MEYREUIL, May 31st, 2012- StarChip®, experts in designing, qualifying and industrializing Smart Card integrated circuits (IC) today announced its partnership with KEOLABS to develop “STARBOX” – its new generation of Smart Card development tools. This new “STARBOX” generation is tailored to the latest requirements of the Smart Card developer community and prepares the way for introduction of future StarChip® Smart Card controllers with advanced security and contactless technologies.

STARBOX is a development platform for StarChip® Smart Card controllers allowing developers to easily harness the leading performance, low power and future contactless capabilities of StarChip® Smart Card products based on the CORTUS APS3 core. It includes all the tools necessary to develop high-quality software solutions in a timely and cost effective manner. STARBOX features advanced emulation features, integrated development environment and the latest version of the industry standard GNU tool chain with optimized C libraries providing professional quality tools at low cost.

Based on KEOLABS Raisonance brand hardware and software technologies, STARBOX benefits from synergies resulting from the close collaboration of platform and user interface designers. This allows StarChip to offer a best-in-class development and validation solution that is tailored to the requirements of embedded system developers. Hardware features are implemented on the latest generation Raisonance XSmart prototyping platform, which facilitates System-on-Chip (SoC) design and shortens time to market for complex emulation systems. Project management, coding, compiling and debugging controls are seamlessly integrated into the industry leading Raisonance integrated development environment (IDE), Ride7. This same IDE is used extensively by developers on leading industry standard microcontroller cores.

“To accelerate the development and porting of complex applications, software engineers are looking for intuitive, fast and accurate development tools.” said Frederick Bonnin, StarChip® Application and Tools Manager. “The new STARBOX will offer them such experience and reflects our strategy to be a leading supplier for Smart Card, continuously improving our solutions with the best technologies available to fulfill customers’ expectations. KEOLABS has proven tools, solutions and services for Smart Card industry and is the right partner to support StarChip® in providing state-of-the-art development tools.”

“Advanced emulation systems like STARBOX, benefit from a complete range of KEOLABS technology and know-how to provide both the performance and optimized cost that customers require,” explained Benoit Hedou, KEOLABS Director of Validation Platforms. “A close collaboration with StarChip and versatile prototyping and software technology have made it possible to rapidly tailor tools to specific requirements and deliver a complete solution that provides developers the advanced features that they require to master the latest core technologies.”

About StarChip®: (www.starchip-ic.com)
StarChip® is a dynamic semiconductor company that enables customers to directly benefit from our unique, optimized value chain system. We design and qualify products for mass production, then license our solutions for purchase directly by our customers through qualified foundries and test houses.

StarChip® products are based on state-of-the art, Flash-based 32-bit architectures. They are designed to offer maximum integration, providing support for embedded, innovative security technologies, analog functionality and connectivity and control interfaces. The result is a flexible set of solutions that can easily meet the requirements of a wide variety of markets, including smart cards and security, consumer, automotive and industrial applications.

About KEOLABS:
KEOLABS is a leading provider of tools and services for testing microcontroller and secure component implementation. The company has two activities: Smart Card Validation and Microcontroller Tools.
KEOLABS Smart Card Validation activity provides an end-to-end product and service offer for validating and certifying smart cards and related technologies in accordance with industry standards. KEOLABS participates in all major certification processes for the secure transaction and identity sectors. The company offers a comprehensive range of solutions for validation of all layers of contact and contactless secure components from the electrical to the digital and application layers.
KEOLABS Microcontroller Tools activity provides a complete range of Raisonance brand tools for creating, editing, debugging and programming deeply embedded microcontroller applications. Known under the Raisonance brand since 1988, this business unit serves customers that include leading component manufacturers and professional engineers worldwide. With expertise in both hardware and software design, the company offers innovative, high quality, cost effective tools that include compiler tool sets, integrated development environment, hardware starter kits, system emulation and prototyping tools and promotional products for 8 and 32-bit microcontroller technologies. Supported core technologies include industry standard ARM, 8051 and PowerPC, as well as several proprietary architectures.

StarChip® contact:
Olivier Lardy
Tel: +33 1 34 52 20 75
Mob: +33 6 78 11 90 11
Email: olivier.lardy[at]starchip-ic[dot]com
www: www.starchip-ic.com

KEOLABS contact:
Steve Gussenhoven
Tel: +33 4 76 61 02 35
Email: steve.gussenhoven[at]keolabs[dot]com
www: www.keolabs.com
Distributed on behalf of STARCHIP by NeonDrum news distribution service (http://www.neondrum.com)