Tiempo Secure

Tiempo Secure develops and licenses hardware and software intellectual property (IP) for securing integrated circuits at the highest/certifiable levels of security. In particular, Tiempo Secure offers a family of Common Criteria EAL5+ certifiable Secure Element IPs – TESIC – to System-on-Chips (SoCs) and application processor manufacturers addressing the IoT markets. 

Founded in 2007 and using first a fabless business model, Tiempo Secure designed, industrialized and certified (Common Criteria EAL5+ and EMVCo) its first secure chip product, TESIC-SC, a secure microcontroller with dual interface (contact and contactless/NFC) for government documents and payment cards. Building on this result and its expertise in hardware and software security, Tiempo Secure then developed its second secure chip, TESIC-SE, a secure microcontroller chip for connected devices (IoT).

In order to answer the growing need for security of the different IoT markets (such as network connectivity, payment with wearable, secure access/connection, automotive), Tiempo Secure opted for an IP business model in 2018, licensing TESIC, a family of Secure Element IP macros that can be integrated into SoCs. The TESIC IP family allows a plug-and-play integration of secure elements into customer’s chips while guaranteeing the security certification of these chips according to the different standards required/recommended for their embedded applications (CC EAL5+, GSMA, EMVCo, FIDO, PP-V2X and others).

Tiempo Secure also offers to its customers services to handle the security certification process of their chips as well as the configuration of HSMs used for the personalization of their chips at production testing and firmware programming.

The company is headquartered in Montbonnot, near Grenoble, France. For more information contact sales@tiempo-secure.com or visit www.tiempo-secure.com.

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  • Tiempo Secure had success stories in the smartcard payment and e-ID/e-Gov markets, both requiring the highest level of security, with its CC EAL5+ certified/secure microcontroller chip product (see www.tiempo-secure.com). Tiempo Secure now addresses the System-on-Chips (SoCs) and application processor manufacturers of the different IoT markets, in particular Automotive and Industry 4.0, with an advanced end-to-end security solution using an IP business model. The company develops in this project a new Secure Element IP on the GF-22 FDX process that will be integrated into Hyperstone’s new flash controller chip. The Secure Element IP will use external flash to store the secure firmware and its data (lowering therefore the cost of the system) and will be CC EAL5+ certifiable, which will represent a significant advance in the state-of-the-art of secure SoCs.
  • Tiempo Secure offers unique CC EAL5+ certification–ready Secure Element IP cores to SoC chip manufacturers. The company allows its customers – such as Hyperstone – to integrate such Secure Element IP into their own chips that can then be CC EAL5+ certified. Tiempo Secure also offers the services to handle the customer’s chip certification as well as the configuration of HSMs used during chip production/test and firmware programming.
  • The Secure Element IP integrated by Tiempo Secure into Hyperstone’s flash controller chip will integrate a small amount of non-volatile memory to store inside the Secure Element (“safe-box” of the chip) the secret keys and some computing data used to secure the link with the external flash memory. Tiempo Secure will evaluate different implementations (OTP and MTP) for this non-volatile memory.
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“Tiempo Secure is the only semiconductor IP company worldwide that offers plug-and-play Secure Element IP macros with a full guarantee for the highest levels of security certification of the customer’s chips (CC EAL5+ or equivalent). With additional customer services to handle the security certification of customer’s chips as well as the configuration of HSMs used for chip personalization, Tiempo Secure is the ideal security partner of any SoC company targeting the highest level of security for its products.”

Serge MaginotCO-Founder and CEO Tiempo S.A.S.