Freescale Semiconductor and INSIDE Secure today announced a secure prepaid utility meter reference design with near field communication connectivity that OEMs can use to quickly and cost-effectively bring to market electricity meter products. Secure prepaid meters, such as this reference design developed by Freescale and INSIDE Secure, address this need by adding sophisticated smart card security mechanisms that have been proven in the banking industry. Products based on this reference design are protected from fraud because they employ a VaultIC security module and NFC technology to safely load energy credits from a smart card or an NFC-enabled phone.
The reference design features INSIDE Secure’s VaultIC 460 and NFC (MicroRead 3.4) chipset. The VaultIC 460 security module provides comprehensive security functions such as mutual authentication, verification and generation of certificates, encryption/decryption and managing secure storage of cryptographic keys. It is FIPS140-2 Level 3 ready. NFC connectivity is implemented using the MicroReadcontroller and Open NFC protocol stack.
The system is powered by the Freescale MK30X256 32-bit MCU (built on the ARM Cortex-M4 core), which operates up to 100 MHz with 1.25 DMIPS/MHz. The firmware is based on Freescale’s MQX real-time operating system. The built-in segment LCD controller displays all standard metering values at the push of a button.
