Infineon SLE 78 Security Microcontrollers with Revolutionary Digital Security Features Awarded as Best Hardware Innovation 2008 by Chip Card Industry

Neubiberg, Germany and Paris, France – November 4, 2008 – Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) today announced that the Chip Card Industry has selected the company’s latest 16-bit security microcontroller family SLE 78 incorporating brandnew digital security features as the winner of the 2008 Sesame Award in the category of Best Hardware. The award was announced yesterday on the eve of the opening exhibition day of the “Cartes & Identification” Trade Show in Paris (November 4-6).

This is the fifth time Infineon has received a Sesame Award for Best Hardware Innovation, and this year, two out of the three Best Hardware finalists were Infineon products. The other Infineon nominated product is the SLM 76 security microcontroller family that targets the growing market of machine-to-machine communication.

SLE 78 wins hardware innovation award for its highly innovative self-checking security mechanisms

Infineon received the 2008 Sesame Hardware Innovation Award for its SLE 78 family of security microcontrollers because the chips integrate highly innovative self-checking security mechanisms – called “Integrity Guard” – that Infineon specifically developed for chip card and security applications. With the new “Integrity Guard” for the first time in smart card history, security microcontrollers are equipped with full on-chip encryption and full error-detection capabilities over the core architecture, including all memories (EEPROM, ROM, RAM), buses, caches and the two CPUs, leaving no plain data on the chip. Also, the dual CPU approach, that uses hardware-encrypted calculation with different secret keys, allows detecting whether a calculation was performed without errors. After detecting an error or the attempt of an attack, the microcontroller can decide whether the operation is continued or an alarm is to be triggered and the operation automatically to be stopped.

Sesames Awards honor outstanding innovation in the chip card industry

All Sesames Awards, now in their thirteenth year, honor outstanding innovations and application achievements within the chip card industry and are regarded as global standards for card manufacturers and related industries. An international panel of judges active in the chip card industry selected the individual recipients from a total of 211 companies that applied for the ten Sesames Awards. Winners are recognized in several categories including “Best Hardware”, “Best Software” and “Best Application” in eight application areas. The judges selected the Infineon 16-bit security microcontroller family SLE 78 out of 60 applications in the “Best Hardware” category. This category looks for the best and most innovative chip, card, token, electronic component, terminal, reader, manufacturing / printing material, representing a genuine breakthrough in the card industry.

Infineon is demonstrating its comprehensive chip card and security IC portfolio at Booth #4L002 in Hall 4 at the Cartes & Identification Trade Show (Paris-Nord, Villepinte Exhibition Centre, November 4-6, 2008).

Further information

More information on the 2008 Sesames Awards is available at www.cartes.com.
For more information on the company’s show highlights at Cartes & Identification, visit www.infineon.com/cartes.

Additional information on Infineon’s chip card IC and security IC portfolio is available at www.infineon.com/security.

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, communications, and security. In the 2007 fiscal year (ending September), the company reported sales of Euro 7.7 billion (including Qimonda sales of Euro 3.6 billion) with approximately 43,000 employees worldwide (including approximately 13,500 Qimonda employees). With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX).