Crypto-smart-card startup Inside Technologies

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

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

I find it in a way amusing that a country which
have very weird attitude towards use of crypto
(it is not allowed to be used) tries to set 
standards and provide new technology. If they
are that opposing to use of strong encryption
how on earth they can be providing it to others
and get those others to believe there is no
catch in it?

Maybe it is the difference in internal and
foreign policies but still I suppose a country is 
supposed to be spying or sorry gather information
on other countries not on their own people and
companies.

Just wondering...


Kari Laine