Hardware Abstraction Layer - Atlas

Secure Hardware Abstraction Layer - ATLAS

Atlas was famed in Ancient Greek mythology for supporting the sky on his shoulders. The Digital Locksmiths' Atlas product provides a secure Hardware Abstraction Layer on which higher levels of functionality can be safely built.

Atlas builds security into the smartcard operating system right from the lowest levels up: starting with the interaction with the silicon and going through to the provision of a hardware independent secure API. This API insulates the operating system layer from hardware dependencies while providing a secure, feature-rich basis for the rapid development of operating system and bespoke application layers (for example the Java Card Runtime Environment and Virtual Machine).

Atlas incorporates GlobalPlatform card content management (GlobalPlatform Card Specification v2.2), to provide a built-in secure mechanism for managing the platform and the applications that it contains. By building this management layer into the HAL, Atlas entends its security to the whole of the card's life cycle and all of its contents.

Atlas encapsulates the low level functions that provide the interface between the higher-level functionality and the chip. It is separated into the following areas of functionality:

• Main (boot);
• I/O;
• Memory Management;
• Cryptographic Functions;
• Early Life Cycle Management;
• GlobalPlatform card content management.

The HAL brings together these proven, secure components and, by isolating the higher layers from the hardware, allows the overall system to be ported to any choice of silicon with minimal impact.

Atlas provides the foundations for the development of secure smartcard products:

• As the basis for a secure execution environment and card content management system ;
• As a bespoke operating system for native applications.

Atlas allows the development of these higher layers of functionality to be performed in isolation of the underlying hardware, making them easily portable and maintainable while ensuring that security is a built-in feature rather than added as an afterthought.

Atlas - providing the foundations for secure smartcard products.

Contact us for more information on Atlas, or to discuss your requirements for an implementation based on the secure Hardware Abstraction Layer.