Small Thing, Big Effect

Lots of functionality from small mobile memory devices

The best inventions are often amazingly simple. At the end of the 70s, the Flies brothers of Minnesota had the idea of embedding an EAROM memory chip into the shape of a key. They brought gold contacts out to the side and invented the matching keyhole to be able to integrate the mobile module into circuits. They started what has become an extremely successful product range that is used worldwide today by vending machine and vehicle manufacturers, the military, mechanical engineers and manufacturers of security equipment.

The key has been our daily companion for centuries. House doors, desks, travel bags, bicycles and - up till now - most cars can only be used effectively with the matching key. Although a number of alternatives have been invented in the meantime, the key is still widely used. A glance at your own key ring makes it clear: although they may have many slightly different forms, keys all have one thing in common: they are very handy. People use keys correctly intuitively. It is somehow quite normal and natural to put a key into a keyhole and turn it. If that is so, then developers should make good use of this habit.

Patented Key
The invention of the Flies brothers in 1977 is just as useable in 2009 as it was then. Although the components used nowadays are serial flash or EEPROMs, the format and principle remain the same: many different applications can be realized with just a very little memory capacity. This fact is of great value for manufacturers of machines and devices as they only have to integrate this user-interface into their equipment once and not re-develop every couple of years to follow the short-lived trend of consumer memory such as USB devices, CF cards or similar.

Just a few kilobytes are completely sufficient for simple identification tasks, and provide a very secure solution for higher security locations. Military customers with cryptographic applications are well-served with Atmel components, for example as a cryptographic seed or public key carrier for secure communication. Even the US president always has a key nearby.

Robust and versatile
Although keys are usually ideal, Datakey Electronics also provides four other formats that have been developed to match particular operating conditions. The military sets particularly high standards for mobile devices that have to withstand sand, dust, salty fog, rain, x-rays, magnetic fields, vibration and static discharge. The extremely robust Plug system from Datakey survives all these with a shrug.

Even more compact is the new Bar system with memory from 1Kbit to 1Gigabyte, a low profile and a positive insertion system. This lends itself to use above all in portable devices.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Datakey products as well as free consultation are available from DigiMem Deutschland. An economic development kit with the required storage medium is also available. With this, developers can technically check and realize their ideas using their own programs.