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Xilinx said that its CoolRunner-II CPLD electronic chip can be reconfigured over the Internet, or any other network, such as a mobile phone network, to block a mobile phone's keypad. The company has likened the chip to a car immobiliser.
"Once a phone containing a Xilinx chip is reported stolen, the phone operating company can send new data to the phone, wherever it may be within the network, turning the CoolRunner-II chip into a block between the keypad and the rest of the phone, which prevents any further use," said Karen Parnell, Xilinx's European marketing manager for silicon products.
Parnell told ElectricNews.Net that the chip should prove popular with mobile manufacturers because it was low cost, low power and has four layers of security. As well as blocking the keypad, the chip can also be sent a signal that would re-activate the phone if it were returned to its rightful owner. She also said that the company was looking into the possibility of giving mobile owners a unique PIN number, which could then be used in conjunction with an authorised third-party to disable and re-enable the phone.
Such a system might be seen as a replacement for the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which some mobile operators use to shut off stolen phones. One of the UK's largest mobile operators, Orange, recently said that it would not cut off accounts when users pass on the IMEI number on a stolen handset because it was unreliable. This is because mobile phone manufacturers are producing two or three handsets with the same IME, Orange claims.
Mobile phone robberies have been increasing at a growing rate, particularly in the UK. According to the British Home Office, more than 700,000 handsets were stolen in 2001 and mobile phones are now involved in 28 percent of all robberies with those under 15-year-olds the most common targets.
This surge in thefts has prompted tougher sentences from the UK courts with a mobile phone thief who stole a 16-year-old's phone and punched him in the face receiving a four-year prison sentence in January.
The rise in mobile phone robberies has also led to a spate of new technologies, such as the CoolRunner II chip, that are intended to deter criminals. UK company Magic4 recently said that it is in the process of developing a mobile application, called Phoneguard, that would allow an encrypted SMS message to be sent to a mobile phone that would immediately disable it.
And in the US, scientists at the University of California are working on chip designed to explode when it receives a certain signal. Although the researchers do not believe that the blast would be strong enough to harm a thief, they said it would be sufficient to stop the phone from being used.
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