Zilog and Icon Labs Introduce ZGATE Ethernet Bridge Technology

Zilog, a Silicon Valley MCU pioneer, together with Icon Labs has recently launched the new ZGATESecurity Bridge Reference Design, a technology solution backed by Icon Labs' Floodgate Technology.

The new ZGATE Ethernet bridge and Reference design module was designed alongside Zilog's eZ80Acclaim solution and fully supported by Icon Labs' Floodgate technology. This new solution which poses a small 50mm x 47.5mm footprint helps in minimizing incidence of security breaches for many types of products in defense, telecommunication, utility, transportation, medical and industrial applications.

“Zilog and Icon Labs have been working closely together on this innovative MCU-based solution to keep in step with the world's need for stronger security solutions across many embedded applications,” said Steve Darrough, Zilog's VP of Marketing. “ZGATE is the first and only embedded hardware communication solution that can protect connected devices from the growing number of Internet-based threats.”

Both the companies have put forth a ton of effort in order to create a microcontroller featuring an embedded firewall that provides a critical layer of security for networked devices. The new ZGATESecurity Bridge Reference Design uses an embedded microcontroller and levels of protection that are highlighted as working better than typical firewall security to allow smart devices to resist malevolent attacks.

“Icon Labs' Floodgate technology provides protection from Internet-based threats by controlling which packets the embedded device is allowed to process,” said Alan Grau, president of Icon Labs. “Encryption and authentication may protect a device from a hacker trying to access the device, but Floodgate prevents the hacker from ever connecting. Floodgate's filtering engine can block denial of service attacks, packet floods, port scans, or other Internet-based threats.”

Other features highlighted in the new ZGATE Security Bridge are: factory-default five MHz crystal oscillator input, 50MHz maximum operating speed via PLL, 2 -10/100 BaseT Ethernet PHY with RJ45 connectors, one M external high speed SRAM and real-time clock (RTC) support with a back-up battery.


Edited by Jamie Epstein