POS (Point-of-Sales) devices with biometric technology at Hong Kong airport. The systems started operating at the airport on April 2nd, but similar devices were allegedly deployed in more than 300 cities in mainland China previously. I’m not entirely sure of the exact model operating at Hong Kong airport, but a quick web search reveals Alipay Dragonfly F1 matches the description. Hardware specifications: Processor – Quad-core Arm Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3GHz System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB FLASH Display – 10.1″ TFT touch screen display with 1280×800 […]

PICO-APL3 Apollo Lake Pico-ITX Board Comes with an Optional TPM 2.0 Module

AAEON has launched another industrial Pico-ITX board powered by Intel Celeron/Pentium Apollo Lake processors with their PICO-APL3 Pico-ITX single board computer featuring either Celeron N3350 or Pentium N4200 processor together with 2 to 4GB soldered DDR3L memory, and 16 to 64 GB eMMC flash. The company explains that one of key differences against other similar board is the option for a TPM module / hardware security that would allow applications such as payment processing for retailers or on the go. AAEON PICO-APL3 board specifications: SoC Intel Celeron N3350 dual core Apollo Lake processor @ up to 1.10/2.40GHz with 12EU Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP Intel Pentium N4200 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ up to 1.10/2.50GHz with 18 EU Intel HD Graphics 505; 6W TDP System Memory – 2GB DDR3L on-board (Option to 4GB) Storage – 16GB eMMC flash (32/64 GB as option), 1x SATA III port (5V/12V power), […]

Poynt Android Point-of-Sales Terminal Accepts Cards, NFC, Bluetooth and QR Code Payments

Poynt Smart Terminal is an Android based payment terminal with a small screen facing the customer, and a larger screen facing the sales staff, that accept payments from various sources such a magnetic strip or chip (EMV) cards, Bluetooth, NFC (e.g. for Apple Pay), or QR code. The company has made a developer’s kit with the hardware and SDK available a few months ago. While the exact hardware specifications have not been disclosed, we can still look into the main features and ports of this payment terminal: Displays Merchant facing – 7″ touchscreen display (1280×800) Customer facing – 4.3″ touchscreen display (800×480) Connectivity – GSM/3G/4G modem, NFC, Bluetooth, and WiFi Payment – Hybrid EMV / MSR reader slot, QR and barcode scanner, Bluetooth, NFC Audio – Speaker and microphone Camera – Merchant facing camera USB – 1x micro USB port for charging and possibly external devices (e.g. printers) Misc – […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case