Vintage Pic 16C73

[Art]

We got a step ahead of that, and could process encrypted master key updates here... I kind of assume it’s the same system,
because it was used widely around the world. Australia, Germany, and Sth Africa I know for sure.

[HenrikOlsson]

Yes, later generation, more capable, cards updated automatically or perhaps the user could do it with the remote or something. But the ones we we etched at home and put C84's on was not that "advanced".
Like I said, at the time I had absolutely NO idea how the thing worked or what it ACTUALLY did (the card and PICs on it). And when it comes to crypto-stuff I'm still very much ignorant :-)

[Art]

Latest chips arrived

SP0256 variants. The first from General Instruments, and then after Microchip acquired them.
These are a speech synthesiser that appeared in some toys, and also in a PicBASIC project book I still have.