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IBM presents world's first dual-interface OpenPlatform JavaCard™
featuring Philips Semiconductors' MIFARE® PRO
Paris, France, November 1999 -- A technology demonstration of
the world's first dual-interface OpenPlatform JavaCard™1
based on Philips Semiconductors' MIFARE® PRO chip is
being shown by IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory at the Cartes '99
trade fair. This card combines the ease of application development
using the Java programming language with the convenience of using
a dual-interface smart card, allowing access to the same card data
using contact and contactless smart card readers.
The card uses Java virtual machine technology developed at IBM's
Zurich Research Laboratory. This advanced implementation includes
support for the OpenPlatform and JavaCard™* specifications
as well as enhancements to improve performance and reduce code size.
A major advantage of the Java-based card is the high degree of security
this technology offers, as the virtual machine checks and controls
every function to be carried out and prevents direct access to the
hardware. Developers can also expect solid performance from IBM
JavaCard™ technology because the time-consuming basic functions such
as communication, persistent storage and cryptographic operations
are implemented in machine-specific assembly code. The prototype
dual-interface card is designed to show how JavaCard™ technology
can be used to simplify the process of creating and enhancing smart
card-based applications. Moreover, by adhering to the specifications
of the ISO communications protocols, IBM is demonstrating the interoperability
of a dual-interface Java-based card with existing contact or contactless
smart card applications.
The IBM dual-interface JavaCard™ will be employed in pilot trials
where the benefits of having both communications interfaces on the
same chip can be leveraged. Examples include payment systems for
the Internet using inexpensive contact-based smart card terminals
in PCs, transportation applications commonly using contactless readers,
as well as blends of the two on the same card. In support of these
objectives, Alain Sigaud, Gemplus Vice-President Solutions &
Systems, Director of the JavaCard™ Group, confirms that "Gemplus
is very interested in this IBM demonstration prefiguring future
Gemplus GemXpresso Combicard products issued from our IBM/Gemplus
cooperation on JavaCard™ technology". The implementation runs
on Philips Semiconductors' MIFARE® PRO dual-interface
smart card chip featuring 20 KB ROM, 256 Bytes RAM, 8 KB EEPROM,
and a hardware DES coprocessor. The supported communications protocols
are T=0 (ISO 7816) for contact-based operation and the drafted
T=CL (ISO 14443) for contactless communications. Satisfying
these low resource constraints, the IBM OpenPlatform/JavaCard™ implementation
might easily be ported to more powerful chips featuring public-key
cryptography, dual-interface technology, as well as smart card hardware
firewalls, such as Philips Semiconductors' MIFARE® PROX.
Concerning the contactless MIFARE® interface technology:
In fully compliance with ISO/IEC 14443 A, Philips Semiconductors'
MIFARE® interface technology is the industry standard
for contactless smart cards and is used in 85% of all contactless
smart card schemes, with more than 45 million card ICs in use and
more than 450,000 read/write units in operation worldwide.
The IBM Zurich Research Laboratory is the European branch of IBM
Research. The Zurich lab is pursuing work on communication systems,
new technologies, and applied computer science, particularly in
the area of secure systems, including smart cards. It is the birthplace
of the IBM SmartCard for e-business, also known as the IBM JavaCard™.
As a result of a cooperation agreement between IBM and Gemplus SA,
the IBM JavaCard™ technology has been merged with Gemplus SA JavaCard™
technology to produce a "best of breed" JavaCard™ implementation
commercialized under the brand name GemXpresso. In this product
range, the GemXpresso 210PK featuring public-key cryptography capabilities
is 100% IBM JavaCard™ technology.
Philips Semiconductors, a division of Royal Philips Electronics,
headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eighth largest
semiconductor supplier based on Dataquest's 1998 report.**
Philips Semiconductors is an industry leader that has proved its
reputation in the development and production of high security controller
ICs and contactless smart card ICs as well as in components for
radio frequency identification. Philips Semiconductors' innovations
in digital audio, video and mobile technology have established the
company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia and wireless communications
markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the
world and are supported by regional application labs. Additional
information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained from its home
page at http://www.semiconductors.philips.com.
*Java and JavaCard™ are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
MIFARE® is a registered trademark of Royal Philips Electronics.
**Based on Vendor Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductors
Worldwide according to Dataquest's 1998 Worldwide Semiconductor
Market Share report published in May, 1999.
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