Atmel Has Delivered the First Production of Secure Microcontrollers for the New Vitale 2 French National Health Card

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), a global leader in the
development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions,
announced today that it has delivered volume quantities of its
AT90SC12836RCT secure microcontroller, for the new generation
Vitale(TM) 2 French National Health Card.

The AT90SC12836RCT incorporates 36K bytes of EEPROM, 128K bytes of
ROM program memory and 5K bytes of RAM on chip. The processor is
based on Atmel's secureAVR(TM) family utilizing an 8/16-bit RISC core
and the AdvX(TM) crypto accelerator for increased PKI performance and
security. The AT90SC12836RCT has been granted Common Criteria
certification EAL4+ augmented to AVA_VLA.4.

The Sagem Defense Security smart cards business unit (now Sagem
Orga) selected Atmel's secureAVR architecture in March 2004 for this
prestigious contract.

With over 910 million claim forms produced yearly and over 225,000
health professionals using electronic transmission in France, the
SESAM-Vitale system is constantly evolving. This evolution has led to
a new generation of cards: the Vitale 2, which allows practitioners
during consultation to sign invoices and securely access personal
medical files. Accesses to these files are highly secured thanks to
the increased PKI performance of the chip and its EAL4+
certification.

Within this nationwide health insurance program, approximately 60
million Vitale 2 cards will be shipped to French citizens over the
next four years.

"After delivering over 50 million secure microcontrollers from the
beginning of the Vitale 1 program, Atmel remains a major supplier of
the Vitale(TM) French National Health Card and reinforces once again
its strong leadership position in government and security markets,"
said Michel Bartosik, EMEA Business Development Manager for Atmel's
Secure Products Division. "The Vitale 2 is the first card based on
interoperability specifications in compliance with IAS
(Identification, Authentication and Signature) standards. This
concept should enable a larger deployment of health cards in other
countries."

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory
and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's
broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is
able to provide the electronics industry with complete system
solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications,
computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere
You Are(R) .

NOTE: Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, Everywhere You
Are(R), and others are registered trademarks, secureAVR(TM) and
others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other
terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Information:

For further information on the secureAVR(TM) family, go to:
http://www.atmel.com/products/SecureAVR .

Press Contacts:
Carine Bourgon, Marketing Communications Manager - Rousset
Phone: +33-4-42-53-60-52, Email: carine.bourgon@rfo.atmel.com
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations - USA and Asia Pacific Rim
Phone: +1-408-487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com
Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
Phone: +33-1-30-60-70-68, Fax: +49-71-31-67-24-23
Email: veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
Web site: http://www.atmel.com

ots Originaltext: Atmel Corporation
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
Carine Bourgon, Marketing Communications Manager - Rousset,
+33-4-42-53-60-52, or carine.bourgon@rfo.atmel.com, or Helen
Perlegos, Public Relations - USA and Asia Pacific Rim,
+1-408-487-2963, or hperlegos@atmel.com, or Veronique Sablereau,
Corporate Communications Manager - Europe, +33-1-30-60-70-68, or fax,
+49-71-31-67-24-23, or veronique.sablereau@atmel.com, all of Atmel
Corporation