In a world of connected devices things can get ugly fast. Looming over like a dark cloud is the issue of security and the potential power a malicious hacker can wield. To protect against them, our new toolchain is based on a chip that brings encryption and hashing to a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4. And it's the first ARM® Cortex offering from Microchip.
In the spirit of secrecy and security, support for CEC1302 microcontrollers has been added in one of the previous updates to our ARM compilers, but we kept quiet about it. Now we are ready to talk because we are rolling out out the entire CEC1302 toolchain comprising:
- CEC1302 clicker
- clicker 2 for CEC1302
- mikroProg for CEC1302
- Crypto libraries in mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal for ARM
Let's start from the bottom. Crypto libraries in our ARM compilers enable you to use the full potential of the CEC1302 chip.
mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal for ARM version 4.7.4
CEC1302 is an ARM® Cortex®-M4 microcontroller with 128KB SRAM, 32 KB boot ROM, running at 48 MHz. Its unique feature is the cryptographic engine that incorporates numerous encryption and hashing algorithms for applications that demand a high level of security.
- Authentication with public key encryption algorithms like RSA-2048.
- Ensuring privacy with symmetric encryption like AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
- Integrity checking with Secure Hash algorithms (SHA-256 and its predecessor SHA-1).
All those features are covered with the newly added crypto libraries inside mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal for ARM® version 4.7.4.
CEC1302 clicker and clicker 2 for CEC1302
Considering the high-level security features of the chip, you could say that our clicker boards for CEC1302 will allow you to use click boards in incognito mode.
The standardized form factor will make your prototyping experience with CEC1302 as familiar as with any other architecture we offer.
CEC1302 clicker has a single mikroBUS™ socket with an additional pinout for connecting other external electronics. You can program it with an external programmer through the programming connector or through the HID bootloader using the Micro USB connector (we switched from Mini USB to Micro USB ports with this board).
/clicker-2-cec1302 is our dual mikroBUS™ socket dev board. It has a battery connector, on/off switch, and the footprint and pinout is the same as on mikromedia, making it compatible with a range of shields as well.
What's different compared to other clicker boards is that these two store the firmware in an external Flash chip, and it's encrypted. Each time the MCU boots, the cryptographic engine decrypts and executes the program.
Which brings us to the final piece of hardware.
mikroProg for CEC
To complete the toolchain and give you ultimate flexibility when debugging these chips, mikroProg for CEC is the right solution.
Signature sleek design and high performance, plus the promise of more CEC chips to come.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika