Athena releases new area efficient family of embedded TeraFire® Security Coprocessors

T5000 series sets new standard for area efficient performance

Gainesville, FL - February 2, 2004 - The Athena Group, the leading provider of high-performance modular exponentiation intellectual property (IP) cores for public key cryptography, today announced the introduction of its T5000 series of TeraFire® security accelerators. Small, fast, and energy efficient, the T5000 series is designed specifically for embedded applications and SoC integration.

The T5000 series of TeraFire coprocessors employ Athena’s proprietary multiplier technology to deliver low latency computation within stringent area and power budgets. Like the first two generations of TeraFire coprocessors, the T5000 series comprises a family of single core coprocessors that provide a wide range of performance choices. This greatly simplifies programming and integration in embedded SoCs. Even with area as low as 75K gates (T5004), performance remains competitive with many stand-alone public key cryptography chips - delivering an impressive 350 RSA-1024 private key operations per second. In addition, every member of the T5000 family is capable of executing large key operations, up to 4096-bits.

“Athena delivers a tremendous combination of quality and value”, says Tom Tilden of Cryptek, a leading provider of Network Security Solutions. “Athena’s TeraFire IP enabled us to exceed our performance requirements, even though our area budget was extremely tight.”

TeraFire security accelerator cores are designed specifically for integrated SoC applications, with performance levels ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of operations per second. A single TeraFire core can do the work that previously demanded an array, and do it in a fraction of the area and power. With the addition of the TeraFire T5000 product line, Athena public key security accelerators are now available in three families, representing the broadest public key accelerator product line in the industry.

“The T5000 series reflects the new reality for public key acceleration,” said Dr. Jon Mellott, Chief Technology Officer of Athena. “For the new generation of embedded SoC products, security requirements must be met in the context of demanding latency, power, and silicon area constraints. Athena’s continued commitment to innovation is one of the reasons our customers choose TeraFire security technology.”

Product Description
Each TeraFire core package is delivered as a firm core optimized to any customer-specified library. The package includes the core, verification suites, timing and simulation models, and documentation.

Athena’s IP cores are designed for efficient implementation and rapid delivery. The company's proprietary, wholly automated implementation and verification methodology produces synchronous, testable IP cores of the highest quality. All Athena IP cores achieve a score of 95% or better on the OpenMore scale of IP reusability..

About The Athena Group, Inc.
The Athena Group, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida licenses high performance signal processing technology that delivers breakthrough performance, reduced area, and lower power consumption in a broad range of SoC products. Athena's proprietary technology powers leading edge applications such as secure e-commerce, wireless communications, and video compression. In addition to high value application level solutions, Athena also produces a full line of signal processing functions suitable for SoC integration.

Athena was founded in 1986 and is privately held.

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