Maxim Integrated Products

In the age of identity theft and faked IDs, achieving positive identification is of paramount importance. This is not only true for individuals, but also applies to electronic products. System vendors need to protect their products against hacker attacks from the "outside" and ensure that the security is not compromised on the "inside" through cloned hardware. The key to realizing these diverging requirements is authentication.

This application note explains the concept of authentication and specifically a Maxim/Dallas solution in the form of secure memories to provide secure control and protection from application requirements including intellectual property protection, embedded HW/SW license management, secure soft-feature and status setting, and tamper-proof data storage.