From: Peter Monta <pmonta@qualcomm.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 04:18:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Crypto-smart-card startup Inside Technologies
Message-ID: <199601310830.AAA06778@mage.qualcomm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


There's an article in the January 29 _EE Times_ about a French
cryptographic-smart-card startup called Inside Technologies.
Tidbits:

  ..."In public-key cryptography, 512-bit keys are typical and
  already vulnerable.  So we are looking at 640-bit-long keys
  supported by a scalable design."

  ..."Users want their own, custom algorithms, which can be
  downloaded at the time of use".

  ..."The CLU [cryptographic logic unit] will operate at a
  higher clock frequency than the RISC---60 MHz, in our
  design---yielding 640-bit RSA decrypt in less than 50 ms".

The article goes on to say that they plan to both manufacture
smart cards, presumably for ecash and communications, and
license the design at the macrocell level, possibly for use
in embedded systems like mass storage.

By my count, six European companies mentioned, zero American.

Cheers,
Peter Monta   pmonta@qualcomm.com
Qualcomm, Inc./Globalstar