June 4, 2012 -- Intrinsic-ID has announceds the immediate availability of its Quiddikey-FLEX IP core. Quiddikey-FLEX targets smartcards, medical, FPGA, government, telecom, automotive, networking and communications as well as the mobile market space.

With Quiddikey-FLEX the secret-key programming can be done by users and/or apps in the after-market. No personalization phase in a secure environment is required, nor an involvement from the chip or module manufacturer. Every application can simply program its own secret key(s) into Quiddikey-FLEX.

Quiddikey-FLEX offers storage for an unlimited number of secret keys: device-specific or so-called "intrinsic" keys and user-defined keys (e.g., with DRM info) of different lengths can be combined, supporting key lengths up to 256-bit symmetric, 512-bit ECC and 4096-bit RSA.

Quiddikey-FLEX is available as purely digital logic IP to easily integrate in hardware into any process node. When considering typical mobile use cases the Quiddikey-FLEX IP core offers secret key storage with an area efficiency of at least 5 times better than alternatives like e-fuse technology.

The Quiddikey-FLEX product is also available in a software version and on FPGA platforms.

In HIS secret keys are not stored in embedded non-volatile memory but extracted from the hardware properties of a chip inside the device. In fingerprint identification, for example, fingerprint extraction is only done when needed; attackers have nothing to find because no key is stored nor present in the power-down state. This enables a superior level of anti-tamper and anti-cloning protection when compared to alternative key storage technologies.